Detectives discovered an apology letter after Manchester Township police officers fatally shot 18-year-old Limichael Shine on Sunday
By Alex N. Gecan, Alexandria Carolan and Andrew Ford
Asbury Park Press
August 2, 2016
MANCHESTER, NJ -- Township police shot and killed an 18-year-old Toms River man who authorities say was brandishing a knife and threatening suicide.
The man was identified as 18-year-old Limichael Shine of Toms River, officials with the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office confirmed Monday morning. It was the third fatal police-involved shooting in Ocean County this year.
Township police went to a Robin Street home shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday, responding to a report of a suicidal man, according to Capt. Jack Sramaty, who heads up the county prosecutor's Special Operations Group.
According to police, Shine had been cleaning the home with his mother and "had contacted 911 stating that he wanted a police officer to respond to his location and that he ... was going to commit suicide."
Sramaty said that Shine had "a large knife" when police arrived.
"Mr. Shine asked the responding officers to shoot him. The officers gave Mr. Shine commands to relax, surrender and to drop his weapon," Sramaty said. "Mr. Shine refused to obey repeated commands by the officers to surrender and to drop his knife. This encounter resulted in a Manchester Township police officer firing one shot upon Mr. Shine."
Police rendered first aid at the scene, to no avail. Shine was pronounced dead at an area hospital soon after, Sramaty said.
Detectives found a note that Sramaty said Shine had written before calling 911 "in which he apologizes to the officer who ultimately will respond to this call. In the note, Mr. Shine writes that his goal was to commit suicide by officer."
Sramaty said that the Prosecutor's Office and the Ocean County Sheriff's Office were investigating the shooting "with the full cooperation of the Manchester Township Police Department."
Nancy Festa, 62, lives in one of the homes next to where police shot Shine. She said she didn't hear the gunshot because she was playing music. She looked out her window after a friend brought the commotion to her attention.
She said she saw ambulances, police cars and red crime scene tape strung across her front yard.
She recalled Shine's mother at the scene, crying out to police, "I want to see him, I want to see him now."
"She was very upset," Festa said. "Yeah, I would've been, too. I feel bad for the mother, I really do."
A woman who answered the door at an address listed for Shine declined to comment.
Manchester police officials did not respond to requests for comment. Sramaty said he could not yet identify the officer who fired or say whether the officer had been placed on altered duty pending the investigation.
The Shore area has already seen several officer-involved shootings in 2016.
In June, the state Attorney General's Office determined that the Ocean County SWAT officers who shot and killed Michael Laniado in February had "used an acceptable level of force." The 27-year-old Manchester man had brandished a knife and charged officers, state authorities said.
Toms River police shot 29-year-old Timothy Sauers on July 7 after he pulled a pellet gun on officers investigating a suspicious vehicle, police said. That shooting unfolded at nearly the same time that a sniper ambushed Dallas police officers guarding a peaceful protest, killing five of them. Sauers survived his injuries.
On July 16 Ocean County SWAT officers shot and killed retired New York Police Department Lt. Patrick Fennell after he fled with a handgun into the woods behind his Little Egg Harbor home.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Well, that’s one way to prevent a suicide. It's better than Crisis Hotline … Just shoot the bastard!
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