Two Middle Township police officers face a state-mandated grand jury review after shooting and killing a Cape May Courthouse man during a high-stress rescue operation.
Officers Christopher Rudy and Ty Pettit responded to a disabled vehicle call at Route 9 and Satt Boulevard shortly after 10:20 a.m. on Friday, September 25.
Patrol units had previously tried to conduct a routine traffic stop on the same vehicle earlier that morning, but the driver fled from police.
When Rudy and Pettit reached the stalled vehicle in the Rio Grande area, they heard loud screams coming from inside the locked cabin.
The officers broke through the vehicle windows and discovered 37-year-old Andre Moore holding a knife to an adult female passenger.
Observing that the woman was actively being threatened and had already suffered multiple knife wounds, both officers fired their handguns at Moore.
The gunfire stopped the attack immediately, but Moore died from bullet wounds before he could be transported to an emergency room.
Paramedics transported the surviving woman to a regional medical facility for emergency treatment of her stab wounds.
State prosecutors with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office took control of the investigation under a 2019 law that requires independent reviews of all fatal police shootings.
Detectives are currently reviewing police body camera footage, physical evidence from the car, and officer statements before presenting the case to a county grand jury.
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