Retired officer fatally shoots self at police dept. after domestic violence arrest

BLOOMFIELD, N.J. (AP) - A retired police lieutenant fatally shot himself inside a police headquarters after he was arrested over a domestic violence incident.

The Essex County Prosecutor's Office says 58-year-old Patrick Montella, who was a retired Newark's police officer, was being processed Tuesday at the Bloomfield Police Department when he shot himself.

Officials say he was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The prosecutor's office didn't say in Wednesday's statement where Montella got the gun or where he was inside the building at the time of the shooting.

It's the second time in seven months that a detainee in a New Jersey police station used a gun on himself.

In June, 41-year-old Jermaine Covington, a suspect in an attempted carjacking, grabbed a gun from an officer and fatally shot himself at the Hillside Police Department.