Jersey City police respond to rumors about shooting incident

🚨Police-involved shooting in Jersey City leaves one man dead

🚨Jersey City police push back against misinformation about the incident

🚨Officers fired at a man breaking into an abandoned house in East Windsor

JERSEY CITY — A top police official is pushing back at rumors about what happened during a police-involved shooting early Tuesday, and said the officers involved are receiving threats.

One person was killed early Tuesday in Jersey City after an officer and a man exchanged gunfire in the area of Bergen and Virginia avenues shortly after 1 a.m., according to New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin. The Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability is investigating the incident per state law.

Mayor Steven Fulop, on his X account, said officers noticed a person with a bulge in his clothing acting suspiciously. Fulop said the man shot at an officer, who then returned fire. The man was taken to a hospital where he later died.

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Conflicting accounts emerge after deadly Jersey City shooting

Darshell Robinson, the grandmother of the victim she identified as Teshawn Rogers, disputes Fulop's account of the shooting. She told News 12 that her grandson was shot in the back. Robinson said the bulge could have been something other than a weapon.

Jersey City Public Safety Director James Shea told New Jersey 101.5 that the man who was shot was wearing a coat, a sweatshirt with the hood up, a mask and mirrored sunglasses. Shea said the Jersey City Police Department Street Crimes Unit was monitoring the man's moves via the city's network of security video cameras and saw that he acted suspiciously when a vehicle that turned out to be a rideshare pulled up.

When he went out of range from the cameras, a team of officers was positioned to stop him. Shea said the unit is highly trained.

"They routinely remove firearms and dangerous people from the street without having to use force, and they routinely put themselves at extra risk to do it without using force. In this case, there was just no alternative," Shea said. "Our officer exited the car. He was already under fire and had to return fire to defend himself, unfortunately, resulting in the death of the actor. The weapon was recovered right there at the scene."

Shea added that the officer jumped out of a moving vehicle when he fired, protecting the lives of his fellow officers.

Shea said the officers all turned their body cams on, and he is anxious for Platkin to release the video "as soon as humanly possible."

He has viewed the footage and believes the officers will be found to have acted within department guidelines. Shea also hopes it will quell what he said is the spread of false rumors about the incident, and stop the threats being made against the officers who come from the same neighborhood.

"The fact that they're being threatened is concerning. It's unacceptable, and the reason for them being threatened is because of this misinformation," Shea said.

Second police-involved shooting reported in Mercer County hours later

Authorities said police fired at a man as he broke into an abandoned home in Mercer County on Tuesday, in the second police involved shooting of the day in New Jersey.

A "concerned citizen" reported an individual breaking into a home on Etra Road in East Windsor early Tuesday afternoon, Mercer County Prosecutor Janetta Marbrey said.

"Upon arrival the officers encountered an adult male and shots were fired,” Marbrey said.

The man was shot and hospitalized with critical injuries. No officers were injured. Marbrey did not disclose what led to the shooting.

However, New Jersey Police Benevolent Association President Peter Andreyev said the man attacked the East Windsor police officers with a knife.

Andreyev said in a Facebook post that he was grateful they, and other officers involved in a separate police shooting in Jersey City, were able to go home and be with their families.