68-YEAR-OLD WOMAN SHOT DEAD BY POLICE INSIDE NEW BRUNSWICK SENIOR TOWER

A 68-year-old woman was shot and killed by a New Brunswick police officer inside a senior apartment building last week, prompting a state-led investigation into the city’s first fatal police shooting in six years.

The incident occurred the morning of August 8 at the John P. Fricano Towers, a senior high-rise on Neilson Street. According to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, police responded to reports of a woman carrying a knife in a hallway.

Investigators said officers spoke with the woman through her closed apartment door before she emerged into the hallway holding a knife. Officers first used pepper spray and then a Taser in an attempt to subdue her. When those measures failed, one officer fired his service weapon, striking the woman.

The victim, identified as Deborah Terrell, was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. She had lived on the building’s fourth floor since April 2022.

The Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity & Accountability is handling the investigation under a 2019 state law requiring the agency to probe all deaths involving police use of force. The case will also be presented to a grand jury to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

Authorities have not released the name of the officer who fired the fatal shot. No officers were injured in the encounter.

This marks the first deadly police shooting in New Brunswick since the law took effect, and it has drawn attention from residents and advocacy groups seeking answers about the use of lethal force.