By Lucas K. Murray
Gloucester County Times
HAMMONTON TWP., N.J. — A police chase that started in Deptford Township when a man pulled a weapon on a local EMS worker late Sunday afternoon ended in gunfire early Monday morning.
The New Jersey State Attorney General’s Shooting Response Team is handling the investigation of the death of 27-year-old Donald Hoffman of Hammonton. He was fatally shot by a member of the Atlantic County Emergency Response Team just after 4 a.m. on the first floor of the home his mother was renting.
Late Sunday, a police official told the Times that a man had pulled a gun on the EMS worker at 4:30 p.m. at the outbuilding which houses Deptford Police’s Emergency Services Unit on Cooper Street at Delsea Drive.
At that time a second EMS worker saw what was happening, radioed county fire dispatch who in turn notified police.
Officers arrived on the scene as Hoffman fled in a white Honda Civic. Two units gave chase through Camden and Atlantic counties to the 200 block of 13th Street in Hammonton where he exited the car armed with the handgun and ran inside the home around 5 p.m.
Police then surrounded the perimeter of the property while Hammonton and Atlantic County SWAT teams responded. Hoffman’s mother and others who were inside left the home as did another resident who lives on the second floor.
A police negotiator was called in and communicated sporadically with Hoffman throughout the night in an attempt to get him to surrender. After failed attempts at talking Hoffman out, authorities elected to fire canisters of pepper spray.
Still Hoffman disregarded commands to give himself up. Members of the Atlantic County Emergency Response Team entered the home and fatally shot Hoffman.
Information as to what went on inside is not being released by the Attorney General’s Office. The investigation is ongoing.
The Shooting Response Team is comprised of deputy attorneys general, detectives of the Division of Criminal Justice and detectives with the New Jersey State Police Major Crimes Unit.
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