Cops justified in killing armed man who terrified family, NJ prosecutors say
BRICK — Prosecutors say township police officers were justified in shooting and killing an armed man who had tried to attack terrified women and children who had baricaded themselves in a bedroom.
The Ocean County prosecutor on Thursday released a report summarizing the investigation into the August shooting. Joseph Coronato said his office and the Attorney General's Office both determined that the officers "used the appropriate force necessary to protect their lives and that they were legally justified in doing so."
Police were called to the Meridian Drive home on the morning of Aug. 20 after police received numerous calls for help.
According to prosecutors and the 911 recordings reviewed by New Jersey 101.5, Keshawn Wilson was accused of hitting a 31-year-old woman and her 59-year-old mother, who had tried to intervene.
The younger woman fell down the stairs of their home trying to get away, authorities said. She then fled through a window and ran to a neighbor's house.
The woman's mother, sister and her sister's three children, ages 11, 7 and 11 months, locked themselves in the grandmother's bedroom as they waited on the line with a 911 dispatcher for police to arrive.
"Somebody please hurry. I'm not sure what he is capable of. Please," the woman's sister told the dispatcher, according to a recording of the call obtained by New Jersey 101.5 last year.
"He’s still trying to break into the room where we are right now," she pleaded. "They need to come get him because he’s crazy and I have three small children in here and I don’t know what can happen."
More From New Jersey 101.5
Contact reporter Adam Hochron at 609-359-5326 or Adam.Hochron@townsquaremedia.com
More From New Jersey 101.5 FM
