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BRIDGETON
- The Attorney General’s Shooting
Response Team is conducting an investigation
into the circumstances surrounding a shooting
in which a state trooper from the State
Police Bridgeton Station fatally shot an
armed man last night in Bridgeton.
According
to the preliminary investigation, troopers
from Bridgeton Station were detailed about
8:30 p.m. last night to a residence on Barend
Street in Fairfield Township in response
to a 911 call from the resident. The woman
reported that she had a restraining order
against her former boyfriend, Willie Gibbons,
33, of Seabrook, and that he was at the
residence waving a handgun. Troopers had
been to the residence the night before and
removed Gibbons. There was a documented
history of domestic violence between Gibbons
and the woman. Upon arrival at the residence,
the troopers learned that Gibbons had left
in a pickup truck and was armed with a gun.
A
law enforcement alert was broadcast for
Gibbons, who was quickly located walking
on Burlington Road near Irving Avenue in
Bridgeton. Three troopers from Bridgeton
Station responded to the location. According
to the preliminary investigation, when the
uniformed troopers arrived at the scene
and confronted Gibbons, Gibbons reached
for and drew out a handgun that had been
concealed. One of the troopers fired two
shots from his service weapon, striking
Gibbons in the abdomen and chest. Gibbons
was airlifted to Cooper University Hospital,
where he was pronounced dead at 1:28 a.m.
A 9mm semi-automatic handgun that was in
the possession of Gibbons was recovered
at the scene.
The
incident remains under investigation by
the Attorney General’s Shooting Response
Team. Under an Attorney General Directive,
the Shooting Response Team, made up of deputy
attorneys general, detectives of the Division
of Criminal Justice and detectives of the
State Police Major Crime Unit, are dispatched
to the scene to handle investigations of
such incidents. The Southern Regional Medical
Examiner’s Office is assisting in
the investigation.
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