New Jersey police said a man wanted on a warrant in Long Island took his own life in the back of a van during a traffic stop in Woodbridge Township, N.J.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s office said that claim is under investigation.
“When officers asked the individual to exit the van, he refused to exit and instead moved to the van’s rear compartment, behind a curtain and out of the officers’ view,” prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday. “The officers broke the van’s windows and used [pepper] spray to try to get the male to exit. Less than 15 minutes later, officers on scene reported hearing a loud noise that sounded like a firework.”
The incident reportedly began around 6:30 p.m. Friday on the northbound side of Route 9. The victim’s body was found inside the van nearly two hours later alongside a shotgun, cops said. He appeared to have died from a gunshot wound. Investigators don’t believe police discharged their firearms during the standoff.
The suspect’s name has not been released, and it’s unclear what he was wanted for in Suffolk County.
That deadly encounter happened just one day after a 46-year-old suspected of shooting a 29-year-old man in Harlem died in a firefight with cops in Woodbridge Township. Multiple law enforcement agencies including the NYPD were involved in that shootout.
