Bodycam: N.J. Police Take Down Suspect Armed with Knife at Home where 3 People Found Dead

By Victoria Gladstone and Chris Sheldon

Source nj.com

Investigators have released 911 calls, radio transmissions and body worn camera recordings from an incident earlier this year where police fatally shot a man at a Piscataway home where three people were found dead inside.

Police fatally shot the knife-wielding man, 29-year-old Jordan Barnes, at the River Road home on Jan. 5, according to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.

Inside, they found the bodies of Jeanmarie Barnes, 60; Brenda F. Barnes, 84; and Richard A. Barnes, 86 — later identified by Piscataway Mayor Brian Wahler as Barnes’ mother and grandparents.

The New Jersey Office of the Attorney General released the recordings on Wednesday.

WARNING: The videos and audio may be disturbing to some viewers as they include footage of a fatal shooting and graphic language.

Authorities said the Piscataway Police Department received two 911 calls that night.

The first call captured a woman yelling “stop” in the background, while commotion and yelling can be heard, the office said.

The investigation later revealed the call was made by Jeanmarie Barnes on her cell phone.

The second 911 call came from an unidentified relative of Barnes, who told dispatchers that Barnes was threatening to stab people inside the home.

That caller was identified by the mayor as Jordan’s father.

At 5:33 p.m., the first of multiple Piscataway police officers arrived at the home and found Barnes standing on the front porch, the office said. As the officer approached, Barnes picked up a knife on the ground, went inside the house and locked the front door.

The officer then spoke with the second relative who had called 911, who was standing in the driveway, investigators said. They indicated that there were three additional people inside the house with Barnes.

While speaking to the relative, Barnes appeared in the second-story window, made a gesture to his neck, and yelled to the officers that they were not getting inside the house, authorities said.

Multiple officers then assembled on the front porch of the home and as one officer tried to talk with Barnes through the closed front door,

Officer John Ward looked through the front door’s sidelight and saw two people lying unresponsive inside on the floor, the office said. Officers then determined they would make entry into the residence utilizing a key provided by the relative who met them in the driveway.

The officers opened the front door, saw Barnes holding a kitchen knife in his left hand and commanded him to put the weapon down and get on the ground, according to the footage. Barnes did not drop the knife or get on the ground and he advanced toward the officers.

Three officers discharged their tasers to no effect and Ward then fired his service weapon, striking Barnes, the office said.

Police provided immediate medical aid and cleared the home for emergency personnel, who pronounced Barnes dead at the scene, authorities said.

A large kitchen knife that Barnes had been holding was recovered from the front porch, and a second broken knife from the immediate threshold of the entrance was also taken as evidence, the office said.

After the shooting, police found Jeanmarie, Richard and Brenda inside the house with multiple stab wounds, officials said.

Their deaths are under investigation by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, which has not commented on the case.

The shooting is being investigated by the attorney general’s office, which probes any incident where a person is killed during an encounter with police.

Jordan worked with his mother at TechniQuest Corporation, a Princeton-based engineering firm, the company previously confirmed to NJ.com.

A person close to the family, who did not want to be identified because the family had not authorized him to speak, said the relatives were close and described Jordan as a “highly intelligent” mechanical engineer and a “really nice guy.”

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