Sandy MaloneJersey City, NJ – Police have released additional surveillance footage and bodycam video from inside the terrifying Jersey City shootout that left two suspects, three civilians, and one police officer dead (video below).
The videos were released in response to an open records request and showed about three hours of what happened on Dec. 10, 2019 from the perspective of the police officers who were trying to stop the shooters, WPVI reported.
The gun battle between police and the shooters – 47-year-old David Anderson and 50-year-old Francine Graham – lasted for hours after the suspects pulled up in front of the JC Kosher Market in a rented U-Haul van and started blasting away.
The same U-Haul was linked to the murder of a driver in Bayonne after the driver was found dead in a car trunk.
Investigators said that Jersey City Police Detective Joseph Seals encountered the U-Haul van in the Bayview Cemetery just after 12 noon on Dec. 10 and was ambushed by Anderson and Graham.
Det. Seals was fatally shot by the suspects before they fled the scene.
Surveillance video showed Anderson and Graham traveled to the kosher market, got out of the van with rifles, and opened fire on the JC Kosher Market before barricading themselves inside for an hours-long standoff with police.
Two officers were wounded during the gunfight, including the one who Sgt. Jordan helped escape.
The hours-long gun battle ended when Newark Police Department SWAT officers in an armored vehicle smashed through the front of the store, WNYW reported.
Police found five people dead inside the store, including Anderson and Graham.
Officials have said they believe the shooters planned the attack for months and visited the Jewish market twice ahead of the siege, WPVI reported.
The newly-released bodycam video showed the perspective of an officer who was inside the Sacred Heart Academy located across the street from the JC Kosher Market.
For most of the video, the officer is peeking out through the side of a window shade, taking shots at a gunman who is behind a plywood board in front of the market.
The video showed the officer reloaded his weapon and took shots at the suspects.
“I think he’s down… I got a gun on the ground. No! He’s still moving,” the officer said in the video.
The video showed the officer walking through the empty school looking for a better vantage point where he could see the shooter.
The school had been locked down as soon as the shooting began, WPVI reported.
Further along in the bodycam video, the officer heard somebody on the police radio talking about the Catholic school across the street, where he was holed up.
“It’s an officer,” he yelled into his radio. “That’s friendly inside of Sacred Heart. I say again, friendly, blue!”
The dispatcher repeated the alert over the radio, the video showed.
And then she asked if anybody had a spare magazine for an officer who had a clear shot at the suspect.
“I’m coming down,” replied the officer who was in the school, as he began running for the doorway.
A different video gave a bird’s eye view of an armored vehicle smashing through the front of the market at the end of the standoff.
Watch the newly-released video here below: