Trooper shot man at Molly Pitcher rest stop. Watch video
TRENTON -- The man shot and killed by a state trooper at a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike on Thursday was seen speeding toward the trooper in his pickup truck before the fatal shots were fired, according to the state attorney general.
The man, identified as Christopher Angelo Pizzichetta, 46, was allegedly spotted by an undercover State Police narcotics team shooting heroin in the parking lot of the Molly Pitcher Service Area before the shooting.
State Attorney General Christopher Porrino's office released new details a day after the deadly encounter along the southbound side of the turnpike in Cranbury.
Authorities say Pizzichetta, of Lewes, Delaware, was attempting to flee the scene after police surrounded his vehicle, striking a police car, crossing the median and speeding toward the trooper as he fled.
That trooper fired several shots through the man's windshield, striking him on the "upper part of his body," according to a statement released by the Attorney General's Office.
The pickup continued driving at high speed after he was shot, crashing into a concrete retaining wall along the highway, the statement said.
Pizzichetta had earlier caught the attention of five troopers in four unmarked vehicles who were "conducting undercover operations targeting narcotics and other criminal activity" at the rest stop, authorities said.
One of the troopers claimed he saw Pizzichetta parked at the north end of the rest area parking lot, where he appeared to be "shooting up" some time before 3 p.m. When the troopers approached, authorities said, he drove off toward a "remote area" on the other end of the lot.
Three of the unmarked vehicles, including a Chevy Silverado pickup, maneuvered to block the man in, according to the Attorney General's Office, and as he attempted to flee he struck a police SUV.
The troopers took after him and Pizzichetta allegedly cut across a median where another trooper was standing.
"Civilian witnesses said that Pizzichetta sped directly at the trooper, who was wearing a holster and weapon and was clearly identifiable as a police officer," the attorney general's statement said.
After the shots were fired, Pizzichetta was pronounced dead at the scene.
"A syringe and empty glassine (envelope) were found in Pizzichetta's pickup truck, along with numerous other glassines containing suspected heroin," the statement said. "None of the troopers were injured, but the trooper who fired was taken to the hospital for evaluation, pursuant to standard procedures."
The chaotic scene led to the temporary closure of access roads to the rest stop as the attorney general's Shooting Response Team, which opens an inquiry any time a trooper fires his or her weapon, responded.
As news helicopters circled overhead, a separate team of officers arrested two men on the turnpike an hour's drive south in Pilesgrove, leading to some news reports that the two incidents may have been connected.
But Brian Polite, a State Police spokesman, said Friday that arrest was unrelated. A State Police fugitive unit, working alongside the U.S. Marshall's Service and other law enforcement, apprehended two men wanted for aggravated assault and weapons offenses out of Maryland, he said.
S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.