The Associated Press
April 18, 2003, 8:11 AM EDT
FAIR LAWN, N.J. -- A borough police officer was killed and a Clifton officer was wounded after a car chase that went through two counties and ended on the lawn of a Baptist church.
Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli confirmed early Friday that the Fair Lawn officer, Maryann Collura, 43, had died after being shot four times. The lifelong borough resident was the department's first woman officer, having joined the force in 1985 after serving as a special officer for more than two years.
The Clifton officer, who was not identified, was shot twice but was expected to survive. He was undergoing surgery at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, according to Amelia Duggan, a hospital spokeswoman, but further details were not immediately available.
Molinelli declined to provide descriptions of the suspects, who remained at large early Friday. He said officers from several state and local law enforcement agencies in New Jersey and the New York City Police Department were involved in the manhunt.
Shortly after the shootings occurred, three men were detained after a massive door-to-door search in a three-block area of Paterson. No charges were filed against the men and they were later released, but police continued their extensive search, going door-to-door to search homes and vehicles in the area.
Molinelli said the chase began in Clifton late Thursday night and went through several towns before Fair Lawn police were notified around 10 p.m. that the fleeing red sports car had entered their jurisdiction. He said at least two suspects were in the vehicle, but it was not immediately clear why the car was being pursued by the Clifton officer.
A few minutes after the notification call, the driver apparently lost control of the car and it went up on the front lawn of the Van Riper Ellis/Broadway Baptist Church. Moments later, Collura arrived on the scene to assist the Clifton officer.
Molinelli said two suspects -- and possibly a third -- then ran from the vehicle to a parking lot in the back of the church, where one of the suspects was briefly apprehended. However, several shots soon rang out and the suspects fled after the officers were wounded.
The number of shots fired in the exchange was not immediately known, but Molinelli said the Clifton officer and at least one of the suspects were involved in the gun battle. Collura was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital, but it was not known if she died before reaching the facility.
"There was firing back on both sides, but we don't know if any of the suspects were hit," he said during an early morning news conference.
The suspects then fled the scene and at least one of them drove off in Collura's patrol car, which was later found abandoned about four miles away in Paterson.
While authorities quickly blocked off the area where the car was found and began an intensive search there, numerous officers continued to search for evidence at the church. Authorities, though, would not say whether any weapons or other evidence had been found at either location.
Guess they really aren't too anxious to find them.