Prosecutor: NJ man shot longtime wife through floor, killing her

🔴 NJ woman fatally shot by spouse

🔴 Man was clearing gun, police say

🔴 Elderly couple was married over 50 years

EDISON — A family has been thrown into tragedy after a 76-year-old woman was fatally shot and killed by her longtime husband, in what authorities said appeared to be an accident.

On Friday after just after 2 p.m., Edison police received a 911 call reporting an accidental shooting.

Officers responded to a home on Glencourt Avenue, where Patricia Novak, of Edison, had been shot once.

She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

The woman’s 82-year-old husband, Robert Novak, said he had been clearing “one of his registered firearms” on the first floor of the couple’s house.

The weapon discharged through the floor into the basement, where a bullet struck his wife.

After hearing a scream, Robert Novak went to check and “immediately called 911,” according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone.

The Novaks had been married for over 50 years — in 2016, Patricia Novak shared photos from a “golden” anniversary trip to Hawaii.

Robert Novak has cooperated with police throughout the investigation, which was still active on Monday.

Anyone with information was asked to call Edison Police Detective Christian Paone at 732-248-7413 or Detective Jose Rosario of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at 732-745-3289.

Surviving family members were mourning Patricia Novak on social media on Monday and had arranged services for this week.

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