One officer remained in serious condition Wednesday after a Tuesday afternoon exchange of gunfire on North Florida Avenue.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Two Atlantic City police officers were shot while serving a search warrant Tuesday afternoon, and the suspect later died, authorities said, leaving one veteran SWAT sergeant seriously hurt and putting the shooting under review by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.
The violence quickly became one of the city’s most serious law enforcement emergencies of the year. Officials said officers were carrying out a warrant around 3 p.m. on the 100 block of North Florida Avenue when gunfire broke out. One officer was badly wounded and another suffered injuries that police described as not life-threatening. The suspect was also shot and died. By Wednesday, public attention had shifted to the condition of Sgt. Christian Ivanov, the injured SWAT sergeant identified by local union and fundraising posts, and to the state investigation that routinely follows fatal police-involved shootings.
Police and city officials said the encounter began during the warrant service in a neighborhood just inland from the boardwalk and casino corridor. Mayor Marty Small Sr. said the shooting started as officers were trying to carry out their assignment, and he later told local television that one officer had been struck near the head but was protected in part by a helmet. Chopper video from local stations showed a large police response sealing off the block on Tuesday afternoon. Officers rushed the wounded to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, where both were treated as investigators secured the scene and residents were told there was no continuing threat to the public.
Authorities have released only a narrow set of confirmed details. Police said one officer’s injuries were life-threatening or serious, while the second officer’s wounds were not considered life-threatening. By Wednesday morning, NBC10 reported that one officer had been released from the hospital and that the more seriously wounded officer was awake and talking, citing sources familiar with the situation. The suspect, described by officials only as an adult male, was not publicly identified in the first wave of reporting. Officials also did not say what prompted the warrant, what evidence investigators were seeking, or how many shots were fired. Those unanswered questions are central to the state review now underway.
Ivanov emerged as the public face of the department’s recovery effort. CBS Philadelphia and 6abc identified him as a SWAT sergeant, and union-backed messages described him as a husband and father of three facing a long recovery. The case also underscored the risk that can come with warrant service, one of the most volatile tasks police perform because officers often enter uncertain spaces with limited time to react. In Atlantic City, where police regularly handle violent crime calls alongside the city’s tourism economy, the shooting shook a neighborhood already uneasy about street violence. One resident told 6abc she was scared to walk outside at night after the latest gunfire.
The next formal steps are likely to unfold outside city hall and police headquarters. The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said its Office of Public Integrity and Accountability is leading the investigation, which is standard when someone dies during a police encounter. That process typically includes witness interviews, evidence collection, firearm reviews and forensic testing before prosecutors decide whether any further findings or public releases are warranted. As of Wednesday, no charges had been announced against anyone else, no court filings tied to the warrant had been publicly detailed in news reports, and no timeline had been given for a fuller briefing. Atlantic City officials said additional information would come from police or the attorney general’s office.
At the hospital and across the department, the shooting brought a flood of emotion. Small said officers go to work knowing they may not make it home, and he publicly thanked the department for what he called its courage. Union supporters and fellow officers rallied around Ivanov’s family overnight, framing the moment as both a personal crisis and a test of the city’s police community. Even with the suspect dead and the block reopened, the scene left behind the kind of questions that linger after a fast-moving gunfight: what officers encountered inside or near the property, whether the suspect fired first, and how close the department came to losing one of its own.
By Wednesday, one wounded officer had reportedly been discharged, Ivanov remained in serious but stable condition, and investigators were still working to explain exactly what happened on North Florida Avenue and why the warrant erupted into deadly violence.
Author note: Last updated June 3, 2026.