The Brooklyn Jewish community has raised over $48,000 (£37,000) for the family of the Jersey City policeman who was one of the victims of a killing spree that also saw three shot dead in a kosher supermarket.

Detective Joseph Seals, who had spent 18 years in the force, was gunned down by two shooters on December 10 last year, after approaching them as they sat in a van near a cemetery that had been linked to a homicide cemetery.

They went on to kill three more in the store, including two members of the Jewish community.

Mr Seals’ widow and five children were presented with a cheque at City Hall in Jersey City this week, which was accepted on their behalf by the president of the Jersey City Policemen’s Benevolent Association, Carmine Disbrow.

The campaign exceeded its goal of $25,000 (£19,300), with more than 1,400 individual donors, and said the money raised was “a testament to the gratitude and appreciation the Jewish people have for the police force.”

After shooting 40-year-old Detective Seals, CCTV footage showed the two attackers drove slowly through the city before stopping outside the kosher store and opening fire.

They barricaded themselves inside the store, killing owner Leah Mindel Ferencz, Moshe Hirsch Deutsch and Ecuadorian migrant Miguel Jason Rodriguez.

The two attackers were then shot dead after a four-hour standoff with police.

The New York Times reported at the time that one of the suspects had published antisemitic, anti-police posts online, while the city’s mayor said CCTV made clear the kosher store had been targeted.