MONROE: Police shoot a man in Monroe

   MONROE — A Monroe police officer shot a man in the township on Feb. 9 because he refused to put down a gun.
   Ronald Richards, 69, of Toms River, was found with a gun in a vehicle parked outside a home on Polonia Ct. off Spotswood-Englishtown Rd. in northern Monroe. Police said an officer, whose name is being withheld, ordered Mr. Richards to put down the weapon, and fired when Mr. Richards failed to comply. The officer was not injured.
   Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan and Monroe Township Police Chief John Kraivec said the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office immediately took control of the scene and began an investigation into the shooting of Mr. Richards.
   He was rushed to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and is listed in stable condition, according to a press release from the county prosecutor’s office.
   Following the shooting, Monroe police immediately notified the prosecutor’s office and the state Attorney General’s Office, in accordance with state guidelines.
   Further details will be released as they become available.