Video shows backhoe driver going on weekend rampage before fatal police-involved shooting
Video from the Action Cam showed an ambulance flipped on its side, two damaged police vehicles and a damaged red car.
VINELAND, New Jersey (WPVI) -- Witnesses say a man used a backhoe to flip multiple vehicles and ram into homes in Vineland, New Jersey, just a short time before a fatal police-involved shooting.
The shooting happened around 5:30 a.m. Saturday in the Penn Lincoln Mobile Home Park between Brandywine Drive and Pennsylvania Avenue.
According to the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, a Vineland police officer shot the unidentified man. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:48 p.m.
Sometime before the fatal shooting, witnesses reported seeing an erratic driver traveling around the neighborhood in a backhoe.
"I have never seen nothing like this. Not around here. It's scary, really," said Tom Propheita from Vineland.
"The backhoe was hitting the red car, just kept hitting it. Then within a span of maybe like three to five minutes, an ambulance pulled up, and then the ambulance pulled into the driveway," said neighbor Nykatora Holley. "Within another two minutes, he knocked it down and there was a bunch of smoke and crashing."
Holley says the suspect also crashed into the officer's car, backed up and then crashed into it again before he sped off.
Theresa Jeffrey told Action News she was behind the wheel of the red sedan, driving on her way to work on the 3300 block of South Lincoln Avenue when the driver of the backhoe struck her multiple times.
Jeffrey did not suffer any injuries but says she is shaken up.
"I'm really traumatized. I cry every day, and I get headaches, I can't sleep. I can't eat; it's so stressful," said Jeffrey. "He could have killed me."
Three Vineland police officers sustained minor injuries during the incident. They have since been treated and released.
"This is something that you like see in a movie on TV, but not in real life," said Jeffrey.
The New Jersey Attorney General's Office has not released any further details on the investigation including any connection between the destruction and the shooting.
