Assault Allegation Leads to Police Standoff in Erial

UPDATE, 10:39 a.m.: The Camden County Prosecutor's Office has advised township police that the device James Good, 21, allegedly possessed at the time of his arrest does not meet statutory standards to be defined as a destructive device.

Good will not be charged with possession of a destructive device, as initially reported by Patch, according to Gloucester Township Police Capt. Anthony Minosse. He was lodged in Camden County Jail on $1,000 bail on a charge relating to his alleged possession of a high-capacity magazine.

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A police standoff with a man accused of beating a woman inside an Erial home, where there reportedly were explosive devices, ended without serious incident early this morning.

Police responded to the suspect's home on Poplar Street to charge him with assault.

The victim, whom police spoke with at Kennedy University Hospital-Stratford, reported that the suspect had a grenade and pipe bomb inside his residence, as well as a handgun he used to threaten her during the assault Tuesday night.

Police contacted the suspect, Joseph J. Marsh, 44, by telephone upon arriving to his home at 34 Poplar St. early this morning, but he refused to come out to be arrested on a warrant. The police department's SWAT and negotiation teams were summoned at this point.

Marsh surrendered about an hour after the SWAT and negotiation teams arrived. He faces charges for alleged assault, threats, weapon possession, and resisting arrest, and is being held in Camden County Jail on $135,000 bail.

Marsh, who reportedly resisted police officers' initial attempts to place him into handcuffs upon exiting his home, is accused of striking the 44-year-old victim with a closed fist several times and threatening to kill her with a handgun.

A second man, James Good, 21, of Raritan Avenue, Atco, was arrested while trying to flee from the rear of the home. He was found to be in possession of what police believed to be a "destructive device" and a high-capacity magazine, police said.

Good has been charged with possession of a high-capacity magazine. The Camden County Prosecutor's Office determined the device Good allegedly possessed does not meet statutory requirements to warrant a charge for possession of a destructive device.

The incident resulted in police closing down Hickstown Road between Sicklerville and Peter Cheeseman roads. That stretch of Hicktown Road remained closed till about 6:30 a.m.

It is believed, based on emergency-communications scanner reports, that Marsh surrendered around 4 a.m., but police have not confirmed a time frame for the standoff at this time.

The Camden County Sheriff's Department Bomb Disposal Team was called to the scene to assist due to the report of explosives in the home.

Check back with GT Patch for more on this developing story.