Gloucester County officials said on Saturday, October 9, at approximately 4:13 p.m., officers from the Woolwich Township Police Department responded to a 9-1-1 call at a Cottonwood Road residence regarding the report of a male sustaining a gunshot wound.
Upon arrival, Woolwich officers located the victim, Dennis McKenzie, 43, of that same address, deceased from apparent gunshot wounds.
The Woolwich Police undertook cooperative investigative efforts under the leadership of Chief Richard Jaramillo and the GCPO, which quickly led to the arrest at the scene of Christian Smith, 23, of Philadelphia, step-son of the victim, for the following offenses: murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and possession of a firearm without a permit to carry.
After processing, Smith was lodged in the Salem County Correctional Facility pending a detention hearing.
An autopsy conducted by the Gloucester County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the victim’s cause of death as gunshot wounds of the head and back and manner of death as a homicide.