By Victoria Gladstone | NJ.com
nj.com
LACY TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Newly released footage replays the night a 55-year-old woman died after a police-involving shooting earlier this year in Ocean County.
The Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability released radio recordings and video footage Tuesday from four police body-worn cameras related to the death of Susanne Clarke, of Lacey, officials said.
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(WARNING: The videos and radio calls in the link contain lethal force and graphic language).
The fatal shooting from March 16 is under investigation by the office, authorities said. Clarke’s family members were given an opportunity to review the recordings prior to their public release.
Four Lacy Township police officers were dispatched to Clarke’s home on Hemlock Drive at around 2 a.m. after she called 911 to report suffering from a heart attack, the office said.
Officers encountered Clarke, who was inside the home and communicating with police through her window. She told them to leave her alone and she did not come to the door, investigators said.
Police said the officers remained on the scene, telling Clarke they needed to speak with her to ensure her well-being. Clarke shouted back at them, telling the police officers to leave, officials said.
Clarke was seen moving around within the home and lying on the floor. Police pleaded with her to come to the front door so they could talk, according to video footage.
After the officers had been on the scene for approximately 30 minutes, Lacey Township Police Officer Dallas Gant looked through the home’s rear sliding glass door. He found a dog that had knife wounds, police said.
“She stabbed the dog,” one officer said. “There is a knife in the dog.”
The officers attempted to enter the home by kicking the door down, but after several unsuccessful attempts, Gant tried to get in through a side window. He immediately withdrew once he saw Clarke come into the room with a knife, according to authorities.
Clarke exited the residence through the rear sliding glass door with a knife in her hand and advanced toward the officers, the office said. The two officers ordered Clarke to drop the knife before Gant fired his service weapon multiple times, striking her. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:24 a.m.
The knife was recovered at the scene, authorities said.
A firm representing the family of Clarke refuted the attorney general’s statement.
“Her avoidable death is the foreseeable consequence of feverish and unconstitutional policing,” according to the statement from her attorney, Joshua S. Moskovitz . “Her family calls on lawmakers to ensure that the Lacey Township Police Department and the officers responsible for Ms. Clarke’s death are brought to justice.”
The statement said Clarke called the police because she believed she was having a heart attack and that the officers refused to leave even though it was “clear she was not distress.”
The family’s attorney also said Clarke did not stab her dog, despite Gant’s claims that he saw a knife in the dog in the video files released Tuesday.
“There is no truth to the claim that Ms. Clarke stabbed her dog,” Moskovitz said. “As Ms. Clarke’s friends and family know, Ms. Clarke was a dog lover and she had recently started her own dog treat business. The Clarke family’s own investigation confirms Ms. Clarke’s dog was not stabbed.”
Moskovitz said Clarke picked up a kitchen knife in self defense as the officers tried to enter her home and attempted to flee before she was shot.
“Ms. Clarke was understandably frightened by the group of armed men breaking into her home, but she did not attempt to confront the officers,” he said. “Instead, she ran past the officer at her back door and was attempting to leave her yard when she was shot multiple times on her own property.”
“The fact that Officer Gant chose to shoot and kill Ms. Clarke – as opposed to using a taser or any other nonlethal means – is indefensible,” he added.
The Attorney General’s Office is required to conduct investigations of a person’s death that occurs during an encounter with a law enforcement officer.
The investigation into this incident is ongoing.
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