A grand jury in New Jersey has cleared numerous police officers
who killed two suspects in an 2019 shootout at a kosher market in
Jersey City
that left a detective and three people dead .
The state attorney general's office announced the panel “found the
actions of the officers were justified” after reviewing the facts, evidence and
testimony about what transpired during the three-hour firefight on Dec. 10,
2019 at the JC Kosher Supermarket.
David Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50, gunned down Detective Joseph Seals at a nearby cemetery before they entered the market where they killed Mindy Ferencz, Douglas Miguel Rodriguez Barzola and Moshe Deutsch. Two police officers were wounded.
At the time, then-Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said the case was investigated
as domestic terrorism because he said the assailants were driven by hatred of
Jews and law enforcement.
Grewal also said the outcome would have been far worse if not for the police
because a Jewish school was next to the market and a Catholic school was across
the street.
Officials determined 13 police officers fired their weapons during the gun
battle.
New Jersey law permits an officer to use deadly force “when the officer
reasonably believes it is immediately necessary to protect the officer or
another person from imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm,” the
attorney general's office said.
AP wire services helped contribute to this report.