NJ-EMS

A Newark police officer shot and killed a stabbing suspect this afternoon during a confrontation in the basement of a shop on Broadway, police said.

The suspect, a man in his 30s, was hit in the torso and taken to University Hospital, by Newark Paramedics and emt's where he died, police said.

The officer, a 13-year beat cop who was not identified, was not injured.

Police Director Garry McCarthy said a sergeant and the neighborhood beat officer confronted the suspect in the basement of a building on Broadway, near the intersection of Crane Street, at 2 p.m., after the owner of an appliance and furniture shop upstairs reported the man had slashed him in the arm.

The store owner was bandaged by EMT's, police said.

The shop owner and the suspect knew each other; the shop owner let the man stay in the basement without a lease, McCarthy said. But in recent days the man, described as mentally ill (E.D.P), had been acting more erratically than usual.

McCarthy said it wasn't immediately clear what happened between the officers and the man in the basement because the officers had yet to provide statements to investigators. There were no other witnesses.

The cop, a 13-year veteran, fired at least five times, killing the man, McCarthy said. A knife and shell casings were recovered from the scene.

McCarthy did not criticize the officer's actions but suggested that if New Jersey officers were allowed to carry Tasers they could have used them to try to disarm the man.