By Anthony R. Wood
The Philadelphia Inquirer
MANNINGTON, N.J. — An unidentified man was killed and two New Jersey state troopers were injured early yesterday during a gun battle inside a barn after a seven-mile high-speed chase on rural roads in Salem County, state police said.
The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was driving a car stolen in Kennett Square, Chester County, police said.
The injuries to Troopers Luis Tomlinson, 25, and Matthew Szustowicz, 26, were not life-threatening, authorities said. Both are two-year veterans assigned to the Woodstown barracks.
Tomlinson was being treated at Memorial Hospital of Salem County in Salem for a hand wound. Szustowicz, wounded in an ear and a cheek, was taken to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, then transferred to an undisclosed Philadelphia hospital.
“This could have been far worse for us,” State Police Sgt. Stephen Jones said.
It was not known how many shots had been fired or who had fired first. Jones said the suspect’s gun had been recovered in the barn, where yellow police tape cordoned off the entrance yesterday afternoon.
The state attorney general’s Shooting Response Team was investigating, Jones said, standard procedure in shootings involving police officers.
Jones gave this account:
About 3:40 a.m., Tomlinson and Szustowicz saw two vehicles speeding west on Route 40 about five miles from the Woodstown barracks and the site of the Cowtown Rodeo. A second patrol car joined the pursuit.
Four miles into the chase, the fleeing vehicles turned onto Route 45 and headed south. Near a farm about three miles down the road, the rear vehicle stopped, and the driver got out and ran into a white wooden barn. Tomlinson and Szustowicz followed on foot.
In the exchange of gunfire, the suspect was shot to death and the officers were wounded.
After the officers radioed for help, the second state police car gave up chasing the second vehicle and went to their aid.
The second vehicle, also stolen, was found in the parking lot of the Red Roof Inn in Christiana, Del., and Delaware state police said last night that four others had been taken into custody in connection with the New Jersey chase.
The police investigation was continuing.
Copyright 2008 The Philadelphia Inquirer