One NJ state trooper may find himself in that back of a patrol car sooner than later.
Three teens who inadvertently knocked on the wrong door say they are lucky to be alive after the homeowner, a New Jersey state trooper,
fired his personal firearm at them multiple times:
“After knocking on the door, they heard the loud voice from inside saying ‘I don’t know who the f** you are, get off my f**ing property'," Marasco said. "They didn’t recognize the voice so they ran away. They ran to their car. Because it was in a cul-de-sac they had no choice but to drive past the house to get out. The man was in the street pointing his gun at them. They were scared and just wanted to get out of there. Then he shot his gun at them.”
The car they were driving broke down a short distance away and they called police to report that someone had been shooting a gun at them. When police arrived, the boys were inexplicably arrested for burglary, although no charges were ever filed and they were let go after nine hours in detention. They contend they were simply visiting a friend and went to the wrong house. They insist the man never identified himself and they were
in fear for their lives:
According to the AG's office, the trooper said he'd suspected the teens were trying to enter his home. The trooper reportedly said he entered the street to try to stop their car, and opened fire when the car didn't yield.
Barkhorn said the teens saw a laser pointed at them before the officer opened fire. AG's office spokesman Peter Aseltine declined to discuss what sort of gun was used.
Barkhorn also said he was asked several times by authorities — during a nine-hour ordeal in which, he says, the teens were treated as criminal suspects — whether the teens' car swerved toward the trooper. It didn't, he said. But the AG's office statement doesn't make any assertions about the car swerving or endangering the officer's life.
"That's the exact opposite of what we were trying to do. We were just scared and trying to get out of there with our lives," Barkhorn said.
Former prosecutors say the trooper could be in
big trouble:
There's little that could justify taking deadly force against the fleeing teens, both former Union County Prosecutor Ted Romankow and former Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi said. Romankow is now a defense attorney based in Springfield, and Bianchi the founding partner of a litigation firm.
"This officer should have controlled himself," Romankow said. "To start waving a gun and shooting, I think is beyond the pale."
Although no one has been charged so far, Bianchi speculated the trooper could be hit with any one of several charges, some including years of mandatory prison time.
The New Jersey Attorney General's office is still investigating. No word on a grand jury, but the former prosecutor thinks it should head that direction:
"If there's any question at all about these circumstances, it should go to a grand jury," Romankow said. "They've got to be pretty well convinced the cop was in the right or it should go to a grand jury."