Posted by Nicholas Stix
Here's what I've been able to piece together so far from the stories below. In Maryland on Saturday night, a 40-year-old black New Jersey cop Joseph Walker, with 18 years of service, driving his wife and three children, cut off a 36-year-old white Maryland civilian, Joseph Harvey Jr., and the latter's friend. A game of cat-and-mouse "road rage" ensued, with each driver swerving into the other's path. Finally, one and then the other pulls over onto the shoulder and parks his vehicle, 150 feet apart. The unarmed white guy approaches the black guy, who runs back to his vehicle, and gets his gun. The black guy may or may not have identified himself as a cop, but considering his conduct, I'm not sure it would make sense to believe him, besides which, these guys are apparently both hotheads. As the white guy is 6-12 feet away, the black guy starts firing. He wounds the white guy in the thigh and one other body part, then shoots the disabled man in the chest, killing him.
After a few days, the shooter's defense attorney comes up with a by now common, at least 20-year-old, get-out-of-jail-free-card story: The white guy called me a "racial epithet," and threatened to kill my family.
The shooter, an investigator with the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office, has been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, and is being held on $1 million bond. However, since Walker he kept firing at an unarmed man he had already disabled, he had time to form intent. Thus, the charge should be Murder One.
Walker's black neighbors have all declared to the media what a wonderful guy he is, and how it is unthinkable that he would murder anyone, while his union has also expressed its support for him, neither of which tells us anything.
The Washington Post didn't deign to publish a picture of the victim and, according to one reader, did not initially mention that the victim was white. Post "reporter" Aaron C. Davis transformed a mug shot of Walker into a "booking image." New York's Daily News provided a pic of vic Joseph Harvey Jr., 36.
Somehow I doubt typically anti-cop, racist national media will organize a lynching of Joseph Walker.Yet another blessing of affirmative action. Eighteen years on the job, and he's still an out-of-control black man with a gun and a badge.
Joseph Harvey Jr., 36, was shot and killed Saturday during a road-rage incident in Maryland, state police said. (Facebook)
WPVI
Joseph Walker, a New Jersey police officer from Burlington County, is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter.
Joseph Harvey Jr. killed in I-97 road rage incident
June 9, 2013 - 7:43 a.m.
Updated June 10, 2013 - 5:59 p.m.
WJLA News
A New Jersey man has been charged with murder and manslaughter after allegedly shooting and killing an Anne Arundel County man Saturday night in a violent road rage incident.
Maryland State Police officials have charged 40-year-old Joseph Walker with second-degree murder and manslaughter in connection with the shooting, which killed Joseph Harvey, Jr., a 36-year-old Halethorpe resident.
Walker, an Eastampton Township, N.J. resident, is being held at an Anne Arundel County jail on $1 million bond. He is an officer with the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office in New Jersey.
The shooting happened at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday on I-97 near the Route 3 interchange near Millersville. The incident began, though, when police say Walker cut Harvey off while trying to turn onto Route 3.
Harvey then drove onto the shoulder to try and avoid a collision, then nearly hit Walker's car while continuing to drive on the side of the road, according to a police report.
Authorities say that the two drivers then tried to intentionally swerve into each other, at which point Harvey's passenger told police that Walker pulled out a gun and pointed it at them.
A short time later, both Walker and Harvey pulled over and both got out of their cars. Walker got out of his minivan and yelled that he was a police officer. At that point, police say Harvey approached the suspect in what they call an "aggressive manner."
That's when officials say Walker pulled out a gun and shot Harvey in the leg. His passenger was not injured. Harvey was taken to the Baltimore Washington Medical Center, where he later died.
After the shooting, Walker was taken to the same hospital complaining of chest pains.
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New Jersey police officer charged in fatal Maryland road-rage shooting
Joseph Walker, 40, an officer with the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office, is accused of killing 36-year-old Joseph Harvey Jr. Saturday night. The men were driving south of Baltimore when the confrontation occurred, state police said. Walker is being held on $1 million bond.
By Erik Ortiz / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, June 10, 2013, 9:00 AM
A New Jersey police officer is being held on $1 million bond after allegedly killing another driver in a suspected road-rage shooting in Maryland.
Joseph Walker, a 40-year-old officer with the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office, was off duty Saturday night when he opened fire on another driver on the shoulder of Route 3, south of Baltimore, according to Maryland State Police.
The victim — Joseph Harvey Jr., 36, of Halethorpe, Md. — was pronounced dead at Baltimore Washington Medical Center, police said in a news release.
Walker, a father of three, has been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. He's expected to appear at a bail review hearing Monday.
