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Ex-con Kevin Harlfinger, a 40-year-old ex-con from Perth Amboy, was behind the wheel of a stolen white work van being pursued by Cranford officers when it crashed near Exit 131 shortly before midnight Dec. 28, according to a brief statement released on Monday, Jan. 8, by the office of Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin in Trenton.
Harlfinger exchanged shots with the officers, wounding one of them, authorities said.
He was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:04 a.m. Dec. 29.
The illegally-owned gun that Harlfinger used was recovered nearby, Platkin said.
"The guy spun out, the Cranford officers pulled up, and the guy basically got out shooting, and the officers returned fire and, as we know, the suspect's deceased," said Pat Colligan, president of the New Jersey State Policemen's Benevolent Association.
State law and his own guidelines require Platkin to review deaths that occur “during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody," no matter what the circumstances are.
The guidelines guarantee that the investigation is done “in a full, impartial and transparent manner," removing politics or personal agendas, Platkin has said.
Once the investigation by the attorney general's Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) team is completed, the results will be presented to the grand jury “in a neutral, objective manner, and with appropriate transparency,” he said.
The panel will then render a ruling on whether the incident was handled appropriately.
Someone in the early weeks of the process, police body camera footage and any other images captured of the incident will be shared with the defendant’s family and then publicly released.
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