USA: Man Shot Outside Secaucus Hotel

A man was shot multiple times outside of a hotel near Route 3 early Sunday morning, police said.

The shooting was reported just before 3 a.m. in front of the La Quinta on Lighting Way, Secaucus Police Captain Dennis Miller said.

The victim, whose age was not immediately available but is not a resident of Secaucus, was seriously injured and was still in surgery at about 8 a.m at Hackensack University Hospital, he said.

Miller said the investigation is still "very active" but appears to be "an isolated incident and not a random act of violence."

Two women staying at the Hotel who are visiting from Idaho described a chaotic scene outside the building in the early morning hours, with multiple evidence markers lining the driveway of the hotel.

A friend of theirs checked out at about 5 a.m. and had to leave through an back entrance, dragging her suitcase across the lawn.

"They were trying to play it off like it was normal weekend stuff," one woman said while waiting at a nearby bus stop Sunday afternoon.

Little remained of the investigation at about 1 p.m., with just a small piece of police tape lying in the street. A puddle of water could be seen on a covered section of the driveway where the victim was believed to have been shot.

A woman working at the front desk directed comments to the hotel's corporate office.

Additional information about the shooting was not available.

The La Quinta Hotel is part of Secaucus's Harmon Meadow shopping complex, which has several hotels, retail stores, and more than a dozen restaurants