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Off-duty police officer puts end to violence

BY NOAH COHEN

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

A man shot his estranged wife and their two young sons, killing one child and wounding the other, before being shot and killed by an off-duty police officer in Paterson Saturday morning, city police said.

Police and witnesses said Johanna Gonzalez, 31, was dropping her sons Adrian and Edryn off at their grandmother's beauty salon at 460 Broadway when their father, Edelmiro Gonzalez, 54, opened fire on the family.

Officers responded to reports of gunfire in the area of Broadway and Madison Avenue around 8:53 a.m. and found 7-year-old Adrian shot dead in a driveway off Broadway near the salon, said Detective Lt. Ron Humphrey of Paterson's Major Case Squad.

Humphrey said Edelmiro followed 11-year-old Edryn behind the salon and shot him in the neck before chasing down and shooting their mother in the shoulder at 632 Madison Avenue.

"He grabbed her and shot her," Humphrey said.

Johanna and Edryn were taken to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in critical but stable condition, Humphrey said.

Off-duty city police Lt. Washington Griffin, of the Internal Affairs Unit, was at a nearby McDonald's fast food restaurant with his young son when the shooting started.

"He [Griffin] was at the drive-thru getting breakfast for his son," Humphrey said.

Griffin confronted Edelmiro, identified himself as a police officer and when the gunman refused to drop his weapon, Griffin shot and killed him at 638 Madison Avenue, Humphrey said.

Humphrey said Griffin's response likely saved lives.

"As tragic as this was, it could have gotten worse," he said.

Edelmiro was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's at 11:16 a.m. with a gunshot wound to the head and right femur, according to police.

Witnesses interviewed at the scene said they heard the officer tell Edelmiro to drop his gun.

Police recovered a .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol and a small caliber handgun on Edelmiro. The .45 was used in the shootings, according to Humphrey.

The officer fired two shots and was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office, a standard procedure in police-involved shootings.

Griffin and his son were not injured.

"He's [Griffin] just shaken up by it," Humphrey said.

Police declined to speculate on a specific motive for the killing but said Johanna had a temporary restraining order against Edelmiro after past domestic incidents.

Police blocked off several streets around the crime scene and the body of 7-year-old Adrian remained under a bloodstained tarp late into the afternoon.

At one point, a woman arrived at a police roadblock near East 18th Street distraught and crying before being quickly escorted away.

Bystanders stood behind yellow crime scene tape sharing rumors about the killings as investigators marked the spots where evidence had been found.

For many interviewed, the sight of police cars and bloody pavement has become common in a neighborhood they said is overwhelmed with violence.

In January 2007, Paterson Police Officer Tyron Franklin was shot and killed during a robbery at a fried chicken store next to where the Gonzalez children were shot.

A prostitute was recently stabbed a block west of Saturday's shootings and a taxi driver was shot in the area last year, said a man living in the area who asked not to be indentified.

"I would see the kids playing on bikes back there," he said, pointing to where the two young boys were found shot.