"We are aware of the fatal shooting incident involving one of our detectives, who was off-duty and traveling in Maryland with his wife and children," Hudson County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Gene Rubino said in a statement Sunday.
Critical moments of road-rage shooting in dispute
June 10; updated June 11, 2013 03:38 A.M. EDT
The Washington Post
It hardly seemed to be a recipe for deadly road rage.
In the left-hand lane, there was a 40-year-old New Jersey detective with his wife and three children buckled into the family's Kia minivan. They were setting out for a long drive home at sunset on a warm Saturday night.
(AP) - In this June 8 photo [N.S.: that's a mug shot, but the Post reporter or his editor doesn't want readers to know it!] provided by the Maryland State Police, Hudson County (N.J.) police Detective Joseph Lamont Walker is shown in a booking [?] image.
In the right-hand lane, there was another middle-aged man, a Marylander who friends say had just purchased his first home. He was pulling onto the road from a busy Wawa gas station, on a stretch of tidy homes and shopping plazas in suburban Anne Arundel County. He had stopped with a friend to get a cold drink.
But as the two vehicles began making a left-hand turn toward the highway, there was a swerve, then another, according to an account in court papers. Tempers flared. The officer purportedly brandished a pistol. The two men pulled over.
Just a mile and a minute after it all began, the Maryland man lay fatally wounded on the side of the road and the New Jersey detective was headed for jail.
Joseph Lamont Walker, 40, of Eastampton, N.J., was ordered held on $1 million bond Monday by an Anne Arundel District Court judge. He remained in custody on charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Halethorpe resident Joseph Dale Harvey Jr., 36.
Police said Walker fired a gun twice during the roadside encounter. The first shot struck Harvey in the thigh, they said. Seconds later, a second shot fatally wounded Harvey.
But exactly how the altercation began, and how it escalated so quickly, remained in dispute Monday. So, too, did details of the critical seconds after both men got out of their cars.
An attorney for Walker on Monday said Harvey had threatened the officer's family, according to CapitalGazette.com. A passenger in Harvey's car, however, said that his friend had tried to protect himself after the first shot was fired and that several seconds passed before the deadly shot.
Patrick McAndrew, an attorney for Walker, characterized his client as a victim in interviews Monday. He told CapitalGazette.
com that Walker, a detective with the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office, just outside Manhattan, had identified himself as a police officer and warned Harvey to stop.
There was no answer Monday at Harvey's small white house in Halethorpe, a modest neighborhood where the sound of jets could be heard overhead descending toward nearby Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport.
One of Harvey's friends, Adam Pidel, the passenger in Harvey's car Saturday night, featured prominently in a Maryland State Police report describing the minutes before the deadly altercation.
Pidel told police that Harvey had just pulled out of a Wawa gas station near the intersection with Route 175 and Route 3. Just beyond the gas station, both lanes are allowed to make a swooping left onto Route 3, to head toward Baltimore.
Harvey's car was in the right-hand lane. Walker's van was beside it in the left-hand lane. As the two began to turn, Walker's van suddenly cut in front of Harvey's car, Pidel said.
"Harvey got angry and used the shoulder to avoid being struck and then continued driving on the shoulder," according to the report.
As the two vehicles progressed north on Route 3, each swerved repeatedly, "nearly striking each other several times as each intentionally swerved at each other," the report said.
"Pidel stated at one point, the driver, Mr. Walker, pointed a gun at him and Harvey," the report said.
About a mile from where the altercation began, and just before merging onto Interstate 97, Walker pulled over onto the shoulder, authorities said.
Harvey pulled over a short time later and began walking back toward Walker's van, according to the police account. Pidel said he stayed behind and saw Walker get out of his van as Harvey walked toward it, then briefly get back inside and come out with a pistol.
A passing motorist reported seeing Harvey approach the officer in an "aggressive manner."
The passing motorist also appeared to witness the first shot, reportedly seeing Harvey grab his shorts and lift up his leg.
Pidel told police that he ducked for cover. About four seconds passed, Pidel said, and then he heard more shots.
About that time, another passing motorist saw Harvey fall to the ground.
The police report did not attempt to unravel what happened in between. Only Walker and Pidel called 911, according to the police report. Investigators listened to the recordings "and they conflict each other," it stated.
Maryland State Police recovered two .45-caliber shell casings from the scene, according to the report, which concluded that Walker "did feloniously, without malice or aforethought, kill and slay Joseph Dale Harvey."
Justin Jouvenal, Trishula Patel and Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.
[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this story.]
