South Jersey Man Killed Himself, Officer Who Fired Weapon Only Grazed Him, Grand Jury Finds

UPDATE: A Cherry Hill police officer who fired his service weapon at a man who’d just shot himself in a private home last year did nothing wrong, a state grand jury has found.

Officers were called to conduct a welfare check at the home on Chapel Avenue West on Oct. 11, 2022.
Photo Credit: *CHERRY HILL PD*

Jerry DeMarco

11/01/2023 1:16 p.m.

The single shot fired by Officer Jared Fox only grazed Joseph S. Bestic Jr., 63, on Oct. 11, 2022, according to New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin.

Officers had been called to conduct a welfare check at the home on Chapel Avenue West, the attorney general said.

Bestic allowed them in and soon after grabbed a gun and shot himself, Platkin said.

He was later pronounced dead at the scene.

Platkin’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) investigated the police-involved death as required by state law.

The findings were presented to a grand jury that “concluded that Officer Fox’s use of force did not cause Mr. Bestic’s death,” the attorney general said on Wednesday, Nov. 1.

The grand jurors reviewed police bodycam footage, witness interviews and autopsy results, among other evidence, Platkin said.

Bestic reportedly lived alone in the home following the death of his wife from kidney failure four years earlier.

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