The Associated Press
WILDWOOD, N.J. (AP) - An off-duty police detective who allegedly struck and killed a pedestrian was charged Friday with vehicular homicide because his blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit, authorities said.
Darrell Shelton, 31, a seven-year veteran of the Wildwood Police Department, already had been charged with drunken driving, leaving the scene of an accident and having an open container of alcohol in his Dodge pickup.
The homicide charge was issued after the State Police Laboratory reported Shelton’s blood-alcohol level was .197 percent, authorities said. The state’s blood-alcohol limit for drivers is .08 percent.
Shelton surrendered to authorities Friday afternoon and was released after posting $20,000 bail.
Prosecutors said that at about 2 a.m. Sept. 18, Shelton’s truck struck Pablo Barrios-Salas, 29, of Wildwood, as he crossed New Jersey Avenue.
Barrios-Salas, who worked two jobs and regularly sent money home to his wife and 6-year-old son in Mexico, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Shelton has been suspended pending an investigation into the accident, according to Lt. James Rybicki, chief of detectives for the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office.