Defense attorney: Racial slur preceded deadly road-rage shooting
June 11, 2013 04:56 P.M. EDT
The Washington Post
An attorney for the New Jersey detective charged with killing a Maryland man after a fit of road rage says the deceased man repeatedly screamed a racial slur and threatened to kill the officer's family before the deadly encounter.
Joseph L. Walker, the New Jersey man charged in Saturday's incident, is black. Joseph D. Harvey Jr., the Maryland man, was white.
In an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, Patrick J. McAndrew, an attorney for Walker, said Harvey "was enraged, screaming at the [Walker] family in their van." He said Harvey repeatedly yelled a racial epithet at the family.
The account by Walker's attorney introduces an element of racial tension that is absent from the official police account used to explain the rationale for charging Walker with second-degree murder and manslaughter.
In that Maryland State Police report, an officer cites a passenger riding with Harvey as the source of key information. That passenger, Adam Pidel, said the altercation began at routes 175 and 3 in Anne Arundel County when Walker cut off Harvey. Pidel told police that both men subsequently engaged in reckless driving, swerving toward each other as they traveled north along Route 3 to an Interstate 97 on-ramp.
McAndrew on Tuesday offered a fuller and conflicting account of the view from inside the Walker van: Walker, an insurance fraud detective with the Hudson County, N.J., prosecutor's office and a former police officer in Newark, was in the driver's seat of the Kia minivan, McAndrew said. Buckled in beside him was his wife and behind them, their children, ages 3, 6 and 11.
McAndrew said the family was settling into a drive back to Eastampton, N.J., after a young cousin's birthday party in the Odenton area.
The lawyer said Walker, who was in the innermost of two left-hand turn lanes when the altercation began, was unaware of any problem until Harvey pulled along the passenger side of the van, screaming.
"His wife was in the passenger seat. She could distinctly hear it, as could the child, the racial slurs," McAndrew said. "There were threats of violence; they were on notice."
McAndrew said it was only Harvey who then drove aggressively. "Harvey did whatever he could to maintain his position alongside the Walker van," McAndrew said.
The decision to pull over, McAndrew said, was not an attempt to escalate the situation. He said Walker stopped after it appeared that the altercation had ended and Harvey had driven on ahead. According to the police report, Harvey pulled over about 150 feet in front of Walker's van. McAndrew said that there was another reason that prompted Walker to pull over and that he would disclose that in coming days.
McAndrew also disputed key points in the police report about the moments after the men got out of their cars.
The lawyer said that when Harvey pulled over, Walker repeatedly "displayed his shield" and identified himself as a law enforcement official as Harvey walked back up the on-ramp to "engage" Walker.
McAndrew said Walker fired only when Harvey had closed to within about six feet of his client.
He also disputed an account from Pidel, which was partially substantiated, police said, by passersby, that four seconds elapsed between shots fired by Walker. Walker's first shot appeared to wound Harvey in the leg, the police report said, and the second one was probably fatal.
"It was a single firing. Claims to the contrary are ludicrous and nonsense," McAndrew said. "For one thing, it's contrary to a law enforcement officer's training."
In an e-mail Tuesday, Harvey's former employer at Outdoor Adventures, a now-shuttered paintball and sports complex in Baltimore, said he was shocked by the death of his longtime worker.
Harvey was "loyal, honest, dependable, well-liked and a pleasure to know, he was an asset to the company but more importantly, he was a good man," Lee Draper wrote. "His tragic death was a kick in the gut for me and for our family and its circumstances are out of character for the man that I knew."
Suspect in alleged road-rage killing claims he was attacked
Lansdowne man killed, and N.J. officer faces murder charge
Joseph Walker, 40, a police officer with the Hudson County, N.J., prosecutor's office, allegedly shot a man to death in Maryland in what police describe as a road rage incident.
June 11, 2013, 11:15 a.m. EDT
The New Jersey police officer accused of killing a man during an alleged weekend road rage incident was defending his family, his lawyer said Monday.
Patrick McAndrew, attorney for Joseph Lamont Walker, 40, said his client had faced an "attack" on the on-ramp to Interstate 97 in Anne Arundel County. Maryland State Police say Walker shot and killed Joseph Harvey Jr., 36, after an altercation on the road.
"The second version, the true version, will come out," McAndrew told Annapolis District Court Judge Thomas Pryal at a bail review hearing. Walker, a detective for the prosecutor's office in Hudson County, N.J., remained held on $1 million bail Monday evening.
Walker, his wife and their children, ages 3, 6 and 11, were heading home to Eastampton, N.J., from a cousin's birthday party in Odenton, McAndrew said.
According to police, Harvey's passenger, Adam Pidel, said Harvey's Honda was cut off by a van in a left-turn lane at the intersection of Route 175 and Route 3. Walker was driving the van, charging documents state.
