A police officer was shot during an overnight confrontation with a suspected car thief on the Garden State Parkway, according to the New Jersey attorney general's office, which is leading the investigation.
Heavy law enforcement presence flooded the scene near exit 131 near Woodbridge early Friday after the shooting report came in. According to the investigation, officers from the Cranford Police Department, including the one who would end up wounded, were chasing a stolen car that crashed in the area of a southbound exit.
After the crash, the driver of the vehicle and two officers exchanged gunfire, officials said. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene early Friday. A firearm was recovered near his body, officials said. They withheld his name.
The officer who was shot is expected to make a full recovery and has already been released from the hospital.
The attorney general's office is required to investigate when a person dies during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer's official capacity or while in custody.
No further details on the circumstances of the chase were immediately available Friday. The head of the New Jersey State PBA described it as a confrontation with a "violent criminal."
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
Local
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, condemned the violence and offered prayers for a swift recovery.
