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Joshua Gonzalez, 20, of Millville, kept police at bay for nearly a half-hour during the rampage in Vineland, which began around 5 a.m. Dec. 18, Acting New Jersey Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck said.
Video shows one police vehicle being smashed and another being knocked onto its side. An ambulance was toppled, and a sedan was repeatedly struck with a female driver inside.
The backhoe also took down a tree and a utility pole.
Gonzalez was "bent on destruction," the New Jersey State PBA wrote in a social media post.
An officer eventually shot Gonzalez, who was tended to before being pronounced dead at the scene at 5:48 a.m., Bruck said.
Three Vineland police officers sustained minor injuries during the incident, the attorney general said. They were treated at a local hospital before being released, he said.
Despite the obvious circumstances, both state law and his own guidelines require Bruck 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 will be presented to a grand jury -- ordinarily consisting of 16 to 23 citizens -- that will determine whether or not criminal charges are in order.
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