$27,000 reward in West Deptford police station shooting

WEST DEPTFORD, N.J. (WPVI) -- Police have issued a reward of $27,000 for the arrest and conviction of the person who opened fire on the West Deptford Township police headquarters early Tuesday.

The reward money comes from the local Police Benevolent Association and contributions from various police departments.

It happened at 4:05 a.m. at the West Deptford Township Municipal Building on Crown Point Road in West Deptford, just minutes after an officer entered the station.

Police say a dark-colored compact vehicle pulled into the parking lot of the West Deptford Public Library, located across the street.

Someone then opened fire on the police station, which is housed in the municipal building, with a large caliber gun.

Several bullets struck the building. Five rounds hit the door used by officers to get to their police vehicles.

Another bullet went through the window of Deputy Chief Sean McKenna's office. A seventh bullet hit a gutter on the side of the building.

"I think clearly if you're going to fire seven rounds into the side of a police department, I think this was not a warning and clearly out to hurt one of our officers," McKenna said.

The supervisor on duty took cover as the shots were fired and called county dispatch, police said.

An officer quickly responded, but the suspect or suspects had already fled.

No one was injured.

Surveillance video from the police station shows the car involved speeding through the parking lot.

Police say they are enhancing the video in hopes of seeing the license plate number of the make and model of the vehicle.

So far, police have no word on a motive in this attack.

"We haven't had any threats that led up to this incident, nothing was out of the ordinary last night on the overnight shift, but we are going to be looking back at the previous couple of weeks," said Deputy Chief McKenna.

The mayor of West Deptford rushed to the station as soon as he was notified.

"An attack like this on the police department is truly an attack on this community," said Mayor Raymond Chintall.

Officers say they had no advanced warning, nothing was out of the ordinary. As of now, they don't know why they were targeted overnight.

"We had nothing, no threats to our police officers, nothing directly or indirectly; obviously, we are going to go back through our reports and previous investigations and contacts with everyone that we had," McKenna said.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 856-853-4599 x164