Fatal Police Shooting Video Released By NJ Attorney General

NEWTON, NJ — A fatal shootout between Newton Police officers and a 61-year-old Newton man on July 4 is detailed in footage from police body and dash cameras, as well as the 911 call by the NJ Office of the Attorney General.

The graphic but blurred and redacted videos show the man the Attorney General’s Office identified as Gulia Dale III didn’t follow Newton Police directives when they ordered him to get out of his truck.

Instead, after opening his door, Dale closed it again, retreated to his truck for a moment and then exited, with shots quickly fired from two of three responding officers.

Acting Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck also released the names on Monday of the two Newton officers who shot Dale, Steven Kneidl and Garrett Armstrong.

The footage was released, Bruck said, after an Open Public Records Act request was made to the Attorney General’s Office, noting the shootout is still being investigated by the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability.

Bruck noted that investigators met with Dale’s family and their lawyer to watch and listen to the recordings July 30.

“Shots fired, shots fired, start BLS [basic life support] he’s on the ground,” one of the officers, who picked up Dale’s gun, yelled on the video.

“He’s dead, he’s down,” that same officer added, saying as he picked up Dale’s weapon, “Got a gun, got a gun.”

On one of the videos, after Dale dropped to the ground on his stomach, two responding officers rolled him over and then began administering basic life support, one of them noting they didn’t detect his pulse.

The officer who took Dale’s gun directed the other two to “start cleaning him up" before that, telling his fellow officers to “get the trauma kits,” as he nervously uttered some expletives while putting on his own gloves to help them.

During the 911 call prior to officers’ arrivals, the dispatcher spoke to the unidentified woman who called him about Dale during the 4 minute and 35 second segment, which at the end she was no longer on the phone; and pops from the gunfire could be heard on the audio.

While on the call, however, as she gave Dale’s license plate to the dispatcher and told him Dale was armed, she communicated with Dale in the background. The dispatcher relayed to responding officers, including the Andover Township Police Department and New Jersey State Police that he also called in, that Dale was armed.

“Please get the cops here,” she pleaded more than once with the dispatcher, turning to Dale during the call and saying to him, “The cops are on the way for you because you’re acting crazy.”

For all of the videos and the 911 call released by New Jersey’s Office of Attorney General, click here.

Bruck said the investigation has a 10-step process with the “Independent Prosecutor Directive,” set by former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal in 2019. As part of it, Grewal set up the Office of Public Integrity & Accountability in 2018 with Thomas Eicher, who had “a long track record of prosecuting corrupt public officials under both Democratic and Republican administrations,” with the U.S. Department of Justice, according to the Attorney General’s description of the directive.

As part of Grewal’s establishment of the directive, which he intended to be an “independent investigation into police use-of-force and death-in-custody incidents,” a police department is first required to contact the Attorney General’s Office after an incident that turns deadly like the one in Newton occurs. An independent investigator is then picked, the investigation starts and if footage is publicly requested it’s released before the investigation is finished.

After the investigation wraps up, investigators submit their recommendations to Eicher and a member of Bruck’s team, who review the case file.

A grand jury then makes the determination if criminal charges are made against the officers. If they do, the officers are arrested; and if not, investigators explain why they officers weren't charged, in a public statement.

At the end of the investigation, investigators communicate with the police department’s chief to discuss if the officers should be disciplined; and oversee the department’s disciplinary review process.

RELATED: 1 Dead In July 4th Shooting Between Man, Newton Police

Editor's note: A previous version of this story stated Dale and police exchanged gunfire. The shooting remains under investigation by the Ofice of the Attorney General.

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