A suspect arrested with two men fatally shot by Newark police is an 18-year-old adult, and not a juvenile, authorities now say.
NEWARK -- A suspect arrested with two men who were shot and killed by police Friday is an adult, and not a juvenile as police originally believed, and he will face robbery charges as an adult, authorities said Sunday.
Jeremiah Bowser, 18, was arrested and charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery, said Katherine Carter, spokeswoman for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.
"He originally said he was a juvenile. We later discovered he is 18," Carter said in an email.
The shooting occurred about 6:30 a.m. as police were investigating a report of suspected criminal activity on the 500 block of North 7th Street near Abington Avenue.
Authorities said police found three people who were suspected in a string of robberies recently in the city. Officers attempted to arrest the three people when the shots were fired.
The prosecutor's office on Saturday identified the two dead men as Najier Salaam and George Richards-Meyers, both 18 and of Newark.
Authorities first said that a third suspect, identified as a 17-year-old juvenile, was arrested as he got out of a vehicle and attempted to run from police. Authorities also recovered a gun from the scene.
Carter yesterday identified that third suspect as Bowser.
He is being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility on $250,000 bail, Carter said.
No details were released about the robberies with which he is charged.
James Stewart Jr., president of the Newark Fraternal Order of Police, said that the suspects involved in the incident "were not interested in surrendering."
The six officers involved in the shooting were evaluated at University Hospital in Newark, Stewart said. None of the officers were reported injured in the incident.
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