The Attorney General’s Office is conducting an investigation into the death of a 27-year-old man who was found deceased from a gunshot wound when members of the Atlantic County Emergency Response Team executed a search warrant early today at his residence.
Officials say the search warrant, which was issued in a multi-agency law enforcement investigation, was executed at approximately 5:30 a.m. at the residence on Oakbourne Avenue in Galloway.
When members of the county SWAT team entered the house, they found the decedent in his bedroom with a gunshot wound to the head.
A handgun was recovered near his body.
The identity of the decedent is not being released at this time.
The investigation is being conducted by the Integrity Bureau within the Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability.
This investigation is being conducted pursuant to a law enacted in January 2019, which requires the Attorney General’s Office to investigate all civilian deaths resulting from an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in law enforcement custody.
Here, according to the preliminary investigation, there was no use of force against the decedent by the officers involved; rather, the Attorney General’s Office is conducting this investigation because the decedent’s death was discovered and may have occurred while law enforcement officers were at the residence executing a search warrant.
The investigation is ongoing and no further information is being released at this time.