April 26, 2010
Office of The Attorney General
– Paula T. Dow, Attorney General
Division of Criminal Justice
– Stephen J. Taylor, Director
Media Inquiries-
Peter Aseltine
609-292-4791
Citizen Inquiries-
609-292-4925
Attorney General’s Shooting Response Team Investigates Fatal Shooting Involving Atlantic County SWAT Team
HAMMONTON – The Attorney General’s Shooting Response Team is conducting an investigation into the circumstances surrounding a shooting early this morning in which a member of the Atlantic County Emergency Response Team fatally shot a man who allegedly pointed a gun at another man in Deptford and later engaged in a standoff with police at a house in Hammonton.
According to the preliminary investigation, Donald Hoffman, 27, was fatally shot by a member of the Atlantic County Emergency Response Team shortly after 4 a.m. at his mother's rented house in Hammonton. The events leading to the shooting started about 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, when Hoffman allegedly confronted an emergency medical technician and pointed a handgun at him outside of the Deptford Township Emergency Services Building on Cooper Street. Hoffman fled in a white Honda Civic, and police, who were alerted of the incident, located Hoffman’s car and followed him to 200A 13th Street in Hammonton, a first-floor residence where he was staying with his mother. Hoffman got out of his car, armed with the handgun, and entered the house about 5 p.m. Police secured the perimeter of the house, and the Hammonton and Atlantic County SWAT teams were called to the scene. Hoffman’s mother and others who were inside the house came outside soon afterward, and a woman who lived on the second floor of the building also left her residence. A police negotiator communicated on and off with Hoffman throughout the night to try to get him to come out and surrender peacefully. In the early morning hours, canisters of pepper spray were fired into the house, but Hoffman continued to ignore commands to leave the building. Hoffman was shot as members of the Atlantic County Emergency Response Team entered the house shortly after 4 a.m. to arrest him. No further details of the shooting will be released at this time because of the ongoing investigation.
The shooting is being investigated 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.
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