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Ricky Rivera, 20-year-old Paterson resident was shot by Weehawken Police after hitting a police officer with a car on the early morning of Tuesday, August 1, authorities said.
At 5 a.m. police were patrolling a neighborhood plagued by auto thefts, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said. When police approached a suspicious vehicle parked in a driveway on Regency Place, Rivera fled the scene in the vehicle, striking an officer, Suarez said.
A second officer discharged his weapon, Suarez said. Soon after, the man crashed his vehicle into an occupied Port Authority Police Department vehicle, Suarez said. The man was found to have a gunshot wound and is being treated at Jersey City Medical Center for non-life threatening injuries, Suarez said.
Rivera was charged with aggravated assault, eluding police, unlawful possession of a weapon, among other charges, Suarez said. He is being detained at the Hudson County Correctional Facility pending his first court appearance, Suarez said.
The vehicle Rivera had been operating was stolen out of West New York last week, Suarez said.
The police officer struck by the vehicle suffered non-life threatening injuries, Suarez said. Per protocol, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General was notified of the shooting and the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office Shooting Response Team is investigating, Suarez said.
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