
Tragic turn for creative cocktail star in NJ woods police shootout
🚨Police found Rachael N. Noviskey in a Boy Scout camp with a gun
🚨A standoff lasted several hours until she pointed the gun at police
🚨Noviskey is recovering from a gunshot wound
BYRAM — She was a trained and certified wine steward, an accomplished craft cocktail master, a poet, writer and full of creativity.
She was also haunted by alcohol's demons, which crawled back after a year and a half of sobriety on the day she lost her job, according to one of the GoFundMe campaigns she set up in recent years to make ends meet.
Seven months after her plea for help (raising $500), Rachael N. Noviskey, 31, of Hackettstown, was in a shootout with police at a Boy Scout camp in northwest New Jersey.
Police were called 3:30 p.m. on Jan.13 to the intersection of Camp Wheeler Road and Camp Allamuchy Road in the Mount Allamuchy Scout Reservation, where Noviskey was parked in the road and armed with a handgun, according to Sussex County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Jonathan McMeen.
Noviskey told police she was suicidal. She also appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, police said.
She got in and out of her vehicle several times and fired several indiscriminate rounds, police said. A crisis negotiator was unsuccessful at calming the situation, according to McMeen.
When officers approached, she pointed her firearm, a Kahr K9 9mm pistol for which she had no carry permit. An officer shot a rifle, hitting Noviskey in the neck.
Noviskey was taken to Morristown Medical Center in stable condition.
The Morris County Prosecutor's Office will lead the investigation into the police use of force.
According to her website, Noviskey was professionally known as Rachael Madori, a sommelier, author and creative based in New York City. Her most recent project was "The High End," which she described as a pop-up experience serving craft cannabis cocktails.
If you feel you or someone you know may be in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 988 or the NJ Hopeline at 1-855-654-6735. Click here to chat online with a trained counselor.
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