A rookie police officer was fatally shot in Jersey City by a suspect who had apparently hoped to kill a cop. The officer, 23-year-old Melvin Santiago, and his partner were in the first squad car to respond to Sunday morning calls about an armed robbery taking place at a Walgreens. CBS 2 reports that the suspect, 27-year-old Lawrence Campbell, had entered the store with no intention of actually robbing it. Instead, he reportedly brandished a knife, beat up the drugstore’s security guard, stole his gun, and walked outside to tell a witness, “Watch the news later, I’m going to be famous.”
Lawrence fired several shots at Santiago and the other officer when they pulled into the parking lot, striking Santiago in the head. (He was later pronounced dead at the scene.) As Campbell began shooting at another police vehicle, the cops returned fire, and eventually killed him, too. According to Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, Lawrence had been one of three people wanted in connection with an earlier homicide.
