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Detectives from the Essex County Narcotics Task Force were executing a warrant at a Clinton Place home around 6 a.m. Thursday when someone in the house fired shots at officers, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens, II, Sheriff Armando Fontoura and Newark Public Safety Director Brian O’Hara said.
Officers took cover, evacuated residents in the other apartments at 34 Clinton Pl., and evacuated the homes in the two adjacent homes. As a result, eight people were relocated.
The search warrants were being executed as part of an ongoing narcotics investigation that began in May.
Law enforcement agents spent the next 30 hours in constant communication with the suspect, later identified as Hassan Grimsley, urging him to surrender.
Mental health professionals, friends, family members and neighbors tried to convince Grimsley, who had numerous guns, to come out, authorities said.
Around 12:55 p.m. on Friday, officers were engaging the suspect using less lethal force when he again shot at officers, Stephens and O'Hara said.
Officers returned fire, hitting Grimsley. He was taken to University Hospital in unknown condition.
No officers nor civilians were injured.
Stephens said law enforcement at all levels worked together to bring this to a successful conclusion.
He thanked Newark Public Safety Director O’Hara, Essex County Sheriff Fontoura, Bloomfield Public Safety Director Samuel DeMaio, George Crouch, Jr., the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI, and Toby Taylor, the Special Agent in Charge of the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives).
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