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James Allandale, 61, opened fire on officers who found him at the Knights Inn Pinebook before midnight on New Year's, multiple law enforcement sources with knowledge of the incident told Daily Voice.
He was in turn shot and killed, they said.
The officers were members of the Morris County Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team, according to New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin's office.
SERT is comprised of specially-trained officers from municipal police departments and the county sheriff's office.
They were protected by shields as they hit the door of Allandale's hotel room with a battering ram shortly after 7 p.m. Dec. 31, law enforcement sources told Daily Voice. Allandale opened fire, leaving them no choice but to do the same, they said.
All indications had pointed to Allandale wanting to "go out in a blaze of glory" -- not surrendering or trying to take his own life -- after becoming a fugitive from justice, a veteran law enforcement official said just the other day.
Because police use of deadly force was involved, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office is reviewing the circumstances.
Platkin's office issued a release confirming the shooting shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 1.
It said, in large part:
“According to the preliminary information, members of the Morris County Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team (“SERT”) were at the motel on Route 46 in Pine Brook to assist Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office detectives with executing an arrest warrant for attempted murder, which incident occurred on Tuesday, December 27, 2022 in Elmwood Park, N.J.
“Detectives ascertained that the suspect was inside a particular room and members of the Morris County SERT made entry at approximately 7:14 p.m., whereupon the individual exchanged gunfire with two officers.
“Officers attempted life-saving measures, but the individual was pronounced deceased at approximately 7:27 p.m. Authorities recovered a firearm near the decedent. Two officers were transported to an area hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.”
Allandale -- whose real name is James Allan -- became the target of an intense manhunt after he shot Cynthia Greco of New Milford at 113 Lincoln Avenue shortly before 5:30 p.m. last Tuesday, Dec. 27.
The home is owned by Allandale's girlfriend, Lisa Dolack, who is friends with Greco, 63. They'd worked several years together at Hackensack University Medical Center.
Greco ended up at a 7-Eleven on Broadway (Route 4) off the corner of Fairlawn Parkway in Fair Lawn, nearly two miles from the home. It wasn't immediately clear whether she or someone else had been driving.
She was rushed from there to Hackensack University Medical Center with injuries that a source with direct knowledge of the incident told Daily Voice aren't life-threatening.
Authorities didn't say what type of weapon was used. Friends said Greco was shot in the head three times, leading to speculation that it may have been an airsoft or other non-lethal type of gun.
What role Greco might have played in any possible conflict between Dolack and Allandale wasn’t immediately clear. The women had worked together at HUMC and have been friends for some time.
A close friend said privately that Greco was "trying to protect" Dolack when she was shot.
A Bergen County Regional SWAT team made entry at the Lincoln Avenue home a short time later, but Allandale wasn't there, Elmwood Park Police Chief Michael Foligno said.
It turns out he'd fled in a white Dodge Ram pickup truck with a snow plow on the front, which responders said was found abandoned later that night along Route 20 in Paterson.
Authorities obtained a fugitive warrant charging Allandale with attempted homicide and weapons offenses, among other counts.
Although they haven't yet suggested a possible motive for the shooting, neighbors reportedly said Dolack apparently wasn’t aware of the extent of Allandale's criminal history when he moved in with her 18 months ago.
She'd recently been trying to get Allandale to move out, they said.
Records show he'd apparently changed his name from James Allan after serving time for kidnapping an ex-girlfriend at gunpoint in a supermarket parking lot in Wayne in 2000.
SEE: GF Of Ex-Con Fugitive Sought For Shooting Friend In Elmwood Park Seeks Public's Help
Investigators on his trail said they had several addresses to work with. No sooner was a wanted poster shared online than leads began coming in -- some of them solid, they said.
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