Officials release bodycam video, 911 audio of deadly police-involved shooting in Mantua Township
MANTUA TOWNSHIP, N - The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office released police-worn body camera footage and a 911 recording of the morning that 49-year-old Charles Sharp III, of Mantua Township, was shot and killed by police.
The footage shows a Mantua Township police officer arriving to a call on the 200 block of Elm Avenue and within seconds, firing his weapon at least a dozen times.
RELATED: Officer fatally shoots man during encounter outside Mantua Township home, authorities say
You can hear officers on the body camera footage yell, "He’s got a handgun on him!"
Another officer yells, "Where?"
An officer responds, "Right there!"
Then, you see and hear an officer firing several rounds. Charles Sharp III collapsed and later died.
Sharp, whose obituary says he was a father to one son and served in the U.S. Air Force for more than 20 years, made an emergency call to 911 around 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 14.
On the call, Sharp says, "I got two intruders in the back of my yard." He later adds, "I looked out my window and the one guy was in my shed."
Sharp told the dispatcher that he saw one person in his yard armed with a gun and that he set off firecrackers to scare them away, before adding, "My grandfather willed me a .45. I don’t know what I’m allowed to do with that."
Then, the officers arrive on the scene. On the 911 call, you can hear an officer yell at Sharp to drop the weapon. "Put the gun down," an officer said.
The dispatcher tries to continue the call, asking, "Are you talking to one of my officers?"
Seven seconds later, an officer yells, "He’s got a handgun on him."
One responding officer opens fire.
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You can later hear officers talking about what just unfolded.
One officer says, "The guy came out and pointed a gun." The conversation continues, "He pointed a gun. I thought he was going to f-ing shoot me, dude."
Investigators later confirmed that the weapon they recovered at the scene wasn’t real. It was a detailed replica.
The shooting remains under investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.
FOX 29's Jennifer Joyce reached out to both the NJ AG’s Office and the Mantua Police Department for the status of the firing officer, but we have not heard back.
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