The shooting occurred around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at Broadway and Mount Vernon Street when authorities say they believe two suspects pulled up behind the detectives who were in an unmarked police vehicle, said Dan Keashen, a spokesman for the Camden County Police Department. The suspects got out of their car and began firing at the detectives through the back windshield of the police vehicle, he said. One of the officers jumped out of the vehicle and returned fire, he said. “For the amount of the gunfire that took place out there, it’s a miracle,” that the officers were not more seriously injured, Keashen said. “There were many shots fired.” The detectives, identified only as a man and a woman, were taken to Cooper University Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Both were in stable condition Wednesday morning, said Keashen. “They’re stable and we hope to have them discharged very soon,” he said.
The motive for the attack remains unknown. Keashen declined to comment on whether authorities believe the suspects are still in the area. “We are casting a wide net,” he said. Law enforcement agencies from around the country have offered assistance, including the FBI and ATF, to help investigate what Camden County Police Chief Scott Thomson described Tuesday night as an “ambush” on the detectives. “They’re telling us that they would do everything they could to help us bring these suspects to justice,” Keashen said. According to Thomson, between 10 and 25 rounds were fired at the officers. The officers were in plainclothes, sitting at a red light, working in a non-enforcement capacity, the chief said. Keashen said it was unknown whether the suspects were struck. No bystanders were wounded in the gunfire, he said. Sources at the scene told the Inquirer and Daily News that the male detective suffered wounds to an arm, and the female detective had a hand wound.
Police investigate the scene at Broadway and Walnut Street in Camden, N.J. where two Camden County Police detectives were ambushed in their unmarked car while sitting at a red light on Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2018.
Keashen said a Camden officer on patrol in the area heard the gunshots and rushed to the scene. The officer “scooped up” the wounded detectives and transported them to Cooper Hospital in his patrol car, he said. Authorities were checking hospitals in the region for anyone seeking treatment for gunshot wounds from the detective’s return fire. Wednesday morning at the shooting scene, a large Camden Police Department mobile unit and three marked police cars sat idling. Reaction from neighbors ranged from shrugs to shock that police were ambushed. Aracelis Torres, 56, said she was in a restaurant when the shooting took place, and when she tried to walk home she had to take a detour because of the police tape and emergency vehicles and personnel at the scene. Despite the area being a hotbed for crime, including her son being shot in the chest and critically wounded four years ago in front of her house, the shooting of two cops surprised her. “You have to have respect for a police officer, you know what I’m saying? This is ridiculous drama. Just crazy,” she said.”
Before the shooting happened, Camden city officials hosted four National Night Out events throughout the city. National Night Out was designed to bring together police and the communities they cover. The Camden County Police department replaced the Camden City police force in 2013 in a move officials said was intended to slash cost and hire officers to help curb crime in a city once ranked among the most dangerous and violent in the country. Since the takeover, crime has dropped drastically. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Camden County Tipline at (856) 757-7042.
https://www.officer.com/tactical/swat/news/21017200/search-continues-for-suspects-in-ambush-shootings-of-camden-county-new-jersey-police-detectives
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