The Associated Press
SOUTH HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) - A suspect was shot and killed Friday while being arrested by officers from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the New Jersey State Police, the prosecutor’s office said.
Neither officer was injured in the incident, but they sought medical evaluation at a hospital, the prosecutor’s office said.
The name of the male suspect and the nature of the arrest were not immediately available, authorities said. They were trying to determine the man’s identity Friday night, and an autopsy was scheduled for Saturday.
The shooting happened about 2 p.m. at the Airport Motel on Route 46, according to a statement by the state Division of Criminal Justice.
According to the statement, the officers, assisted by South Hackensack police, were questioning three suspects, two males and a female.
A search of one suspect uncovered a weapon, and a scuffle occurred when detectives tried to arrest the suspects. Shots were then fired, and one of the male suspects was killed, according to the statement.
The two other suspects, Thomas Sparks and Janet Atkins, were taken into custody, according to the statement. Atkins, 38, is from Charlotte, N.C., and was wanted on a fugitive warrant charging her with kidnapping and robbery.
Sparks’ age and hometown were not known, but the statement said he is believed to be from North Carolina, where he is named as a conspirator in the fugitive warrant.
The two were being held in the Bergen County jail, and New Jersey charges were pending against them.
The Criminal Justice Division identified the officers at the scene as Detective Daniel Lee of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office; state police Detective Moises Hernandez; South Hackensack Detective Robert Kaiser; and Dominic Mea and Carmine Maceri, both uniformed officers with South Hackensack.
The trooper at the scene did not shoot, said Trooper Stephen Jones, a state police spokesman.
The shooting remains under investigation by the the Attorney General’s Shooting Response Team.