6 people, including police officer, dead in hours-long New Jersey shootout

Six people, including a police officer and three bystanders, were killed in a furious gunbattle Tuesday that filled the streets of Jersey City with the sound of heavy gunfire for hours, authorities said.

The dead included the two gunmen, Jersey City Police Chief Michael Kelly said.

The slain officer, Det.Joseph Seals, 40, was credited by his superiors with having led the department in the number of illegal guns removed from the streets in recent years, and might have been trying to stop an incident involving such weapons when he was cut down by gunfire that erupted near a cemetery, authorities said.

The shooting then continued at a kosher supermarket more than a kilometre away, where five more bodies were found, Kelly said.

Authorities believe the Jewish market was targeted by the gunmen, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop tweeted Tuesday night. Fulop, whose public safety director said earlier in the day that terrorism wasn't suspected, did not elaborate on why authorities now believe the market was targeted.

Messages were left Tuesday night seeking comment on Fulop's tweet.

"It's a really tough day for the city of Jersey City," Mayor Steven Fulop said. Seals "was one of the best officers for getting the most guns off the streets. He was a good cop."

2 officers wounded

Two other officers were wounded but were later released from the hospital, authorities said.

The bullets started flying early in the afternoon in the city of about 270,000 people, situated across the Hudson River from the New York City.Seals, who worked for a unit called Cease Fire, was shot around 12:30 p.m. ET. The gunmen then travelled to another part of the city in a stolen rental van and engaged police in a protracted shootout.

Kelly said when police responded to the area of the kosher store, officers "were immediately engaged by high-power rifle fire."

A video shot by a witness shows a police officer on the ground by a car, apparently wounded. Another officer goes to him, helps him up and the two run around a corner as gunshots ring out. Seconds later, as a police cruiser pulls up in front of the store, about a dozen shots are heard in rapid succession.

"Our officers were under fire for hours," the chief said.

'I hope my wife is safe'

Inside the grocery store, police found the bodies of what they were believed were the two gunmen and three other people who apparently happened to be there when the assailants rushed in, authorities said. Police said they were confident that all those killed were shot by the gunmen and not by police.

The kosher grocery is a central fixture in a growing community of Orthodox Jews who have been moving to Jersey City in recent years. Authorities were unable to say why the gunmen went there.

Rabbi Moshe Schapiro, who shops at the grocery and attends a synagogue next door, said he spoke with the store owner, Moishe Ferencz.

"He told me he had just walked out of the store into the synagogue not five feet away just before this happened, and then he couldn't get back for hours," Shapiro said. "His wife was inside the store. He said, 'I hope my wife is safe.'"

School put on lockdown

The names of the victims inside the store were not immediately released, pending notification of relatives.

City Public Safety Director James Shea said earlier Tuesday that authorities believe the violencewas not an act of terrorism, but that it was still under investigation.

The shooting spread fear through the neighbourhood, and the nearby Sacred Heart School was put on lockdown as a precaution.

SWAT teams, state police and federal agents converged on the scene, and police blocked off the area, which, in addition to the school and supermarket,includesa hair salon and other shops.

'They were shooting like crazy'

Dozens of bystanders pressed against the police barrier to film the action on cellphones, some whooping when gunfire bursts filled the air.

Video shot by residents recorded loud volleys of gunfire reverberating along one of the city's main streets and showed a long line of law enforcement officers pointing guns as they advanced, yelling to bystanders, "Clear the street! Get out of the way!"

"It's like firecrackers going off," said Andy Patel, who works at a liquor store about three blocks away."They were shooting like crazy. The cops were clearing everyone off the streets."

Police also removed what they described as a possible "incendiary device" from the rental vehicle and sent it for examination by a bomb squad. The results of that examination were not available Tuesday evening.

Seals had been on the Jersey City Police Department since 2006. In addition to his work with the illegal guns unit, he was cited for heroism in a Christmas Eve 2008 incident in which he and another officer burst through the window of a home and stopped a sexual assault that was being carried out against a 41-year-old woman.

Seventh grader Zamir Butler said his class was coming back inside from the playground at Sacred Heart, which sits across the street from the grocery store, when he heard the shots. At first he thought they were thunder, since it had rained earlier.

"Everybody was running up the stairs to get to safety in the classroom," he said. "A few of the kids were crying. They told us to stay behind the wall and stay down."