Brick Police Cleared In Fatal Shooting During Domestic Assault

BRICK, NJ — The actions of Brick Township police who fatally shot a man while responding to a domestic violence incident have been ruled legally justified, Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato announced Thursday.

Keshawn Wilson, 32, was shot and killed on Aug. 20, 2017 during the incident on Meridian Drive, authorities said.

The announcement from Coronato's office said the prosecutor's office finding was approved by the state Attorney General's office, which said " there are no material facts in dispute with regard to the officers’ use of force. As a result and at the direction of the Attorney General, the Ocean County Prosecutor will not present the matter for a grand jury investigation."

The announcement from the prosecutor's office also contained additional details of the Aug. 20 incident, which happened at 5:30 a.m. after Brick police received seven 911 calls from neighbors, said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the prosecutor's office, who distributed the report on the shooting.

During one of the calls, the caller told the 911 operator that Wilson had a gun and members of the household had barricaded themselves in the back bedroom. One resident was able to get out of the house by jumping out the side bedroom window and running across the street for help, the report said.

Brick Patrol Officers Anthony Chadwick, Richard Zimmerer, and Ryan Osborn were dispatched, and Sgt. Donald Smith, who heard a gunshot, responded as well. All four "stacked tightly behind a police bullet-proof shield and approached the residence from the side driveway," the report said.

It was there the four officers encountered the man — later identified as Wilson — matching the description provided in the 911 call. He was standing at the side door with a black handgun. After the officers announced themselves as police and commanded him to drop the gun, Wilson fired at the officers, the report said. The officers returned fire, striking Wilson and causing him to fall on the landing outside the house, the report said.

Once gunfire had ceased, Smith called for the Brick Police Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) as he was unsure if there were any additional threats or if anyone else had a weapon inside in the house. The four officers maintained the perimeter of the house until the SERT arrived and secured scene. SERT entered the house and escorted the family members out. Two household members were transported to Ocean Medical Center in Brick for injuries suffered when Wilson assaulted them, the report said.

Dr. Michael Joyce from the Ocean County Medical Examiner’s Office pronounced Wilson dead on scene at 8:23 a.m. On August 21, 2017, Dr. Dante Ragasa of the Ocean County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted a post mortem examination and determined the cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death to be homicide, the report said.

The Ocean County Sheriff’s Criminalistics Unit photographed and retrieved the handgun from Wilson’s right hand, a black Rohm .38 Special revolver, which had one .38 Special caliber discharged shell and four .38 Special full-metal jacketed bullet cartridges within the cylinder, the report said.. The sheriff's department recovered one .38 caliber discharged projectile from the scene that was consistent with being fired from the Rohm revolver. The four bullet cartridges in the cylinder exhibited “light hit” firing pin impressions on the primer that were consistent with the Rohm revolver, the report said.

The sheriff's department also discovered an item wedged under the firing pin of the revolver. Examination revealed that it was a clear gelatin capsule used to contain medication, and medication found in Wilson’s pocket was contained in a similar clear gelatin capsule, the report said.

The sheriff's department investigators indicated the “light hits” on the primer of the bullet cartridges were caused by the gelatin capsule reducing the impact between the firing pin and the primer on the four bullet cartridges, and had prevented those bullets from discharging despite the trigger being pulled, the report said.

A neighbor who viewed the events corroborated the statements given by the officers. She observed a thin man with a goatee standing in the side doorway of the Meridian Drive home firing a handgun toward police. She said the man’s head popped outside the door and she heard the police officers yelling several times “Drop the gun! Drop the Gun!” and the man was holding the gun chest-high with his body turned sideways pointing the gun towards the police.

"The Office of the Attorney General and Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato are satisfied that the undisputed facts establish that the Brick Township police officers used the appropriate force necessary to protect their lives and that they were legally justified in doing so," Coronato's announcement said.

Wilson had assaulted a woman and her mother, beating the woman first and then assaulting the mother when she came to her daughter's aid, Della Fave said at the time of the incident. In the house were the woman's sister and the sister's children who ranged from 11 months to 11 years old.

As the woman tried to get away from Wilson, she fell down a flight of stairs and suffered additional injuries, Della Fave said at the time. Once downstairs, the family members barricaded themselves in a bedroom before the woman climbed out a bedroom window and ran to a neighbor's home for help, he said.

Photo via Brick Township