Police Officers Cleared of Wrongdoing in 2014 Fatal Shooting of Winslow Man

Winslow Township Police Officers involved in the fatal shooting of a 42-year-old Winslow man in Berlin on Aug. 1, 2014 have been cleared of any wrongdoing, the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office announced Tuesday morning.

On July 29, a Camden County grand jury voted to “no bill” the case with regard to all of the officers involved in the fatal shooting of Daniel St. Pierre on New Freedom Road in Berlin. This area falls under the jurisdiction of the Winslow Township Police Department.

When a grand jury votes to “no bill” a case, this means the jury feels there is not sufficient evidence to warrant prosecution.

Camden County Prosecutor Mary Eva Colalillo also reviewed the entire matter and determined that the officers complied with all portions of the Attorney General’s Law Enforcement Directive regarding uniform statewide procedures and best practices for conducting police use of force investigations that were in effect during the course of this investigation.

The incident was captured on a dashboard audio camera system in one of the officers’ patrol cars. A total of six officers were on the scene, including a sergeant and five patrol officers.

The trailer cannot be viewed in the footage because it is behind the patrol car, but the audio system did record the incident.

The audio was not immediately provided, but the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office offered the following description in a press release on Tuesday:

Based on the audio that was captured, it appears that officers entering the camper/trailer encountered St. Pierre at 8:33:50 a.m. (camera time).

At 8:33:54 a.m., an officer is heard yelling, “He’s got a gun!” This is immediately followed by an officer directing St. Pierre to, “Drop it! Drop it now!” A physical struggle can clearly be heard.

At 8:34:11 a.m., an officer is heard asking another officer, “Do you have the gun?” and another officer replies, “No.”

The struggle continues and at 8:34:29 a.m., a female voice is heard shouting, “He has it! He has it!” The first shot is fired at 8:34:32 a.m., followed by the same female voice yelling, “Drop it!”

Two more gunshots followed at 8:34:37 a.m. and 8:34:38 a.m. A male voice is then heard yelling, “Drop it now!” and another male voice (presumably St. Pierre) replies, “I dropped it, I dropped it.”

A final shot was fired at 8:34:46 a.m.

According to the officers, the first officer went through the door of the trailer that opens into the bedroom area, which was very small and contained a full-size bed. When he opened the door, St. Pierre was laying on the bed with his feet near the trailer door. St. Pierre immediately sat up facing the officers. There was a gun near his left hand.

The officer ordered St. Pierre to show his hands. St. Pierre did, and the officer handcuffed his left wrist. As he did this, St. Pierre turned toward the wall and grabbed a second handgun with his right hand.

The officer yelled, “He’s got a gun!” and dove into St. Pierre, knocking him backwards on the bed, face down with the gun in his right hand, which was under his chest.

A fight between the officer and St. Pierre followed.

St. Pierre twisted himself around and reached up with the gun, pointing it over his own left shoulder at another officer who had entered the bedroom. That officer then pushed both the first officer and St. Pierre up against a bedroom wall.

St. Pierre ended up on his chest and angled toward the floor. Officers said they repeatedly told him to drop the gun.

The sergeant entered the trailer and attempted to control St. Pierre’s legs as he was kicking, positioning herself on his lower back/upper legs.

St. Pierre continued to ignore commands to drop the weapon and continued to physically struggle with the three officers. The sergeant saw the gun still in St. Pierre’s hand and shot him one time in the buttocks.

Officers fight with St. Pierre and tell him to drop the weapon. St. Pierre again tried to reach over his own shoulder with the gun, at which time both the second officer who entered the trailer and the sergeant shot St. Pierre. He was again told to drop his weapon.

Although St. Pierre is heard on the dash cam audio saying, “I dropped it,” the officer who was directly on top of him told detectives he never did drop the gun.

He explained that he had his hand right on top of St. Pierre’s right hand, which held the gun.

He also said he began to lose control of St. Pierre’s right hand when St. Pierre began trying to roll over.

When the officer could no longer control the gun in St. Pierre’s hand, he used his left hand to pin down St. Pierre’s left shoulder while he unholstered his weapon with his right hand. He then fired a single round into St. Pierre’s head, behind his right ear.

This brought the 56-second fight to an immediate end.

Once the fight was over, all the officers in the bedroom saw that St. Pierre still had the gun in his hand with his finger on the trigger. As officers called for additional assistance, one of the officers noticed St. Pierre was moving on the bed.

The officer who shot St. Pierre behind his ear immediately removed the gun from St. Pierre’s hand and St. Pierre was pulled out of the trailer on the mattress of the bed, where medical assistance was rendered.

He was transported to Cooper University Hospital by helicopter. He was pronounced dead at 9:24 a.m.

The incident followed a series of problems that that a 62-year-old woman had with St. Pierre, who the woman said was addicted to heroin.

Four days earlier, the woman said she received a bill from a credit card company and discovered that someone had used her credit card to fraudulently purchase $5,000 in gift cards.

She confronted St. Pierre about this the following day. On July 31, she reported that St. Pierre had stolen money and a laptop computer from her home, and a few hours later, called again to report he had also stolen a handgun.

She also said she received numerous texts from St. Pierre in which he threatened suicide. The officers responded by using her cell phone to text St. Pierre and encourage him to return. Police were able to confirm that St. Pierre had sent those messages to the woman.

On the morning of Aug. 1, a friend of the woman’s told her St. Pierre’s car was in the garage. The friend and the woman searched the house, but couldn’t find St. Pierre. They then called police, who reported to the scene to check the house.

Police discovered St. Pierre’s SUV in the garage, with a hose duct taped to the muffler, going through a rear window, where it was also secured with duct tape, and ending under the right side of the driver’s seat. Police said it appeared to be a suicide attempt, but St. Pierre was not in the car or the garage.

They discovered him in the trailer, which led to the fight and ensuing shooting.