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“Drop the knife!” the officers yelled repeatedly as Edward Walsh advanced at least 20 feet toward them, refusing to stop, during a November 2018 encounter in a Mantoloking home, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.
“Officers found a large knife with a brown handle next to Walsh and a second knife in his waistband,” the prosecutor said.
They administered first aid until EMS arrived, Billhimer said.
The K-9 was treated at a local animal hospital.
Walsh, meanwhile, was pronounced dead.
Walsh, 39, of Stafford had slashed his own neck with the knife before attacking the police dog, Billhimer said.
Those wounds “would have ultimately caused his death if left untreated,” the Ocean County Medical Examiner reported, he said.
In Walsh’s blood were amphetamine, methamphetamine and THC in amount that have “been reported in methamphetamine abusers who exhibited violent and irrational behavior,” the prosecutor said the medical examiner found.
A review by both his and state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal’s offices found that the “use of deadly force was legally justified and that there are no material facts in dispute that require presentation of this matter to [a grand jury],” Billhimer said Wednesday.
It all began shortly before noon on Nov. 12, 2018.
Lacey Township police had alerted their Mantoloking colleagues to be on the lookout for Walsh, who was wanted out of Sayreville for kidnapping his girlfriend, the prosecutor said.
The woman said that during the Nov. 11 abduction, Walsh, “had shown her a shotgun and told her that he was going to kill her,” Billhimer said.
A friend told police he’d picked up Walsh in Lacey Township and dropped him off in Mantoloking after he’d called asking for ride the morning of Nov. 12.
Walsh was “acting paranoid,” the friend said, adding that he was “unsure if Walsh had a weapon,” Billhimer said.
Mantoloking officers, accompanied by Bay Head police and an Ocean County Sheriff’s K-9 unit, went to a home where the friend had said he’d dropped off Walsh.
Outside the garage door, a detective saw a water bottle, soda, and roll of paper towels that the friend said he’d seen Walsh carrying.
The detective contacted the owner and got consent – and the keys – to go inside, Billhimer said.
A group of officers went in with K-9 Kane and announced their presence while their colleagues stayed outside and spread out, searching for Walsh, he said.
The K-9 brought the officers inside the house to a small utility closet door.
Suddenly, Walsh “jumped out of the closet, cut his own throat multiple times with a large knife and then engaged with K-9 Kane,” Billhimer said.
Kane “attached to Walsh’s left arm and Walsh began stabbing [him] with the large knife that he had in his right hand,” the prosecutor said.
His handler brought Kane back to him as Walsh advanced on the officers, refusing to stop or drop the knife despite repeated orders to do so, Billhimer said.
The prosecutor said he and Grewal’s office “are satisfied that the undisputed facts establish that the Mantoloking Police Officers, the Ocean County Sheriff Officer and the Bay Head Officer involved in this incident were legally justified in the force they used to protect their lives and those of their fellow officers.”
The investigation was conducted under the New Jersey Attorney General’s Law Enforcement Directive 2006-5, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Supplemental Law Enforcement Directive Regarding Uniform Statewide Procedures and Best Practices for Conducting Police Use of Force Investigations dated July 28, 2015 and the New Jersey Attorney General’s Law Enforcement Directive 2019, Billhimer said.
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