Family of man who took 2 women hostage before being shot dead by police files lawsuit
Updated Jan 21, 2021;
Posted Jan 21, 2021
William Owens was shot and killed by police after holding two women hostage in a UPS warehouse in Gloucester County. (Facebook)
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The family of a man shot dead by police after authorities say he held two women hostage, beat them and tried to shoot one as she ran away has filed a lawsuit alleging excessive force by officers.
His family claims in the suit that he was trying to surrender to police when he was killed.
Owens, who previously worked at the site, confronted a woman with whom he had a prior relationship, followed her inside the building, grabbed her and fired a handgun into the air. He announced that he was taking the woman hostage, said he was going to kill her and pistol-whipped a security guard, according to the state Attorney General’s office, which reviewed the circumstances surrounding the shooting and cleared the office
3 arrested in gunpoint kidnapping, carjacking of 2 men, prosecutor says
Updated Jan 15, 2021;
Three men were arrested Thursday following the robbery and gunpoint kidnapping of two men last week in Gloucester County, authorities said.
The incident happened on Jan. 8 around 7 a.m. when two men called 911 from a wooded area off Barnsboro Road in Mantua Township and told police they had just been kidnapped at gunpoint from their Glassboro apartment, according to a statement from the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office.
The men said they were taken to the wooded area by their assailants in a car owned by one of them that had been taken by force at the time of the home invasion robbery, the office said.
Witnesses said the man appeared to be seated next to a bicycle in the road s westbound travel lane, according to an account from West Deptford police. At this time it is unknown why the (man) was seated in the roadway and the investigation is ongoing, it said.
In Runnemede, police released a surveillance photo of a vehicle sought in connection with a hit-and-run accident on Jan. 3.
The victim in that accident, 61-year-old Frederick P. Murray of Stratford, died in a hospital Tuesday, police said.
Murray was struck as he crossed the Black Horse Pike at Clements Bridge Road around 4:40 p.m., police said.
2 killed in Deptford crash were involved in domestic dispute at the time, cops say
Updated Jan 14, 2021;
Charyle Martell-Trombetta, 50, of Deptford, called 911 shortly before 2 p.m. to report a man trying to enter her vehicle while she was driving, according to the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office.
Officers responded to the 100 block of Caulfield Avenue, where they found a wrecked Subaru CrossTrek in the front yard of a home.
The occupants of the Subaru, Martell-Trombetta and Joseph Menta, 50, of Williamstown, were pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigation determined that the incident, described as a case of domestic violence involving the two, began at Martell-Trombetta’s residence on nearby Turkey Hill Road and continued onto Caulfield.