3 police officers wounded, shooter killed

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LAUREL SPRINGS, N.J., Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Police in Gloucester Township, N.J., said a man who wounded three officers at the town's police station Friday was killed when officers returned fire.

Police Chief Harry Earle said the shooter has been identified as Eddie Jones III, a communications officer for the New Jersey Department of Corrections.

Jones, 39, of Willingboro, N.J., had been arrested at about 5:30 a.m. Friday after police received a complaint of a suspicious person outside a home. Earle said Jones had been stalking a former girlfriend and was arrested on "numerous offenses."

As Officer Ruth Burns was processing him at the police station, he attacked her and grabbed her gun. As Sgt. James Garber and Sgt. Kevin Thyne responded to the altercation, Jones "unleashed a barrage of gunfire" toward them, and was killed by return fire, Earle said.

Garber, a 13-year veteran of the force, was shot multiple times in the chest and abdomen and sustained a "grazing wound to the head," Earle said. Garber -- who was wearing a protective vest -- was listed in stable condition after surgery for two bullet wounds, WTXF-TV, Philadelphia, reported.

Thyne, an 8-year veteran, and Burns, in her first year on the force, sustained wounds described as non-life threatening.