A man was shot in the neck by New Jersey State Police troopers in Carlstadt on Wednesday, then was found inside a vehicle that had crashed into a building at 131 West Commercial Avenue in Moonachie. He was being rushed to a nearby hospital as investigators worked to piece together what happened in the moments before the shooting.
The man was being taken to a hospital in unknown condition, according to ABC7 New York. Two troopers involved in the incident were being evaluated afterward but were not believed to have been injured, the station reported. An investigation into the shooting was underway as of Wednesday evening.
What Led to the Shooting Remains Unclear
Authorities had not disclosed what sparked the shooting as of Wednesday night, per the same report. It is also not yet known how the shooting in Carlstadt connects to the vehicle crash in Moonachie, where the man was ultimately found.
The borders of Carlstadt and Moonachie sit close together in Bergen County. An industrial property is located on West Commercial Avenue in Moonachie. No further details about the man, the vehicle, or the building that was struck had been released at the time of the station's report.
A Pattern of State Police Shootings Under Scrutiny
The Carlstadt incident echoes a similar case from Essex County, where New Jersey State Police troopers shot a person following a vehicle pursuit that ended in Orange Township on November 9, 2025, according to nj.com. In that case, the shooting occurred at about 2:10 p.m. after the chase ended, and the injured man was identified only as a male civilian, with his condition undisclosed. The state attorney general's office said at the time that the investigation was ongoing and that no further information would be released.
The attorney general's office later released the identity of the driver involved in that November shooting, according to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. The same office also confirmed it was investigating a separate fatal officer-involved shooting that occurred on January 5, 2026, in Piscataway Township in Middlesex County.
State Policy Calls Deadly Force a Last Resort
New Jersey's statewide use-of-force policy states that deadly force shall only be used as an absolute last resort and in strict compliance with the policy, according to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. The policy language is not a finding about the Carlstadt shooting, and no determination has been made about whether it complied with that standard.
Statewide, the New Jersey Monitor reported that 559 people were shot in 487 incidents across New Jersey in 2025, down from 778 people in 2024 and 924 in 2023, per the New Jersey Monitor. Investigators continue examining what happened before the vehicle came to rest against the building on West Commercial Avenue.
