53°
Joshua Gonzalez, 20, of Millville had rammed three police SUVs and an ambulance, damaged civilian vehicles -- including one with a woman inside it -- and either smashed or trampled several properties in the pre-dawn rampage in Vineland on Dec. 18, other footage shows.
At one point, Gonzalez used the backhoe to flip a police vehicle onto its side.
Vineland Police Sgt. Louis Platania was the hero, running up to the vehicle and firing four shots.
Acting State Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck provided a trove of recordings from the incident on Thursday -- including video from Platania's bodycam and those of three other officers, cellphone recordings made by two civilians and home security images.
Combined, they show not only the destruction but also the fear it brought to a quiet neighborhood.
CLICK HERE for the recordings: Vineland-Gonzalez (NJ Attorney General's Office)
"Are you all right?" a female officer asks the woman who was in the sedan that was rammed moments earlier.
"No, I'm in shock," the woman replies as officers get her to safety.
It was about 5 a.m. when police were called to AJM Packaging Corp. in the 3400 block of Southeast Boulevard, about three miles from where the rampage finally ended.
In a 911 recording released Thursday, a caller there tells police that Gonzalez had pushed one vehicle into another and tried to ram the building.
Gonzalez went on to hit the woman's car on Lincoln Avenue -- then doubled back. Bodycam footage shows one of the officers exiting her SUV and the backhoe smashing it seconds later.
She watches in shock as another police SUV is rammed.
"Two police cars completely destroyed," another officer is heard saying on her police radio.
“He’s going right into a house -- right into a house,” another officer shouts. Screams can be heard inside the home.
Eventually, police were left no choice.
Footage from Platania's body camera shows him parking his cruiser on another street and then running through backyards and down a cul-de-sac to get to the backhoe.
After he shoots Gonzalez through the side window, the backhoe continues across the road into a tree, which stopped it from hitting a home. The engine is heard racing.
Other officers come running.
"Turn it off!" his colleagues shout to Platania as he climbs over the lifeless body slumped on the floor.
"He's on the accelerator," Platania replies before another officer follows him into the cab and the power is cut.
“He’s stuck, he’s stuck!” another shouts. “Get him out! Get him out!”
The officers remove and try to resuscitate Gonzalez, who was pronounced dead at the scene 5:48 a.m., said Bruck, the attorney general.
Platania is clearly shaken, but a colleague tells him he did what was necessary.
The officers then turned their attention to residents in the community, with one saying they've "got to start checking these houses" to make sure everyone's OK.
Three Vineland police officers sustained minor injuries in the incident, Bruck said.
Both state law and his own guidelines require the attorney general to investigate any and all 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."
The guidelines guarantee that the investigation is done “in a full, impartial and transparent manner."
Once the investigation is complete, the results are presented to a grand jury -- ordinarily consisting of 16 to 23 citizens -- that determines whether or not there's cause to suspect any wrongdoing on the part of law enforcement.
Bruck said he released the recordings Thursday as part of the process, under policies "designed to promote the fair, impartial, and transparent investigation of fatal police encounters."
Investigators met with Gonzalez’s family on Thursday to review the recordings, he said.
CLICK HERE for the recordings: Vineland-Gonzalez (NJ Attorney General's Office)
Click here to follow Daily Voice Newark and receive free news updates.
