Hostage-Taking Shoplifter Shot and Killed at Woodbridge Sears

A shoplifter who took a woman hostage at the Woodbridge Center shopping mall was shot and killed by an off-duty Woodbridge police officer Thursday in an incident that sent shoppers and employees fleeing the Sears store there in terror.

Woodbridge police reported the officer issued several warnings before firing on the suspect, who was pronounced dead at the scene. The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office did not release the name of the man who was killed, nor the female hostage, who was unharmed.

The officer was off-duty, in uniform and working an extra-duty shift at the mall, according to a statement by the prosecutor's office.

The incident at  in  shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday drew more than a dozen  and emergency vehicles to the mall, where police quickly sealed off the crime scene. 

Frightened employees and shoppers fled the store, some gathering outside the mall and describing the scene inside. One woman who had been inside Sears was videotaped by a passerby as she told onlookers that the suspect had held a large knife to a woman's throat after being confronted by the police officer.

By 5:30, at least a dozen marked and unmarked Woodbridge police cars had swarmed around the Sears store, sealing off both entrances. The store was immediately closed, said Dave Albertson of Woodbridge Center's mall management.

Albertson said he and other Woodbridge Center managers were waiting outside the store while the police processed the crime scene. 

Mall personnel were shooing away shoppers who approached the store to find it surrounded by police vehicles and officers.

"What's going on?" said one shopper, who was turned away from the store. "They told me the store will be closed for the rest of the night."

Woodbridge residents Tom Patten, 16, and 18-year-old Tyler Bruno were on their way to the mall when they observed police cars arriving at the scene.

"When we got here people said don't come in. Something bad happened. People were shaken up. They knew something bad had happened," Patten said.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office is conducting an investigation into the incident. Anyone with information is asked to call the prosecutor’s office at 732-745-3300