NJ Cop Armed and Dangerous

A veteran police officer remained on the loose early Wednesday after he allegedly gunned down five of his neighbors, then drove to a nearby town and shot his boss. Edward Lutes, a Seaside Heights police officer for 15 years, fled in a 1995 Buick Regal after the shootings and was believed to still be armed, said Dover Township Police Chief Michael Mastronardy.

The first shootings occurred late Tuesday in Lutes' neighborhood in Dover Township, a New Jersey shore community that is still reeling from a February rampage in which a retired police officer allegedly killed four people.

Two of the unidentified victims were in a house located next door to Lutes' home and the other three victims were in a house across the street.

Lutes later went to nearby Barnegat Township and shot Seaside Heights Police Chief James Costello, Mastronardy said. He was hospitalized in stable condition at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune.

Another person was injured and taken to Community Medical Center in Toms River. It was not immediately known where the victim was at the time of the shooting.

Mastronardy and Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Gregory Sakowicz could not give a motive for the shootings.

When asked if Lutes might be going after other targets, Mastronardy said all precautions have been taken for anyone who could be a threat.

Doug Mayday, 37, who also lives in Lutes' neighborhood, said he was driving when a police officer in riot gear ran out of bushes and waved him through. He also saw police with rifles drawn in the vicinity of the shooting.

The initial shootings happened about a mile from the street where John E. Mabie allegedly killed his granddaughter and three neighbors on Feb. 21 as he went from house to house shooting a .39-caliber revolver.

"It's just a sad time for the community," Mastronardy said.

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Author: 6 ABC-AP