An incident in which two Elizabeth Police Department officers used their service weapons against a man who struck a third officer with his vehicle overnight is under investigation, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park announced Saturday.
Police said, it was approximately midnight Saturday when a group of police officers were dining at a restaurant on Washington Avenue in Elizabeth, according to the investigation.
Looking outside, one of the officers spotted a car parked on the street that appeared to be a possible match to a vehicle used in a recent robbery, and the group of officers exited the restaurant to investigate further.
Upon approaching the vehicle, the officers encountered a man later identified as 21-year-old Elizabeth resident Farris Mangoub Taielkrim. When the officers identified themselves as police, they recognized that Taielkrim was in possession of a handgun authorities said.
Police said, at that point Taielkrim quickly entered the vehicle and sped away, striking one of the officers as two others fired rounds from their service weapons.
No one is believed to have been struck by gunfire during the course of the incident.
The officer who was hit by the vehicle was transported to a local hospital for treatment of lacerations and has since been discharged.
Taielkrim was located and arrested in Orange later Saturday morning, charged with second-degree aggravated assault on a police officer, and lodged in Union County Jail on $150,000 bail.
A handgun was also recovered from Taielkrim as a result of the arrest.
This incident and the officers’ use of force remain under an investigation being conducted in compliance with all portions of the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General’s law enforcement directive regarding uniform statewide procedures and best practices for such matters.
Anyone with information about this matter is being urged to contact Prosecutor’s Office Detective Dennis Donovan at 908-527-4558.