Joseph Walker. (Screenshot of cbslocal/newyork news report)
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A jury has acquitted a New Jersey detective in the fatal shooting of a driver during a case of road rage in Maryland.
Forty-one-year-old Joseph Walker was found not guilty on all counts on Wednesday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. The investigator for the Hudson County, New Jersey, prosecutor’s office, had been charged with first-degree murder in the death of 36-year-old Joseph Harvey of Landsdowne, Maryland.
Walker also had been charged with second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and firearms offenses.
Prosecutors say Walker shot Harvey after the two pulled over in Millersville on June 8, 2013, after some traffic jostling. Walker’s lawyers have said their client thought he, his wife and three children were in danger following Harvey’s threatening actions and use of racist language when he fired his gun.