Teen: As off-duty trooper shot at us, 'we were afraid for our lives'

[the-pi-guy]

NeoGAF - View Single Post -  Teens knock on wrong door - off duty cop shoots at them while they flee

The state attorney general's office says its preliminary investigation has found an off-duty state trooper fired three shots from his personal gun as three teens fled his street in a car early Sunday morning — an account that's largely consistent with what one of the teens has told NJ Advance Media.Both say the teens knocked on the trooper's Whispering Woods Lane door late at night after mistaking his home for a friend's. Both say the trooper came downstairs with a gun — the AG's office says it was his personal handgun. What the AG's office describes as a "verbal exchange through the door," teen Jesse Barkhorn, 18, describes as yelling and cursing by the trooper.
 And both say that as the teens got in their car and fled, the trooper entered the street with the gun.
 Where they notably differ: According to the AG's office, the trooper says he identified himself as a trooper and pursued the teens on foot as they fled. Barkhorn says the trooper never identified himself.
 Teen's accountAccording to Barkhorn, the three teens mistakenly approached the trooper's house at about 2 a.m. The friend that the three teens were trying to reach that night does live on the same block as the trooper, Barkhorn and others have said.
 They knocked repeatedly, including around the back of the home before they heard someone yelling and cursing inside, Barkhorn said.
 The teens began to walk back down the driveway, and then ran to their car when the door opened, Barkhorn said. As they maneuvered around two cars on the cul-de-sac, they saw a laser pointer, he said.
 "We realize it's a gun and we panic. I'm like 'dude, dude, dude, accelerate,'" Barkhorn said.
 The trooper fired three shots, one of which hit a front tire, Barkhorn said. About 1½; miles away, on Butternut Way, the car came to a stop — and at that time, Mayer took off, though the other teens didn't know why, he said. The AG's office's account says the same.Baker-Marasco called his mother, and then police to tell them that someone had shot at them, Barkhorn said. But when Sparta police arrived, "they were like 'sit down and don't say one word.' They didn't believe one word we were saying. They said, 'yeah, you're gonna have a long night.'"Baker-Marasco and Barkhorn were told they were being arrested for attempted burglary, and left handcuffed in the back of a patrol car for hours, Barkhorn said. He said they were searched multiple times. They could tell a police helicopter and dogs were searching the area, Barkhorn said.
 They first saw Mayer again at Sparta police headquarters, Barkhorn said.
 "He didn't know why he was being arrested. He thought the helicopters were searching for the guy who shot at us," Barkhorn said.
 The three teens were put in separate cells, their mugshots were taken, and they were told they were being taken somewhere else — which turned out to be the State Police Barracks in Netcong, he said.There, he waited five hours, handcuffed to a metal bench, to be interrogated, Barkhorn said.
 But the duo who interviewed Barkhorn — he wasn't sure what agency they were with — seemed to believe he wasn't a burglar, he said. They asked several times if the trooper had identified himself as such, and if the car swerved toward him, Barkhorn said.
 He was eventually let go without any charges, he said.
 The AG's office hasn't described the police interaction with the teens in depth, but says statements were taken from all three.

 

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[7H3]

This made me recall a similar incidence and then I wondered if there were any news reports about it and I couldn't find any... but I did find some sort of court transcript describing the event: STATE v. BIRD | FindLaw

Hope that guy went to jail...

[Xbro]

That quote from the title seems like a line from a poorly executed teen novel.