The Attorney General’s Office is conducting an investigation of a fatal officer-involved shooting that occurred shortly before 3 p.m. yesterday, April 5, in Buena Vista, N.J. One male civilian sustained fatal injuries.

According to the preliminary investigation, officers of the Franklin Township Police Department, Gloucester County, responded as mutual aid to a motor vehicle accident at Cumberland Road and Tuckahoe Road in Buena Vista. After a Franklin Township police officer left his police vehicle, one of the drivers involved in the accident entered that police vehicle and drove away. The civilian driver stopped the police vehicle on East Oak Road in Buena Vista. During an encounter at that location, a Franklin Township police officer fired his service weapon, fatally wounding the male civilian. The name of the decedent is not being released at this time.

The investigation is being conducted pursuant to a law enacted in January 2019, P.L.2019, c.1, which requires that the Attorney General’s Office conduct investigations of a person’s death that occurs during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody.

The investigation is ongoing and no further information is being released at this time.