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A Bordentown police officer began following the Nissan Maxima after Keron Roundtree, 23, brake abruptly on Route 206 shortly before 9 p.m. last Oct. 27, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said.
Several violations followed over the next two minutes before the officer “activated his overhead lights and siren to make a motor vehicle stop,” Grewal said.
Roundtree, who had an adult male passenger with him, hit the gas and raced away at speeds topping 110 miles an hour, the attorney general said.
A minute later, the Maxima crashed through several trees off the right side of the highway before re-emerging and coming to rest on the shoulder, he said.
Two bystanders helped the officer get Roundtree and his passenger out of the wreckage, Grewal said.
All three rendered aid until an ambulance took both victims to Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton, he said.
The passenger was later released after being treated.
Roundtree remained in the hospital before dying on Nov. 17, exactly three weeks after the crash, the attorney general said.
Grewal released videos from the officer’s dashcam and body camera under policies he established two years ago that he said are “designed to promote the fair, impartial and transparent investigation of fatal police encounters.”
Authorities first met with Roundtree’s relatives to review the recordings with them, he said.
Grewal later posted them online: CLICK HERE for the videos
State law and his own guidelines require Grewal’s office to investigate 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."
A 10-step process ensures that the investigation are done “in a full, impartial and transparent manner,” he said.
Once the investigation is complete, the results will be presented to a grand jury -- ordinarily consisting of 16 to 23 citizens -- which will determine whether or not criminal charges are in order, the attorney general said.
That could take awhile, though.
“At present, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, regular grand juries are not sitting and hearing cases,” Grewal said.
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