Officer Killed, Another is Hurt in a Shooting, Police Car Stolen
By Tina Kelley
The New York Times
April 18, 2003


Fair Lawn , NJ -A police officer from Fair Lawn, NJ was killed, and a Clifton  
police officer was shot last night in Fair Lawn, an agent with the homicide
division of the Passaic County prosecutor's office said early this morning.
The dead officer was a woman, he said. The other officer's condition was
not immediately known.

An unknown number of suspects fled in the Fair Lawn officer's marked police 
car, which was recovered in Paterson, said the agent, Tim Jordan.

The Fair Lawn officer was shot four times, and the Clifton officer was shot
twice, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said.

Mr. Molinelli said there was an exchange of gunfire by Van Riper-Ellis/Broadway
Baptist Church, which is at the corner of River Road and Morlot Avenue in Fair 
Lawn. The Clifton officer had been chasing the suspects behind the church and
was about to apprehend one of them when the shooting started, Molinelli added.

The shootings occurred about 10:15 p.m. near the church. On the lawn of the
church, a small red car with New Jersey license plates stood next to a Clifton
police car early today. All of the red car's tires were blown out.

Matt Bechoff, 19, said he was driving through Fair Lawn when he saw two officers 
receiving CPR, one on the driveway between the church and a school, and one in an 
ambulance that was driving away.

Across a field behind the church, Dennis Samoilis, 48, of Camp Court, said he too 
had heard shots. "There were, like, three or four shots at first, then a pause of
10 to 15 seconds, then several more shots, another pause, and then more shots."

Daniel Garcia, 21, who lives at Marlot Avenue and River Road, said he was asleep 
when he heard a crash. He then looked out this window and saw the silhouettes of 
three figures funning from the two cars.

"I saw on guy running across the field, diagonally into the field," he said.
"Once he was out of my line of sight, I heard five or six shots -- once they
hit the middle of the field."

There were two sets of tire tracks behind the cars, kicked-up dirt on the
sidewalk, and a partly crushed bush between the road and the cars. Officers
were searching the red car, while the police car sat, its engine still running
and lights flashing, after midnight. Police officers had gathered in a parking
lot lit with floodlights, behind the church.

In Paterson, the police blocked off two blocks on Broadway between 30th and 31st
Streets. Officers from the state police, the Paterson police, and the Passaic County
Sheriff's Office were concentrating on one house in a residential neighborhood, near
law and medical offices.

Officers with police dogs were going door to door around 12:20 a.m. when they  
apprehended two young men at 12th Avenue and 29th Street.

The young men, who had been riding in a small four-door sedan, were put in the back
of two police cars and were questioned while officers searched their car. It was unclear
whether the suspects were being questioned in the shooting.

The Associated Press reported that one of the officers had been taken by helicopter to
St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson, but a hospital spokeswoman could
not confirm that.

Last night's shooting followed an incident in Hoboken on April 2 in which a patrol officer
and a sergeant with the Hudson County sheriff's office were shot during a crime spree 
through Hoboken and Jersey City. Their injuries were not life-threatening.


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