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The results were among the first under a new directive for police use-of-force investigations in New Jersey issued earlier this month by state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.
The troopers had gone to a Hardwick home in Warren County on June 12, 2018 to investigate a domestic dispute, the attorney general said.
Witnesses told them Stephen Cogelia, 32, had threatened to kill his father, saying, “I ought to get a knife and gut you.”
“The troopers advised Cogelia to leave the house,” Grewal said, “and the father went to State Police Hope Station to report the threats and obtain a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Cogelia.
“While the father was at the State Police barracks seeking the TRO, a relative called him to report that Cogelia had returned to the home and was threatening to kill other members of the family,” the attorney general said.
Troopers returned at 9 p.m. to serve the TRO and investigate the new threats.
They entered the home and yelled out to Cogelia, who shouted “Get out of my house!” from upstairs, Grewal said.
When they asked him to come down, Cogelia said; “You come into this bedroom, boys, it’s going to be some major [expletive] problems. I am standing my [expletive] ground!”
The troopers went to the second floor, where the doors to the rooms were closed, Grewal said.
Video footage from the armed trooper’s body camera shows him opening the door of a bedroom and coming face-to-face with Cogelia, who was about five feet away and “holding a hunting knife over his head, with the blade pointed at the troopers,” the attorney general said.
The trooper ordered him to drop the knife and Cogelia refused, Grewal said, at which point the trooper “discharged his Glock 19 (9mm) service weapon four times, striking Cogelia in the left arm and torso.”
“Troopers rendered aid to Cogelia until medical personnel arrived,” he said. “ Cogelia was pronounced dead at the scene.”
In reviewing the circumstances, New Jersey Director of Public Integrity Thomas Eicher found that Cogelia:
- threatened to “gut” his father earlier in the day;
- verbally threatened the troopers;
- was about 5 feet from the troopers;
- saw that the troopers were in uniform;
- raised the knife, a deadly weapon, above his head in “a threatening manner directed at the troopers”;
- failed to comply with [orders] to drop the knife.
The trooper’s belief that he was in imminent danger was clearly supported by the body-cam footage, forensic and ballistic evidence and the autopsy results, Eicher found.
What’s more, Eicher said, an employee of Cogelia’s told detectives that he’d spoken to him earlier that day about “killing his father and death by cop.”
“The man said he counseled Cogelia to move out of the house, but he did not call police because he did not know if Cogelia was serious,” the director found.
The director concluded that the trooper’s use of force “was justified under the law.”
“An officer may use deadly force in New Jersey when the officer reasonably believes it is immediately necessary to protect the officer or another person from imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm,” Grewal added.
“Law enforcement officers are taught in Use of Force Training that distance from the threat is one of many factors to be considered when using deadly force,” the attorney general emphasized.
In an official statement issued Friday, Grewal said, in part:
This investigation was conducted by the Attorney General’s Shooting Response Team, in accordance with the Independent Prosecutor Directive, issued in 2006, strengthened in 2015, and expanded in December 2019 (“the Independent Prosecutor Directive”).
The investigation included interviews of civilian witnesses; review of footage from troopers’ body-worn cameras; examination of evidence from the scene and ballistic evidence; and autopsy results from the medical examiner.
“As a result of the investigation, OPIA Director Thomas Eicher determined that presentation of the police-involved shooting to a grand jury was not required under the directive because the undisputed facts indicated the use of deadly force by the New Jersey state trooper (“Trooper 1”) was justified under the law.”
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ALSO SEE: Two troopers were OK after their SUVs collided Friday morning on westbound Route 80, a New Jersey State Police spokesman said.
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