Dear Willingboro Township,

Please accept this electronic request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form or use a particular software platform to submit my request per NJSA 47:1A-6(f), which states that an email from a requestor including all of the information required on the adopted form shall suffice in place of a completed form as a valid government record request.

I HAVE NOT been convicted of any indictable offense under the laws of New Jersey, any other state, or the United States.

I WILL NOT use the requested government records for a commercial purpose.

I AM NOT seeking records in connection with a legal proceeding.

Records requested:
Dear Records Custodian,

Under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act (OPRA, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq.) and any other applicable New Jersey law governing access to body-worn camera recordings, I request body-worn camera (BWC) recordings only related to the Willingboro Township Police Department’s initial on-scene response to the August 21, 2021 shooting at the Phillips 66 gas station in the first block/unit block of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive (Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.), Willingboro Township, NJ, in which 14-year-old Jesse Everett was shot and later died.

Records requested (please produce up to five clear, non-duplicative items)

Please produce up to five clear, non-duplicative BWC recordings (or the relevant clips/segments from those recordings) showing:

Officers’ initial arrival and approach at/near the Phillips 66 gas station;

Immediate scene security and initial assessment (limited to the first-response phase);

Any non-graphic attempts to render aid / coordinate medical response (as captured on BWC), while avoiding any close-up depiction of injuries or the victim;

Initial witness contacts and on-scene officer communications captured on BWC that are necessary to understand the immediate response;

The transition/handoff as the initial response concludes (e.g., supervisor arrival, perimeter established, request for investigators), limited to the same incident.

If producing entire files is burdensome, please instead provide the most responsive clips: the earliest segments from the first-arriving officer and any officer who coordinated the initial medical response/scene control, covering arrival through stabilization of the scene.

Strict limits / exclusions (to keep this narrow and reduce review burden)

This request is strictly limited to the initial on-scene response at the gas station on August 21, 2021. I am not seeking:

Any graphic imagery or close-up depictions of injuries, the victim, or medical treatment;

Any recordings from inside hospitals/medical facilities or transport after the victim left the scene (reporting indicates the victim was taken to a hospital);

Any later interviews/interrogations at police headquarters, prosecutor facilities, jail, or court;

Extended crime-scene processing/evidence cataloging after the initial response phase;

Any unrelated calls for service.

If any BWC contains both responsive and non-responsive material, please produce only the responsive, non-graphic segments and redact only what is required by law, releasing all reasonably segregable portions.

Date/time window (approximate)

August 21, 2021, approximately 2:45 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. (to cover dispatch, arrival, and the initial on-scene response; reporting places the shooting around 3:00 p.m.).

If exact times are needed, please use CAD/dispatch timestamps internally to identify the correct incident window and provide only those BWC segments.

Format / delivery

Format: Original/native electronic video files (or native exported clips) via download link/portal with any available metadata/timecodes.

Redactions: Only those required by law; please release all reasonably segregable portions.

Fees / special service charge

This is a narrow, non-commercial, public-interest request for a small number of specific BWC clips via electronic delivery. It should not require an “extraordinary expenditure of time and effort” under N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(c), so no special service charge should apply. If you believe any fee or special service charge is necessary, please provide a written estimate and do not proceed without my written approval.

If any portion is denied or withheld, please provide the specific legal basis for each withholding/redaction and identify the withheld record(s) by date/time range and officer/camera identifier where available.

Please confirm receipt and advise if any additional detail is needed to locate these records.

My preferred delivery method for response(s) to this request is by E-mail as attachments. Please confirm you have received this request. If you are not the custodian of records, please forward my request to that person and provide their email address to me for future reference.

Yours faithfully,

James Lancaster