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The fatal encounter from earlier this year plays out in a collection of video -- including one from the hero officer's body cam and another from a surveillance camera pointed directly at the house -- that was released by state Attorney General Matthew Platkin.
The video is part of a state-mandated investigation into the police-involved death of Daniel Nevius Sr., 55, of Sicklerville this past January.
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Platkin said his office shared the videos with Nevius's family before releasing them, under guidelines aimed at providing transparency in police shootings.
The attorney general also said that the surveillance footage was obtained from a motion-activated camera, "which resulted in non-continuous video files of the incident."
(The bodycam videos begin and end before and after the shooting.)
The incident begins with Nevius pulling up in a Jeep to the home on Fox Run Road in Gloucester County's Deptford Township, 10 miles or so due south of Camden, the afternoon of Jan. 22, 2023.
Surveillance video shows Nevius purposefully crashing the Jeep head-on into an SUV parked in front. He backs up and rams it again, screaming and cursing as he goes, then drives off.
A woman and someone else emerge from the house with a dog. The woman inspects the damage while on the phone, presumably with a police dispatcher.
Shouting is then heard as they retreat into the house. Nevius pulls up again.
Opening the door of the Jeep, he falls out, dropping a rifle. The Jeep, still in gear, rolls backward.
"C'mon, let's play, motherf*ckers!" Nevius shouts, scrambling to his feet and snatching the weapon from the ground.
He goes up to the house, shouting, and goads those inside to come out.
Nevius then slams the hood of the SUV with the rifle twice, turns and assumes a spread stance, pointing the rifle from waist level at the house. He's still shouting.
A sedan arrives seconds later.
Nevius advances on the vehicle, pointing the rifle, and repeatedly tells the driver to "back the f*ck up."
The driver tries to talk with him before Nevius turns and chases someone back into the house.
"I lost everything, bitch," he shouts at the residence. "Let's do this. Let's do it."
Nevius is seen removing his jacket before the video jumps to the moment that police converge on the porch where he lay.
He's just been shot by Deptford Township Police Officer Luke Ivey and would be pronounced dead at the scene a half-hour later.
Moments earlier, Ivey is heard on his bodycam's video talking with his partner as they head to the scene.
"This ain't my first time responding to a man with an AK-47 call," he says.
Periodic dispatches inform them the shooter is outside the house -- and then reportedly is trying to get inside.
A county sheriff's officer joins the pair after they arrive. Together they approach the house on foot.
"I have a visual on him at the front with the rifle," Ivey says into his radio moments later.
Ivey takes up a position behind a utility pole and points his own high-powered weapon at Nevius.
Seconds later, the officer squeezes off a single shot.
"Shots fired. Shots fired. He's down," Ivey says. "He pointed the rifle at us. F**k."
He repeats the expletive several times, then says, "He's down on the porch, down on the porch."
One of his colleagues approaches Ivey.
"You saw it right?" Ivey asks him.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. He pointed the gun at us," the other officer replies. "C'mon, c'mon. Let's go to the hospital."
Another officer approaches and finds Nevius sprawled on his back on the front steps. His head is on the bottom step and blood is pooling beneath it.
Behind him is the rifle.
The officer requests an ambulance.
State law and Platkin's own guidelines require his Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) to investigate the circumstances behind any death that occurs during an interaction with police.
The guidelines guarantee that the investigation is done “in a full, impartial and transparent manner," removing politics or personal agendas that any prosecutors might have.
Once the OPIA investigation is complete, the results are presented to a grand jury.
The grand jury reviews a host of evidence -- including witness interviews, body and dashcam video, and forensic and autopsy results -- to determine whether it was a clean shoot or if criminal action should be taken against any involved members of law enforcement.
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