Atlantic City authorities released bodycam footage Wednesday of a fatal shootout in which a paralyzed felon wounded two officers before SWAT gunfire killed him.
Donald Gardner, 52, fired through his front door as police breached it with a mechanical device on June 2, according to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Officers had announced their presence and purpose moments before the door was forced open.
“Upon arrival at the residence, officers observed that the front door was initially open, but was then closed by an individual inside the residence,” the Attorney General’s office said in a statement. “Officers announced their presence and purpose at the door and then used a mechanical device to breach the door.”
“As the door opened, Mr. Gardner, who was inside the residence, fired multiple gunshots at the officers.”
Sgt. Christian Ivanov suffered a life-threatening gunshot wound to the leg that damaged his femoral artery and caused critical blood loss. The second injured officer took a round to the head but survived because of his helmet. Both were rushed to the hospital, and Ivanov was discharged two weeks later, according to 6abc Action News.
ACPD Officer Robert Reynolds returned fire through the open door, striking Gardner, who also went by Donald Capriotti. A handgun was recovered from the scene. Gardner died at the scene, and the circumstances of the incident remain under ongoing investigation.
The June confrontation marked at least the second time police had shot Gardner. He was previously wounded by officers on November 7, 2013, an incident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, NJ.com reported.
Gardner’s criminal record stretched back decades. He pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter after killing a friend in 1993 and served 18 years of a 30-year sentence before parole release in May 2012. In 2014, he drew an 18-year state prison term after pleading guilty to first-degree possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and second-degree possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He won parole release again in 2023.
After the shooting, Gardner’s mother, Tina Capriotti, told Fox 29 that officers had denied her access to her son’s body for hours.
“I want to know why they killed my son, that’s what I want to know,” Capriotti said.
“They left him here until 2 o’clock in the morning dead in a wheelchair and they’d didn’t give me one minute, one minute to see my son.”
The Atlantic County SWAT team had joined Atlantic City police in serving the search warrant on Gardner’s home when the gunfire erupted.