NJ Detective Acquitted in Road-Rage Shooting of MD Man

A New Jersey detective was found not guilty of murder Wednesday in what prosecutors said was a case of road rage last year along Route 3 in Millersville, reports The Baltimore Sun.

The Anne Arundel County jury took about six hours to find Joseph Lamont Walker not guilty on charges of first- and second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and handgun violations, the newspaper said. Walker, a detective for the Hudson County, NJ, prosecutor’s office, was charged in the June 2013 death of Lansdowne resident Joseph Dale Harvey Jr., 36.

“The jury was able to see this for what it was — a father who was forced to defend his family, including his wife and his children, who were under attack on the side of the road,” defense attorney Charles N. Curlett Jr. told the Sun. “The prosecution’s theory of the case that this was an act of murder ... is simply wrong.”

Police charged Joseph Walker, 40, of East Ampton, NJ, in the death of Harvey after a confrontation on the Route 3 ramp to I-97 in Gambrills, Patch earlier reported. Walker was accused of shooting Harvey after Harvey and a passenger approached Walker’s gold Kia Minivan when both vehicles stopped on the shoulder of the road, police said.

Defense attorneys for Walker argued the off-duty investigator shot the victim to protect his family, but prosecutors said the only thing Walker was trying to protect was his bruised ego, reports WJZ TV.

Harvey’s passenger, Adam Pidel, said Harvey became angry when Walker’s van cut off Harvey’s car as both turned left from Route 175 onto Route 3, reports The Baltimore Sun. Both vehicles swerved at each other, and Walker pointed a gun at Harvey’s car.

As the men approached, Walker got out of the car, said he was a police officer, and fired a shot that struck Harvey, according to a news release. He died at Baltimore Washington Medical Center.

“The shooting resulted from a reported road rage incident that had occurred between the drivers of the two vehicles,” police said in the release.

Harvey was a truck driver for a Jessup-based alcohol distributor, grew up in Millersville and had moved to Halethorpe about a month before he was killed, reports the Capital-Gazette.

According to WBAL TV, Walker’s attorneys said he fired in self defense. They also claimed Harvey screamed racial slurs at Walker -- something Harvey’s friends disputed.

Many of Walker’s fellow police officers supported him and raised $100,000 for his defense.

“It’s been really hurtful for us to see the way he’s been depicted as this aggressive, bullying-type thug cop when he’s anything but that. He’s a devoted family man that was protecting his family and [himself],” William Caicedo, New Jersey Police Local 232, told the TV station.

Walker was free on $1 million bail during the time leading up to the trial, and was suspended without pay from his job.

» Joseph Lamont Walker, a New Jersey detective, heads to court in Anne Arundel County on charges he shot and killed a Baltimore County man in a case of road rage. Photo Credit: Screenshot from WBAL TV