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Relatives say police shot, killed Camden man

A man who was accidentally shot on Tuesday when officers responded to a homicide in Camden's Baldwin's Run neighborhood has died, authorities announced yesterday, as allegations swirled that the bullets were fired by police.

Overwhelmed by grief, Jose Feliciano’s grandmother Luisa Diaz collapses in the street in Camden’s Baldwin Run neighborhood. Feliciano’s sister Crystal Mendez tried to help her. (April Saul / Staff Photographer)
Overwhelmed by grief, Jose Feliciano’s grandmother Luisa Diaz collapses in the street in Camden’s Baldwin Run neighborhood. Feliciano’s sister Crystal Mendez tried to help her. (April Saul / Staff Photographer)Read more

A man who was accidentally shot on Tuesday when officers responded to a homicide in Camden's Baldwin's Run neighborhood has died, authorities announced yesterday, as allegations swirled that the bullets were fired by police.

Juan Lopez, 68, died at Cooper University Hospital around 6 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said. On Tuesday, 16-year-old Ramon Roman, who authorities believe was Lopez's stepgrandson, was shot by Jose Feliciano, 24, in the home Feliciano shared with his grandmother, Luisa Diaz, police said.

Feliciano was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder after authorities said he admitted shooting Roman.

Prosecutors have ruled Lopez's death a homicide. They have not charged Feliciano in that shooting.

Diaz, 62, and her boyfriend, Jose Martinez, 46, said yesterday that they were inside Feliciano's home in the 3100 block of Pleasant Street when Roman was shot there. Roman has been described as Feliciano's cousin.

They ran to Lopez's home next door to avoid further gunfire, they said. According to the couple, Lopez was inside with Roman's grandmother. The homes are separated by a small lawn.

While in Lopez's home, Diaz and Martinez said, a Camden police officer entered the living room. By this time, Roman had left Feliciano's house and had collapsed on the sidewalk.

They heard shots, Diaz and Martinez recalled, and Diaz said she looked out the window. She said she saw a police officer in the street shooting at the Lopez house, although, she said, Feliciano was alone in the house next door.

The police officer inside Lopez's home yelled, "Don't shoot, don't shoot," Diaz said. Lopez was struck multiple times, according to authorities.

On the side not visible from Feliciano's home, the Lopez house was sprayed with a half-dozen bullets, indicating to Diaz that the gunshots could not have come from Feliciano.

Prosecutors would not comment on Diaz's and Martinez's accounts. Jason Laughlin, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, said the office is in interviewing Camden police about the incident.

The office is sending ballistic material to a state lab to determine if it was Feliciano's bullets or an officer's that struck Lopez, Laughlin said. He would not comment on how many officers were at the scene at the time Lopez was wounded, the weapons they carried, or how many officers fired.

Police initially responded to the scene about 4:40 p.m. after a neighbor called 911 to report that Feliciano was firing a 9mm handgun in the air, according to court documents.

After Feliciano shot Roman, the documents state, he took cover behind his house and fired at an officer who had told him to drop his weapon.

Martinez said Feliciano was "wet" at the time he shot Roman - high from smoking marijuana or tobacco laced with PCP.

"He was like a zombie," Martinez said. "He was not his normal self."

Feliciano told police he was "under a lot of pressure" when he shot Roman, whom relatives called a close friend.

Feliciano's mother, Maria Massallo, who was not at the house during the shooting, said she also believed her son had been doing drugs.

"As far as I was told, he was under the influence," she said. "That was not my son."

"This is family," she said. "These kids grew up together."

Sully Perez, 18, of Camden, said Roman had been taking classes with her during the spring semester to obtain his GED.

"I'm still in shock," she said. "I haven't been myself since I heard."