Newark Bar Shooting Wounds Retired N.J. Cop: Police

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ - Police are investigating a double shooting that took place near an Essex County bar and wounded a retired Hudson County law enforcement officer and a woman early Saturday morning, authorities say.

The shooting happened around 2 a.m. near the Tremont Lounge at Halsted Street and Tremont Avenue in Newark, which is on the border of East Orange, according to the Newark Department of Public Safety.

Acting on reports of a shooting, police responded to the area and found a male and a female victim suffering from gunshot wounds. Emergency responders transported the victims to a nearby hospital for “non-life-threatening” injuries, where they were admitted in stable condition.

The male victim appears to be a retired law enforcement officer in Hudson County who was working security at the bar, authorities said.

The motive for the shooting is unknown and no arrests have been made, police stated Saturday.

Authorities are withholding the identities of the victims “for security reasons,” the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office stated.

The Newark Police Division’s Alcohol Beverage Control Unit is temporarily closing the Tremont Lounge in response to the recent violence in the immediate area of the establishment, prosecutors said.

Command rank officers from the Newark Police Division and the East Orange Police Department were both present at the scene on Saturday morning, when the commanders determined that jurisdictionally, East Orange police would investigate the shooting, prosecutors said.

“We don't have time to dispute about jurisdictional issues and the impact they may have on crime statistics,” the Newark Department of Public Safety stated in a Saturday release. “Detectives from the Newark Police Division’s Shooting Response Team are determining the facts to ensure that the victims are provided a complete and meaningful investigation by the responsible agency.”

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