SHOT DEAD BY POLICE
Trenton man killed after officer-involved shooting overnight after he apparently brandished a gun at cops that turned out to be a bb gun >>
TRENTON >> State authorities are investigating a fatal police-involved shooting that happened Thursday night in the capital city.
The shooting happened fewer than two hours after police responded to a domestic violence call on the same 600 block of North Olden Avenue, records show.
The state Attorney General’s Office identified the man killed as 42-year-old Jason Williams, of Trenton.
Four Trenton Police officers responded to the 600 block of North Olden Avenue after receiving two 911 calls of a suicidal man, the AG’s office said in a statement Friday.
The cops encountered Williams around 10:46 p.m. in the doorway of a home, wielding a handgun and threatening to harm himself, according the AG’s office.
Two of the officers fired their weapons during the encounter, fatally wounding Williams, who was taken to Capital Health Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
The names of the officers involved have not been released. No one else was injured, but the officers were taken to the hospital as a precaution.
Police recovered a weapon, which turned out to be a BB gun, authorities said.
The shooting happened about 90 minutes after Trenton Police responded to a domestic violence call on the 600 block, according to a source and confirmed by police records.
Police records showed that Trenton Police officer Yusuf Addar locked up 48-year-old Carolyn Sweeney on that call, on a simple assault charge, around 9 p.m.
A Trenton Police spokesman said cops were called out to the neighborhood for family trouble.
When they arrived, the 42-yearold boyfriend informed cops he and his girlfriend Sweeney argued and she punched him in the face, the police spokesman said.
Sweeney admitted hitting her boyfriend, the police spokesman said, and she was hooked, booked and taken to headquarters.
The police spokesman wouldn’t confirm whether the 42-year-old domestic violence victim was Williams, who was identified by the AG’s office as the man fatally shot by police later in the night.
However, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing investigation, said it was while police were processing Sweeney at headquarters that they received the emergency calls about Williams threatening to harm himself.
Officers responded back out to the same block and knocked on Williams’ door, the source said.
One of the officers pushed in the door and hollered inside to try to get Williams’ attention, the source said.
That’s when he suddenly emerged with a gun in his hands and allegedly pointed it toward the officers, the source said.
Two of the officers opened fire while a third ducked for cover on the porch, the source said.
Williams’ cousin, who didn’t want her name used, told The Trentonian in a Facebook messenger conversation that he was dating someone but she wouldn’t confirm the woman’s name.
She said she was at a loss over Williams’ death.
“All I know is there was a fight. His girl got arrested. Then he got upset,” the cousin said. “I just know I lost a big brother. He was a good guy who was just struggling with depression. He has had the worst life and always smiled no matter what. I’m just confused of why lethal force on a call where they were warned it was a man who did not want to live was used so quickly. Shoot to kill is all these cops know, I guess.”
The Attorney General’s Shooting Response Task Force continues to investigate.