A person died during a high-speed law enforcement pursuit in a New Jersey neighborhood, with investigators looking into what may have happened.
The crash occurred around 1 p.m. Tuesday on Park Avenue in East Orange, officials said, leaving one person dead.
It was not known which law enforcement agency had been involved in the pursuit, but it was believed to have started in Bloomfield after police got a license plate recognition on a black sedan, which was connected to a robbery investigation. The driver, who has not yet been identified, allegedly refused to stop for the officers.
Police pursued the car through Newark and into East Orange, where it crashed into three other vehicles, including a parked ambulance. A worker at a nearby school said the school was placed on lockdown for two hours, and he later emerged to see two smashed up cars, one of which had T-boned the ambulance which had its airbag deployed.
A witness said that the man killed was in a gold-colored Toyota Camry when his car got struck by the black sedan police had been pursuing. Three vehicles in all were struck.
The Essex County Prosecutor's Office was at the scene, though the state attorney general's office confirmed it was investigating the local matter. Typically, the attorney general's office only gets involved in a civilian death when it is somehow connected to police activity.
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Three people were taken to the hospital from the scene of the crash, including the suspect, who the attorney general's office said died from his injuries. A witness said he saw police knock out the car window to pull the man from the mangled wreckage.
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The attorney general's police pursuit policy states that "an officer's decision to pursue should always be undertaken with an awareness of the degree of risk to which the officer exposes law enforcement and the community." Because the sedan was allegedly linked to a robbery, the pursuit falls under the office's guidelines.
It was not clear how many police cars were involved in chasing the black sedan when it crashed.
One neighbor asked what role the police pursuit may have played in the crash.
"My kids live around here and go to school around here," said the neighbor. "Why are you’ll chasing these cars and killing these innocent people...Now somebody lost their life out here on Park Avenue."
An investigation is ongoing.
