Man wounded in police-involved shooting in Jersey City

JERSEY CITY (WABC) -- Authorities are investigating a police-involved shooting early Tuesday that left a man wounded in Jersey City.

A spokesperson for Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health said the patient is in stable condition and was admitted after surgery.

According to investigators, two Jersey City officers from the Emergency Services Unit were on patrol at about 2:30 a.m. when they saw a 25-year old man in front of 369 Martin Luther King Drive.

He was carrying what has been described as a 6-foot-long, 2-by-2, wooden fence post with a sharpened end, police say. The officers pulled up and ordered him to drop the sharpened fence post.

At that point, police said the man attacked the emergency services truck with the sharpened fence post and then threw it through the passenger side window, striking one of the officers in the head, then reached inside for the officer's rifle and tried to pull it out of the window.

In the struggle between the officer and the suspect, a shot was fired, going through the door and striking the man.

Authorities said the man pulled up his shirt with one hand and hid his other hand in his waistband, ignored the officers' commands to show his hands and one of the officers fired, striking him.

The two Jersey City officers were treated and released.

There was a heavy police presence in the area of the shooting, which occurred just blocks from where Jersey City officer Melvin Santiago was shot and killed early Sunday morning, while responding to an armed robbery call at a 24-hour drug store.

Other officers returned fire, killing the gunman, Lawrence Campbell.

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop has ordered that a memorial to Campbell be taken down.