"He started shooting into the foyer of the lounge," Robert D. Laurino, Acting Essex Co Prosecutor, said.
Sheriff's Officer Lorenzo Zackery, 49, was hit on the stomach, but somehow was able to run 500 feet after the suspect up Sanford Avenue, drawing his office issued firearm and hitting the suspect several times. McNeil died a short time later at the hospital.
"He is an exercise freak, and with the adrenaline pumping. It was a small caliber, which can be a really bad thing. It hit him in the intestinal area," Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontura said.
Police are not sure whether the officer had been at Knockouts as a patron or as extra security for the Super Bowl. Doctors expect him to make a full recovery. He is a married father of 3 who once played pro football.
"Played for a time for the Washing Redskins and got hurt, then the Alouettes," Fontura said.
According to people who live here, there has been too much going on here, saying this is just the latest shooting.
"Biggest thing is the killings. People screaming, running around, just bad news to me," Isaiah Jordan said.
