Elizabeth Police Shoot Essex County Man After Threat: Prosecutor

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ --The Essex County Prosecutor's Office (ECPO) is investigating an officer-involved shooting that took place earlier this week in Elizabeth, authorities said.

According to a preliminary investigation, at approximately 2 a.m. on Saturday morning, the Elizabeth Police Department (EPD) received a report of a domestic violence-related incident.

Responding EPD officers encountered Michael Bates, 37, of Orange, in the area of Court and 3rd Streets. Bates allegedly approached the two responding EPD officers and "threatened to harm them," prosecutors said.

The officers discharged their service weapons, striking Bates once. He was subsequently transported to University Hospital in Newark for treatment of non life-threatening injuries.

Bates was charged with making terroristic threats and creating a false public alarm, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said that while the shooting took place in Elizabeth, Essex County authorities will be taking over the investigation to avoid a conflict of interest, as one of the responding officers has a "professional relationship" with the Union County Prosecutor's Office.

According to the ECPO:

"In New Jersey, all investigations of police deadly force incidents are governed by the Attorney General’s Independent Prosecutor Directive, issued in 2006 and strengthened in 2015, which establishes strict procedures for conducting such investigations. It requires the Attorney General to review all deadly force investigations, and in some cases conduct them as well. In accordance with the Independent Prosecutor Directive, the Attorney General reassigned the investigation related to Bates and to the EPD officers’ use of force from the Union County Prosecutor’s Office (UCPO), which was the initial responding agency, to the ECPO to avoid a possible conflict of interest, or appearance of one, as one of the responding EPD officers has a professional relationship with the UCPO. The Independent Prosecutor Directive further provides that unless the undisputed facts indicate the use of force was justified under the law, the circumstances ofthe incident must ultimately be presented to a grand jury, composed of 23 civilians, for its independent review."

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