The New Jersey shootout that left 6 people dead was a 'targeted' attack on a Jewish-owned grocery store, officials say

Seth Wenig/AP

• Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said Wednesday that a kosher supermarket was clearly "targeted" in a shooting that left six dead on Tuesday, including the two perpetrators and a police officer.

• Fulop tweeted that "anti-Semitism" has "never had a place in [Jersey City]."

• Two other officers and a civilian were injured in the gunfight, which lasted for more than an hour.

• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Officials now say that a Jewish grocery store where a deadly shooting happened in Jersey City, New Jersey on Tuesday was clearly "targeted."

Mayor Steven Fulop said at a Wednesday morning press conference that CCTV footage shows the perpetrators carefully selecting the JC Kosher Supermarket to launch their attack.

"We could see the van moving through Jersey City streets slowly, the perpetrator stopped in front of there, calmly opened the door with two long rifles with the other perpetrator, and began firing from the street into the facility," Fulop said.

Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP

Two officers who were on a foot patrol about a block south heard the gunshots and immediately rushed to the scene.

Fulop said if they hadn't acted so quickly, more lives would have doubtlessly been lost and the perpetrators may have escaped instead of getting trapped in the store.

One officer, 39-year-old Det. Joe Seals, a 15-year veteran of the force with a wife and five children, was killed in the gunfight.

Three civilians were killed inside and outside of the store, according to NBC New York.

The two perpetrators, whose identities have not yet been made public, were killed by police gunfire. A law enforcement official familiar with the case told The New York Times on Wednesday that one of the suspects published anti-Semitic and anti-police posts online and investigators believe the attack was motivated by that hatred.

Two other police officers, Ray Sanchez and Mariela Fernandez, were injured in the shooting but have already been released from the hospital, according to News 12 New Jersey.

There has been some contradictory information about the shooting, including where it started.

ENA BETANCUR/Afp/AFP via Getty Images

While it was widely reported yesterday that Det. Seals was shot in a cemetery about a mile away, and that the suspects then fled to the kosher supermarket, the mayor's public safety director said Wednesday that officials now believe the shooting started at the grocery.

"We now know this did not begin with gunfire between police officers and the perpetrators and then move to the store. It began with an attack on civilians at the store," James Shea said.

When asked about the previous reports about the cemetery shooting, Fulop said they were "not going to get into any of that stuff."

According to the Times, the Greenville area of Jersey City is home to a growing Jewish community, many of them part of the ultra-Orthodox Satmar sect that has been moving to the Garden State from Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The kosher market opened three years ago to serve this growing community of about 100 families.

• Read more:

• 6 people, including a police officer and 2 shooters, are dead after an hours-long standoff in Jersey City, New Jersey

• Many American Jews are worried Trump's decision to define Judaism as a nationality and not just a religion will do far more harm than good

• An 18-year-old is accused of directing synagogue attacks across the country under the name 'Operation Kristallnacht,' according to the FBI

• The Pentagon orders operational training pause for all Saudi students in the US after NAS Pensacola shooting

• At least 21 people are dead after a gun battle near the Texas border between Mexican security forces and suspected cartel gunmen

Read the original article on Insider