Man killed by off-duty cop during struggle for a gun: Prosecutors
A man was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer here in the 500 block of Roosevelt Street.
A city man was shot and killed Saturday night after he allegedly tried to wrestle a handgun away from an off-duty police officer.
The incident happened around 9:50 p.m. Saturday in the 500 block of Roosevelt Street where the off-duty officer was attending a post-funeral gathering.
Officials say 30-year-old Constantine Toe and his brother Alfred Toe, 34, attended the funeral and gathering as well.
Prosecutors say Constantine was shot in the hand while trying to disarm Alfred during an altercation involving several men at the gathering, which prompted intervention from the officer.
After hearing the gunshot, prosecutors say, an armed off-duty Trenton Police officer drew his weapon, ordered Constantine onto the ground and confiscated the handgun he took from his brother.
The officer was holding both handguns, prosecutors say, when Alfred tried to grab one of the weapons from him.
During the struggle, Alfred was shot once in the chest, according to prosecutors in the case. He later died at the hospital.
Prosecutors did not disclose the name of the officer involved in the shooting. But several sources confirmed that Officer Sheehan Miles was the person who was struggling with Alfred when the gun fired. Sources say Miles was with a female companion, whom also attended the funeral and gathering, and that he was “very close-by” when he heard the shot that injured Constantine.
Miles has been on the force for more than 13 years and earns a yearly salary of $91,871, according to public records. He suffered injuries to his arm and hand earlier this year while breaking up a street fight on North Broad Street.
Dating back to 2013, there has been at least one police-involved shooting in the capital city each year.
In May 2013, 38-year-old Gerald Murphy was shot and killed by police during a 37-hour standoff in a Grand Street home after he killed his girlfriend, her 13-year-old son, and held the woman’s three other children hostage at gunpoint.
Then, in August 2013, Eric McNeil, 23, was justifiably shot and killed by police after he ambushed two detectives as they were escorting a domestic violence victim back to her Hobart Avenue home.
In November 2014, 31-year-old Darnell Stafford was shot and killed by cops after he fired gunshots through the windshield of their police cruiser on Wilson Street.
And last year, police shot 23-year-old Jeremiah Sanchez in the neck and arm after he allegedly hit an officer with his car while fleeing from the first block of Chestnut Avenue. Sanchez survived the shooting.
The Trentonian will include Toe’s death in its yearly homicide count, and will differentiate between homicides and murders in its end of year review. But TPD and state police do not include justifiable police killings in yearly homicide statistics. This year’s homicide toll is now 15.
