BREAKING: New Jersey “Road Rage Cop” Acquitted in Maryland Murder Trial
Wednesday, July 30, 2014 at 12:52pm
NJ Police Officer Joseph Walker acquitted in the murder of MD-native Joseph Harvey Jr.
Joseph Walker
Just breaking in the last few minutes,
NJ police officer Joseph Walker, tried on charges of first degree murder in the road-rage shooting of Joseph Harvey Jr., has been acquitted. Not many details yet, so we’ll just share the news as provided by Hudson News 12 New Jersey, Hudson County Detective Joseph Walker acquitted in Maryland shooting:
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – A New Jersey detective was acquitted today of all charges in the killing of a driver during an alleged road-rage incident.
Joseph Walker, an investigator for the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, has been cleared of first-degree murder in the death of 36-year-old Joseph Harvey, of Lansdowne, Maryland.
Prosecutors say Walker, 41, shot Harvey after the two pulled over in Millersville on June 8, 2013 after some traffic jostling. Walker’s lawyers have said their client thought he, his wife and three children were in danger when he fired his gun.
The Anne Arundel County Circuit court jury delivered the verdict after a day of deliberations.
Key to this case was that Maryland is a very strong “duty-to-retreat” state. This means that if one has a safe avenue of retreat one is required to take advantage of it before you can make use of deadly force in self-defense.
Given that Walker was standing beside his operable minivan (with his family inside), and the unarmed aggressor whom he shot, Harvey, had to cross ~150 feet of distance on foot before being within reaching distance, a reasonable argument existed that Walker could have simply driven away rather than resort to his service pistol.
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