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East Orange Police Disperse Agitated Crowd at Book Bag Giveaway Event

East Orange

Police in East Orange dispersed a crowd that engaged in unruly activity at a book bag giveaway event held at a city park on Wednesday.

The event, attended by nearly 500 people, included a local DJ, face painting, food, and other festivities took place inside the Elmwood Park and began at 4 p.m. had organizers supplying hundreds of children who waited in line for almost two hours for book bags and school supplies.

According to preliminary reports, nearly a dozen police officers who were patrolling the park during the event, swiftly moved in when several people began physical confrontation forcing dozens of event goers to run.

There were no serious injuries reported.

In a separate incident, police are investigating a shooting that had a male injured in the city Wednesday evening.

The victim, entered University Hospital suffering a non-life threatening gunshot injury, told officials that he was shot at while walking down a city street with two other individuals who did not suffer any injuries.

The investigation is active.

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