On the shoulder, Harvey pulled alongside the van, and the vehicles "intentionally swerved at each other," Pidel recounted in the documents.
"Pidel stated at one point the driver, Mr. Walker, pointed a gun at him and Harvey," charging documents allege.
The vehicles pulled over and the men got out, and soon police responded to the shoulder of the ramp from northbound Route 3 to I-97 for a shooting report. Police found two 45-caliber shell casings at the scene, consistent with Walker's weapon, according to charging documents.
Pidel told police Walker had a gun and he heard one gunshot — charging documents indicate Harvey had a thigh wound — and that he heard several shots after that. He didn't hear a verbal exchange between the men, according to charging documents.
Two passing motorists "corroborated most of Pidel's account," charging documents state.
McAndrew said Harvey acted aggressively toward his client. He said Walker, charged with second-degree murder, repeatedly identified himself as a police officer.
"That did nothing to dissuade the attack," McAndrew said.
Outside of court, McAndrew said, "Mr. Harvey had threatened his family."
Through McAndrew, Walker's wife and brother-in-law declined to comment. Harvey's family was not in court and could not be reached Monday.
A pretrial official told Pryal that Walker had been a police officer for about 18 years. The Hudson County prosecutor's office did not respond to a request for comment.
A previous version of this story incorrectly described Pidel's account of who had a gun.
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By The Jersey Journal
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June 11, 2013 at 4:15 P.M., updated June 12, 2013 at 2:48 A.M.
|
Road Rage Murder
· Road rage murder suspect receives support from Local PBA
· Road rage murder: Accused detective feared for his family's life, lawyer says
· Bail remains at $1M for Hudson County Prosecutor's Office officer charged with road rage murder
The attorney for a Hudson County Prosecutor's Office detective charged in the road rage murder of a Maryland man said today that the alleged victim in the case repeatedly screamed a racial slur and threatened to kill his family before he fired his weapon, The Washington Post reported today.
Joseph Walker, 40, of Eastampton, is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Joseph Harvey Jr., 36, of Halethorpe, Md. Saturday night.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Walker's attorney, Patrick McAndrew of Maryland, said that Harvey, who is white, was screaming racial slurs at the family's van prior to the incident.
"(Harvey) was enraged, screaming at the (Walker) family in their van," McAndrew told the paper. "His wife was in the passenger seat, she could distinctly hear (the slurs). There were threats of violence; they were on notice."
According to police reports, Walker was driving his van with his wife and three children and cut off Harvey's Honda Accord about a mile from the shooting site. A man identified as a passenger with Harvey told The Capital Gazette that Harvey then drove on the shoulder alongside Walker's minivan before the two vehicles pulled over at the site of the shooting.
Hudson County Prosecutor's office detective Joseph Walker has been charged with fatally shooting a Maryland man in a road rage incident, authorities say.
Maryland State Police said that the passenger told investigators that he and Harvey exited the vehicle and Harvey walked towards the minivan. Walker then reached into the van, pulled out his weapon and fired several shots, hitting Harvey three times.
McAndrew said that Harvey parked 150 feet ahead of Walker's vehicle and approached Walker, and that Walker fired only when Harvey was about 6 feet away.
Harvey was taken to Baltimore Washington Medical Center, where he later died, police said. The Capital Gazette reported that Harvey was a truck driver for Republic National Distributing Co. in Maryland.
Walker appeared yesterday in Anne Arundel County District Court in Annapolis, where Judge Thomas Pryal kept his bail at $1 million, despite pleas from McAndrew to lower the bond to $100,000.
Maryland State Police said investigators have still not determined if the gun used in the shooting is a county-issued firearm.
I wonder if Treyvo...er I mean Harvey will get massive media attention, of course many will say this situation is different, and maybe in some ways it is but did he really need to fire the 2nd shot? After sifting through the shifting and contradictory stories we'll probably never know for sure exactly what happened but since the perp is african american I'm pretty sure the media is going to let this one die. Jerry
ReplyDeleteSecond and third shot.
ReplyDeleteHe beez a good keeid, he din do nuffin!
ReplyDeleteI just heard about this case on Nov 4 2013. It's very intersting how even Black police officers aren't afforded SYG. On June 8 Walker shoots and kills a white guy. Walker is arrested,charged and jailed immediately. Given a 1,000,000 bond. Suspended without pay. Where are all the pro police people for Joseph Walker? No activist had to come out for the dead white guy because LEO'S and DA'S did there jobs. SOmething that doesn't happen when its reverse.
ReplyDelete