Body-cam video: What led to fatal police shooting in Haddon Township
Police officers responding to a suspected burglary in process confronted Keith Edelin of Pennsauken in a hallway at a Westmont senior complex
(Editor’s note: This story may be updated with video from the incident.)
A New Jersey State Police detective fatally shot a Berlin Township man just seconds after the man pulled an object from his pocket during a confrontation, a body-cam video shows.
Shawn Phillips, 37, was shot July 29 while standing at the top of stairs to an apartment house at Haddon and Bates avenue in the West Berlin area.
On April 13, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office released body-cam video from one of two troopers who had gone to the building to arrest Phillips as a fugitive.
It shows the officer approaching the corner property from the rear of the residence, then turning at the front to immediately encounter Phillips a few feet away.
“Don’t f-ing move,” the trooper says.
The video shows Phillips, holding a phone in his left hand, uses his right hand to pull up his shirt and reach into his right front pocket.
The detective aims his service weapon at Phillips, who continues to remove the item from his pocket, the video suggests. Then the detective calls out “hands, hands,” and shoots Phillips multiple times, causing him to fall down the steps and sprawl on the Haddon Avenue sidewalk.
“Law enforcement recovered a revolver, loaded with live rounds, at the scene after the shooting,” according to a statement from the attorney general’s office.
Phillips, who was shot at approximately 10:15 a.m., received medical treatment at the scene. But the detective’s first aid was delayed by the appearance of a woman who had been walking a dog and who seemed to have an association with Phillips.
“What did you do to my [redacted]?” she shouted at the detectives, according to a surveillance recording
The distraught woman put the dog inside the apartment building, turned to curse at the detectives and then crawled toward Phillips until she was sobbing over him.
The second detective eventually put the woman in restraints while the first treated Phillips, who died at an area hospital at approximately 2:15 p.m.
The attorney general’s statement does not identify the reason for Phillips’ intended arrest.
A court record, however, shows that Phillips had been charged with multiple offenses after an alleged incendiary incident in Evesham on June 3.
A probable cause statement for that case alleged that Phillips started a fire with “a molotov cocktail like device,” causing $2,000 in damage to a parked vehicle.
Phillips was charged with criminal attempt aggravated arson and criminal mischief. He also was accused of possessing explosives, a bottle of starter fluid, for an unlawful purpose.
The Evesham incident occurred at 2:10 a.m. in the area of Lord Place, according to an affidavit with the statement. It said detectives learned Phillips “had a history of restraining order violations” involving a woman associated with that area.
Data taken from Phillips’ cellphone placed him near the scene at the time of the fire. A photo found on the phone “appeared to show an arm assembling the involved Molotov cocktail device,” the affidavit said.
A state law requires an investigation into any death that occurs during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in an official capacity.
The attorney general’s office has declined additional comment while the investigation is underway.
Jim Walsh is a senior reporter for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.