The Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Police sought the occupants of a car who fired at a city police officer Sunday, wounding him but not causing life-threatening injuries.
Officer Patrick Cantalupo was shot by a group of men who drove by in a car while he and his partner, Juan Barreto, apprehended a suspect who was found to be in possession of narcotics, Newark police said.
Police said several men in a Dodge Intrepid drove past the two officers and fired, striking Cantalupo in the lower back. The bullet hit Cantalupo just below his bulletproof vest.
Cantalupo, 31, an 8-year veteran, was treated at University Hospital and released. Barreto, 31, was not injured.
Both officers are members of the Newark Police Department’s Neighborhood Enforcement and Stabilization Team, or NEST, which responds to citizen complaints of quality of life violations and violence.
Newark police said the Dodge Intrepid crashed into a Dodge Neon after the shooting, injuring a 31-year-old Newark woman. The car was reported stolen Saturday from the city’s East Ward.
The woman was treated at a hospital and released.
The occupants of the Intrepid abandoned the car and fled on foot, police said.