Jersey City shooting leaves 6 dead

A police officer, three civilians and two suspects were killed Tuesday afternoon during a shootout and standoff in Jersey City, New Jersey, authorities said.

The deadly mayhem started when the slain officer was investigating a murder and approached two suspects — when one of them opened fire, shooting the officer in the head and killing him, law enforcement sources told NBC News.

The two suspects then fled in a rental van and holed up in a grocery store a few blocks away, near Martin Luther King Drive and Bidwell Avenue, about 8 miles southwest of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, law enforcement sources said.

The suspects and three civilians were killed inside that grocery store in the ensuing gunbattle, sources said.