Press Conference after arrest of Cop Killer Lakewood

as soon as the pro gets here we'll begin obviously if you guys want to start introducing yourselves major Edward setar C n AR commanding officer Special Operations section New Jersey State Police first name mayor maner mayor ofer your mayor Min Miller mayor of L Township Miller Miller M El Chief Robert Lawson La hi and I'm Marin Lynch for m l NE Lynch l y n c Ford f o r d Ocean County prosecutor all right uh ladies and gentlemen the press as well as the public interested public uh today we announced this morning the arrest uh and apprehension of Jamal fren uh Jamal is 19 years old a resident of Lakewood Township prosecutor's office yesterday obtained a warrant for the arrest of Jamal in connection with the um murder of Lake wemp police officer Christopher Matos on Friday afternoon bail has been set as I indicated at in the amount of $5 million cash only uh by uh The Honorable Francis Hodson as for the warrant obtained on Saturday some of the details today at approximately 6:30 this morning the New Jersey State Police teams unit which is a specialized tactical um strike unit uh specializing in high-risk entry joined by repres representatives of the US Marshall Service New York New Jersey Regional fugitive task force um effectuated an arrest of Jamal Cochran in the city of Camden the arrest was effectuated without incident the details of the investigation are as follows during the course of our investigation we obtained information suggesting that the defendant Janelle Cochran had taken refuge in a home in Camden the state police team's unit and the US Marshal Service were immediately dispatched by the commanders uh to the vicinity of the prb apartments which is located on 8th Street in Camden 6:30 this morning uh they made entry to a unit there Mr Crockin was identified and immediately taken into custody he has been transported to the police station he has been processed here uh it's my understanding that he's currently in route if not already um at the Ocean County Jail I should know note that this uh concludes the first phase of a massive uh law enforcement effort to apprehend the person who was responsible for the violent and senseless loss of one of our own police officers here in Lake with Township now there are obviously many people to thank um and at this point in time I would like to afford the opportunity of the podium to some of our um important people here in Lakewood um close to it and first and foremost is our chief of police Rob Lawson Chief Lawson I like to take this opportunity just to thank the tremendous support from not only local County state and federal resources and officers we could not have uh done this investigation without them um this is not a time of Celebration um but it is some s small Solace to the family of Officer Matos and and the his brother officers to have the suspect in custody at this time I'd like to uh introduce our our mayor mayor Masha Miller as you would like to say a few words also on behalf of the governing body of laka Township I'd like to thank the surrounding Town Mayors for offering their resources during this trying time Mayor Bob wolf of Howell Township Mayor Mike Riner of Jackson Township immediately reached out to me personally to offer their resources they have to be able to assist us enable us during this trying time I'd also like to thank all the law enforcement agencies that gathered together in Lakewood Township to help us during this trying time as my fellow committeeman mayor lonstein who asked as the police commissioner of the Sierra as well you mentioned to me this morning it's a bitter time right now we're thrilled to have removed this cold blood murderer off the street but at the same time there's a fiance is going to be lonely there's a mother that has to bury her son and there are countless officers who have lost a fellow comade at this point I'd like to offer condolences to the family and to the Friends of Chris God bless thank you thank you mayor uh in the press release that I distributed today uh to you um we were authorized to include a quote from our um Colonel quentes of the New Jersey State Police um here representing him is uh major SAR uh who was also intimately involved with the special unit uh that I referred to in there major as prosecutor and uh the chief said many agencies came together in order to bring this conclusion or this rest of successful illusion conclusion on behalf of the New Jersey State Police and the superintendent uh our thanks to the Chief and the prosecutor for everything that we had to do out there uh as far as investigative leads that took us to the city of C to execute the warrant and bring this rest of successful conclusion and let the detectives and prosecutor's office continue with this investigation thank you thank you now um I would like to acknowledge um two people who really LED this investigation uh in a an extraordinarily professional um first class manner uh never um getting flustered by the sheer enormity of the task before them and that's Lieutenant Paul da of the lak M Township Police Department um and also um Captain Tom Hayes from my office um if they look a little shabby it's because I don't think they've gone home in a couple of days so and that's that's been the commitment that they made um in addition to that I also would like to acknowledge the um work that was done by many law enforcement um colleagues at both federal state and