Man NJ Troopers Killed After He Shot A Dog Identified

KNOWLTON, NJ — The man killed by New Jersey State Troopers after he opened fire on a dog in a car with him has been identified as Timothy Parks, according to lehighvalleylive.com.

During an interview with the publication, Monroe County Coroner Tom Yanac identified Parks, who Yanac said lived in the Saylorsburg area of Pennsylvania’s Monroe County.

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Yanac told lehighvalleylive.com that Parks was an adult, though he didn’t give Parks’ age, stating he died at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Pocono.

Parks’ fatal run-in with police happened this past Sunday in New Jersey at about 1:30 a.m., after two unidentified troopers responded to a one-car accident on Knowlton’s Starlite Hill Road. While there, they found Parks was sitting in a car with a dog inside, having crashed into a ditch.

After attempting to communicate with Parks, according to New Jersey’s Attorney General’s Office, which has opened an investigation into the shooting, troopers shot Parks after he fired a weapon inside of the car and struck the dog.

As part of a directive created by Attorney General Gurbir Grewal in December 2019, the Attorney General's Office becomes an independent prosecutor in a police-related shooting with a civilian, while a "municipal, county state or other law enforcement officer" is on duty or off.

The Attorney General's Office investigates police shootings if:

• a person died by use of force from an officer or was seriously injured through that use of force;
• a police officer fired their weapon, even if there was no injury to the person;
• a civilian died "during an encounter with a law enforcement officer;" or
• if a civilian death happened while the person was in police custody.

"The investigation is ongoing and no further information is being released at this time," the Attorney General's Office reported.

Read more here on lehighvalleylive.com.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.