John Murray, 31-year-old, a resident of Haledon, was the individual who was fatally shot by an officer on Franklin Street during the early morning hours of Saturday, according to the Passaic County Prosecutor Office, which is investigating the incident.

At around 2:33 a.m. on Saturday, police were called to a home invasion on East Railway Avenue. Officers were informed that an armed man entered a home, and left with $400 in cash, jewelry, watches, and an iPhone. Officers with cooperation from the home invasion victims, tracked down the individual as he left the crime scene, and began towards Lafayette Avenue, through Rosa Parks Boulevard, and into a dead end on Franklin Street.

An officer, who had responded to the initial invasion call obtained a description of the suspect, and voiced it through the radio for other units to identify and catch the suspect. Officers scrambled through the streets, as the first officer tracked the location of the suspect using the iPhone the suspect had stolen, and provided them direction of where the suspect was heading.

Police spotted the suspect inside a vehicle near Broadway. “Through investigation, a uniformed Paterson Police Officer was able to encounter the suspect in a vehicle in the area of Franklin Street and Rosa Parks Boulevard. The driver matched the description of the actor provided by the victim,” according to Michael DeMarco, chief assistant prosecutor.

Three police units responded to a dead end on Franklin Street, where the suspect had fled. “The officer attempted to apprehend the actor, who was armed with a knife, and a struggle ensued,” said DeMarco in a statement. “During that struggle the officer fired one round at the suspect, which struck the actor. “

After the suspect had been fatally wounded, officers called in ambulance, and had him transported to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center. “The actor was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital for medical treatment, and subsequently was pronounced dead at 3:45 am,” according to DeMarco. “The officer was also transported to St. Joseph’s Hospital for an evaluation.”

At the scene of the struggle investigators from the prosecutor’s office found a “black handled knife” which the suspect used to threaten the officer while he attempted to cuff him.