local level um we had assistance from not only the US Marshall Service uh fugitive task force that I referred to earlier but the FBI the federal ATF the US attorney's office uh the attorney General's Office Division of Criminal Justice uh attorney general DA has been on the phone with me numerous times throughout this ordeal um and they have uh been with us every step of the way and we are uh very thankful for them reaching out of their own specialized jurisdictions and giving us whatever expertise that they have the um I would also like to acknowledge as uh the mayor had indicated earlier um the uh incredible Spirit of cooperation that came from our local police departments um first of all uh the Ocean County Sheriff's department and the Ocean County Department Corrections um are um our colleagues uh basically I home our colleagues across the street um at the courthouse uh police departments from Tom serer brick Jackson came in to Lakewood and provided uh Patrol and other services so as to U allow the Lakewood Police Officers to deal with their grief uh Seaside Heights South THS River Berkeley Township Manchester Town how Township and of course the city of Camden police departments all provided significant support uh to this effort I would also acknowledge uh the particular help that was rendered by both the mammoth County as well as the uh campon County prosecutor's office and I also would like to acknowledge our own specialized um task forces in Moman Ocean County the Ocean County Regional SWAT team as well as the mammoth County Regional SWAT team were activated and um and participated um the real heroes in this are the citizens who step forward with information um that led us to be able to construct uh what we feel is probable cause for the identification and arrest of the perpetrator of this particularly penous act um this will uh allow us now to proceed to The Next Step know in a grieving process a collective grieving process by law enforcement on behalf of the police officer um I too uh would like to thank the press for their courtesies and respecting uh the privacy of the police officers as well as the family members of um of uh officer Matos uh and I also would like to thank the press this is something that you don't always hear from me I'd like to thank the press for um all of their assistance and getting the word out on this um and this this was a uh this was an incredible uh experience in terms of seeing uh the process has played out uh at this point um I would like to make myself available for any questions Marlene have you reached out to the family uh and what are they saying about the arest um we have at this point in time not reached out to the family uh we believe that at you know if they want to hear from us that we will be there um if they're ready you know obviously I'm I'm interested in making a condolence call and if they're ready for that I I I will be doing that but uh I also you know you I also am very reluct to interfere with their ging process at this point can you describe please the uh the arrest itself whether there was any resistance was this person asleep or what well it's my understanding that uh he was he was awake uh that there was uh and that the whole incident you know consistent with uh what these these specialized forces trained for it was it was very quick and immediate and you know and it's done that way not only for officer safety but for uh the saf defending as well and so um um not that I'm aware of of gang can you speculate as to what motive might have been at this point and all right let me let me put it this way um we uh you know are of course ethically restricted on what we can discuss publicly uh about the arrest and I think that I've probably gone to uh the limits of what we can do having said that um you know we are our investigation this is a continuing investigation uh we will we are not um concluding it by any stretch of the imagination uh we will still be seeking out information about whether or not there are other parties that are responsible for assisting in connection with this either after the fact or before uh all of those factors have not been fully fleshed out uh but uh as I indicated will take its course um and the criminal justice system will take its course at this point in time off acquainted with this uh suspect you that for we have not we have not determined that uh at this point in time but you know it's it's in many respects a small town and uh and I wouldn't be surprised if he was but uh you know obviously uh that information is not available to the blood approach please um the um I'm sorry the circumstances when the officer approached the individual the officer was on routine Patrol observed an individual um there um had which is kind of a normal police police action U by any Small Town police officer at stopped to make some inquiries was checking them out uh when it's our understanding based upon eyewitness accounts that the individuals Ste back uh fired once and then step forward and fired twice again back to the gang issue can you elaborate as to why you can't go into it or what well whether or not is affiliated with I think it's it's premature to make those determinations you know obviously we just took a suspect into custody a couple of hours ago um we are piecing together his affiliations and so forth and that may or may not be a question of evidence at the um at the trial on this so for those reasons and because I'm not going