JERSEY CITY -- The Jersey City Police Department, stressing that its response was proper and well prepared, released three videos today of a July 16 gunbattle that left two suspects and an officer dead.

During an afternoon press conference, top police officials lashed out at a television report Wednesday night which questioned the tactical response of the department.

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Surveillance video from Jersey City police shootout

"The level of heroism and bravery that went on in that apartment should be talked about for years to come," said an emotional Police Chief Thomas J. Comey. "We live with this every day. We took a young man to battle and didn't bring him home."

Police Detective Marc DiNardo was shot several times during the shootout and died five days later.

The police department's review of the operation is nearly complete and seeks to gauge whether proper procedure was followed, Comey said. A formal investigation by the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office is continuing, he said.

An initial review shows the operation followed rules, Comey and Deputy Chief Peter Nalbach said. It was a well-prepared, efficient operation, they said: police had secured the perimeter, called for a helicopter, radioed in tens of police, and had a hostage negotiator on scene.

Criticism has focused on why officers were sent into a building to confront a gunman and his girlfriend and whether the confrontation in close quarters could have been avoided.

Comey and Nalbach said police first tried talking with the couple -- Hassan "Shakur" Hosendove and Amanda Anderson -- through the apartment door. Forcibly entering an armed suspect's apartment usually ends in a non-violent surrender, they said.

"As we were seeking to open up a line of communication, he was seeking to open up a line of fire," Comey said, calling the operation "methodical." In addition roughly six people were in the building at the time of the deadly shootout and their lives were in danger, they said.

"We did our job and we did it well," he said.

Jersey City police officials discuss shootout

In the short video clips, Hosendove and Anderson, are seen one minute before the first shots were fired.

At 5:05 a.m., Anderson, dressed in a loose, flowing, all-black outfit with her head covered, gets into the couple's car on Fairmount Avenue and moves it to the other side of the street. She then walks to the sidewalk, where Hosendove appears, wearing a brown, flowing monk's robe, his right arm stiff at his side, hiding a shotgun.

A second, 19-second video shows Hosendove hand his robe to his girlfriend at the entrance to their Reed Street apartment building, then, in shorts, a t-shirt and jacket, and sandals, fire three shots. He runs into the street as he's firing, then runs back inside the building.

An unmarked police car is seen cruising down Reed Street just before Hosendove fires. The car is out of the frame by the time Hosendove starts shooting. Two of the shots shattered the police car windows and one hit Detective Marc Lavelle in the leg after the officer got out of the vehicle.

A third video shows more than a dozen officers gathered at the corner of Reed Street and Bergen Avenue, then enter the apartment building where the couple was hiding.

The video was recorded via two surveillance cameras on telephone poles. They were to be released next week but were aired publicly instead today in response to Wednesday's television report, officials said.

Hosendove and Anderson were wanted in connection with a June robbery in which authorities say they shot and seriously injured a man. Police found the couple's car at about 11 p.m. July 15, just hours before the shootout, officials said. The couple had moved to Jersey City from South Carolina about two months earlier.