According to the preliminary investigation, two state troopers and a Mercer County sheriff’s officer assigned to the Targeted Integrated Deployment Effort (TIDE), a multi-agency initiative to address violence in Trenton, responded about 10:15 p.m. Friday to a report of multiple shots fired in the vicinity of 500 Prospect Village. The officers observed three males on foot on Louise Lane, heading toward Calhoun Street. The three officers stopped and exited their vehicle to question the three males. Two of the young males obeyed the officers’ commands and were detained by one of the troopers, but the third male, the 14-year-old, ran away. Witnesses reported that as the other state trooper and the sheriff’s officer ran after the 14-year-old, the youth was reaching into his waistband. A .22-caliber automatic handgun containing three rounds of ammunition was later recovered underneath a vehicle at the scene on Calhoun Street. Both of the pursuing officers fired at the 14-year-old, striking him in both legs and the buttocks. The 14-year-old was treated at the scene and taken to Helene Fuld Medical Center in Trenton, where he remains in stable condition.

The incident remains under investigation by the Attorney General’s Shooting Response Team and no further information is being released at this time. The names of the state trooper and the sheriff’s officer involved in the shooting are not being released. The 14-year-old’s identity will not be released because he is a juvenile.

Under an Attorney General Directive, the Shooting Response Team, made up of deputy attorneys general, detectives of the Division of Criminal Justice, and detectives of the State Police Major Crime Unit, are dispatched to the scene to handle investigations of shootings involving state or county law enforcement officers.

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