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Daniel Nevius, 55, of Sicklerville had raised his rifle and pointed it at police when Deptford Police Officer Luke Ivey stopped him, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said.
State law and Platkin's own guidelines require his Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) to investigate the circumstances behind police-involved deaths.
The guidelines guarantee that such investigations are done “in a full, impartial and transparent manner," removing politics or personal agendas that any prosecutors might have.
Once the OPIA investigation was complete, the results were presented to the grand jury, the attorney general said.
The panel reviewed a host of evidence -- including witness interviews, body and dashcam video and and autopsy results -- before determining that it was a clean shoot, he said.
The fatal January 2023 encounter 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 -- released last year by Platkin.
WATCH:
The surveillance footage was obtained from a motion-activated camera, which Platkin said "resulted in non-continuous video files of the incident."
The bodycam videos begin and end before and after the shooting.
Nevius pulled up in a Jeep to a 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.
After purposefully crashing the Jeep head-on into an SUV parked out front, he backed up and rammed it again, screaming and cursing as he went. Then he drove off.
A woman and someone else emerged from the house with a dog. The woman inspected the damage while on the phone, presumably with a police dispatcher.
Shouting is then heard on the video as they retreat into the house and 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 slams the hood of the SUV with the rifle twice, then 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 fatally wounded.
For a tick-tock of the incident, go to:
CHILLING VIDEO: Sharp-Shooting Officer Downs Rifle-Wielding NJ Madman Who Threatened Woman
"Shots fired. Shots fired. He's down," Ivey says after taking Nevins out. "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.
"Emergency medical personnel responded to render aid to Mr. Nevius, who was pronounced deceased [at the scene]," Platkin said.
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