Prosecutor Calls For ACPD Internal Investigation Over Use of Body Cameras in Police-Involved Shooting

Atlantic City, NJ -- An Atlantic City Police officer was cleared of any wrongdoing in connection with a fatal shooting that took place at Cedar Market in July, Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain said on Thursday.

However, police officers on the scene of the July 7 incident were equipped with Body Worn Cameras (BWCs), and most failed to use them in this incident. McClain has called for the Atlantic City Police Department to conduct an internal investigation of the incident to determine why.

The matter, in which a man was killed in the shooting and another man was found stabbed to death inside the store, was presented to a grand jury, which declined to bring indictments against the officers involved after reviewing the information on Thursday.

The autopsy of the man found inside the Cedar Market performed by the State Medical Examiner’s Office determined that that the cause of death was multiple stab wounds, that the manner of death was homicide, and subsequent investigation determined that the man shot by police outside the Cedar Market committed the murder.

The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office independently investigates all police-involved shootings and suspected homicides in the county, as mandated by New Jersey Attorney General Directive. The Atlantic City Police Department was not involved in the investigation.

During the investigation, detectives from the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office’s Major Crimes Unit documented and measured the scene, recovered all video and audio evidence, interviewed all police officers on scene, including the officer who fired the shots, as well as civilians known to have relevant information.

The investigation established that there were at least five Atlantic City Police officers on the scene, although all officers did not observe the shooting. All of these officers were equipped with BWC’s, which had been issued by the police department within the six weeks prior to this incident.

The investigation further established that only one officer had activated his/her BWC while on the scene of this incident, and this officer was assigned to search the Cedar Market to ensure it was safe and therefore did not record footage of the shooting.

The Office of the Attorney General issued formal guidelines for the use of BWC’s by municipal police departments about three weeks later, on July 28, 2015.

“While the investigation did not reveal any evidence which suggested that the failure to activate their BWC’s was the result of criminal intent on the part of the responding officers, my office is directing the Chief of the Atlantic City Police Department to conduct an internal administrative investigation regarding the failure of responding officers to activate their BWC’s upon being dispatched to the scene and to determine whether such failure was a violation of the department’s BWC policy requiring the imposition of discipline and/or retraining,” McClain said.

The store’s video surveillance system allegedly showed the man enter the store between 8:20 a.m. and 8:24 a.m. The man allegedly loitered at the rear of the store near the counter, a knife clearly visible in his right hand.

Shortly thereafter, without any contact between the man and the cashier, the man allegedly walked behind the counter, approached the cashier and stabbed him several times in the head and neck.

The cashier attempted to escape, but collapsed in one of the aisles of the store, according to police. The man then allegedly approached the cashier and stabbed him several more times in the area of the head and neck.

The cashier died of these wounds prior to the arrival of any emergency medical personnel. This was the cashier’s second day working at the Cedar Market and there are no known contacts between him and the man before this July 7, 2015.

One of the other employees and several civilian witnesses who were in the store at the time witnessed the alleged assault. Some witnesses fled from the store, and some attempted to hide themselves within the store.

The other employee left the store and attempted to hold the doors closed so the man couldn’t leave. A civilian witness who pulled up to the store in his/her car saw this, and also claimed to see the man attempting to force his way out.

“Call the police, he killed my cousin,” the employee yelled.

“One down, two to go,” the man allegedly said. “Oh she trying to get away; I always wanted to kill a female.”

At approximately 8:26 am, a 911 call was made to the Atlantic City Police Department communications center which (erroneously) reported that a person had been shot at the Cedar Market. The Communications center then put out a radio call that someone had been shot at the Cedar Market. Six units of the ACPD were dispatched to the scene.

An officer was at a convenience store approximately six blocks from the Cedar Market at the time the radio dispatch was received. The officer immediately went to Cedar Market in his/her police car with their lights and siren on. This was the first officer on the scene.

“Him! Him! Him! He cut him. He’s dying! He’s dead,” the employee told the arriving officer, pointing at the man who was out of the store and approaching the police car.

The officer saw the man approaching the car with what appeared to be a bloody knife. The officer shouted to the man several times to drop the knife, but the man allegedly ignored these commands and continued to approach the officer. The officer then fired eight shots, hitting the man five times.

Within minutes, the man was removed from the scene by ambulance and taken to the Atlantic City Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 9:15 a.m.

The subsequent autopsy established that the man had sustained five bullet wounds:

• a wound entering the upper right arm in the shoulder area, exiting the back of the arm near the triceps;
• a wound entering the right side of the chest with no exit wound;
• a shot entering the right side with no exit wound;
• a wound to the upper area of the left buttock, exiting at the middle of the left buttock; and
• a wound to the right buttock, exiting at the groin.

“Shot Spotter” sensors in the area detected eight shots fired by the officer and determined that the eight shots were fired within a span of 1.8 seconds. The entire incident, from the time of the initial radio broadcast dispatching officers to the scene to the final shot fired by PO1, took less than three minutes.

The second and third police officers on the scene observed the shooting, as did several civilian witnesses. No other officer fired their weapon during this incident. Both police and civilian witnesses corroborated that the man was armed with a knife at the time he was confronted by the officer, that the officer shouted several verbal commands to the man to drop the knife, and that the man, still in possession of the knife, had moved in the direction of the officer at the time the first shot was fired. The statements of witnesses, including the officer, estimated that the man was within 6-15 feet of the officer at the time the first shot was fired.

All information gathered during the investigation was submitted to a nationally renowned expert in shooting scene reconstruction and training on the use of force in law enforcement for review and evaluation. This evidence was presented to the Grand Jury on Thursday.