to talk about evidence that's it having said that in a generalized sense I will say that um you know that I uh we're aware of um all kinds of rumors that go around you know police intelligence is based to a certain extent on rumors and and whether or not there's any credibility to them we always follow through and check them out um people are working on these issues constantly and um whether or not there is a gang affiliation is something that I believe will have to be determined during the course of our investigation and this assault rifle that he was in possession with on December 29th was that an assault rifle um I'm not I all I know is that it was a long rifle I don't know if it was technically considered an assault rifle how did he get from uh here to cell um that is uh subject to evidence which I'm not going to discuss publicly at this point can you talk about reward and will it play a part in this arrest um the reward has been collected by the state PBA from various entities uh I believe at the last count it in the area of 145 $150,000 give or take um certainly uh there will be claims made for that an evaluation made by them not me as to uh to what extent the uh they would qualify for any were there two other people with him when he was arrested uh he was arrested alone I I don't know whether or not there were uh any other occupants of the premis no else arrested no one else was arrested at that point time can you talk about the citizens that came forward can you talk about the move the department I'm going to defer that to the chief since I think you better be best able to um discuss you know the the State of Mind of this men and women certainly the officers are uh relieved that the uh the suspect and the murder of offer officer Matos is been apprehended but like I said this is not a time of Celebration it's now time to focus on on the grief the arrest of the suspect gives some small solid to the the officers the could we potentially hear from one of the lieutenants who clearly been working around the cl to make this happen that be possible well right now this press conference is just only to speak person can you talk a little bit about officer sure officer Matt Los um has been on the lake of police department for approximately four and a half years um he's 27 years old he spent just about his entire career working the midnight which is from 900 p.m. till 7 a.m. in the morning the officers pick their shifts every year and it just so happens for 2011 Al matlo pick the evening show um which starts at 2 p.m. until midnight so he was only on his I believe on his on his second night of of working can you speak personally how ruling this has been for you it's been devastating for me you on the police department U we're a Brotherhood we're like one big family and what hurts one hurts us all so speaking for myself and all the other officers on the department it's just it's been devastating um prut L can you tell us the the relationship between this apartment he was found at and cden how did he get to that apartment what was his connection to it uh well we um are currently trying to determine that based upon um interviews and so for but uh obviously I'm not going to comment on evidence an interview or a statement by a witness or an interested party or somebody with critical information be considered evidence of this unfortunately um we're not going to do that um at this point I'm going to conclude the press conference I um believe that uh you know we probably have gone to the parameters of what we are ethically permitted to say um I would I thank uh the press for the patience in this particularly trying time um again um to all the law enforcement that is only partially represented here um and to the hundreds that are out there um that were pulling on our big half I from heart I that bail was set on the warrant by judge Hodson at $5 million what will happen is that uh under our rules he's he's brought before a judge for What's called the first appearance um I think that probably will happen tomorrow Tu tomorrow tomorrow the courts are closed so it'll happen on Tuesday forgive me but if first appearance isn't exactly an arraignment what happens at a first appearance the uh he's advised of what his rights are he's advised of the charges against him he's advised of his right to have counsel if he can't afford counsel he's advised of his right to have um appointed counsel and at that point in time uh and he and then the the judge will indicate uh whether or not to continue the bail at that level to change the bail what conditions to attach to the bail and then um you know and then he can either make bail or or not make bail or and you know the most I I think from the defendant's point of view the most important thing is that um assignment of counsil would we remain here in Lakewood until that no he's been uh what's what's normal in any case where somebody's arrested is that they are generally processed at the local Department here and then brought down to the county so so you probably being processed at this point in time down in at the Ocean County courthouse at the Ocean County Jail he'll be held in the Ocean County Jail unless of course he next bail um and uh if not he'll be brought before a judge for a first appearance on Tuesday sometime he already been transferred to oan he already been transferred thank you thank you press confence no it would happen at the Ocean County court has some talks [Music]