No charges for officer who fatally struck child

Nicholas Locilento's police cruiser reached 74 m.p.h., 24 above the posted speed limit on Delsea Drive in Franklin Township, as he drove northbound on the dark road on a rainy Sunday night.

Locilento was responding to a report of an unruly juvenile, considered by authorities a "nonemergency call" - one that, they say, generally does not require the use of lights and sirens.

Those warnings were not activated as Locilento's vehicle approached Matthew McCloskey, 10, and two friends, ages 9 and 12, who were having a "footrace" across Delsea Drive toward one of the boy's homes, authorities said.

One friend crossed successfully. Then he yelled to Matthew that a car was coming - Locilento's vehicle, which had its headlights on, authorities said.

Still, Matthew tried to make it.

As the cruiser came closer, authorities said, Matthew turned toward it. Locilento then hit his brakes.

It was too late. Matthew was struck and killed.

Those findings were disclosed Friday by the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office, which said Locilento would not face criminal charges from the fatal Dec. 28 accident, which happened just after 7 p.m. A medical examiner ruled Matthew's death accidental.

His mother, Michelle Harding, released a brief statement Friday evening through a family friend that raised questions about the officer's actions.

"She wants policies changed," said Susan Cleary, 49, of Franklin Township, who was present when investigators discussed the findings with Matthew's family this week. "That if an officer feels the need to travel at 74 miles an hour to a call, he should be required to put his lights on."

Matthew's family was still deciding whether to pursue legal action, Cleary said. "Nothing's finalized," she said, adding, "She just wants things to change so this will never happen again."

Prosecutor Sean Dalton said his office was examining police procedures to determine whether revisions should be made on the use of lights and sirens.

Two other officers responding to the unruly-juvenile call, which a grandfather made shortly before the accident, were also not using lights and sirens, Dalton's office said.

In an interview Friday, Dalton defended investigators' findings. Locilento, Dalton said, could not have foreseen that Matthew was going to cross the road, which in that section has no streetlights or crosswalks. Dalton also said the speed and lack of emergency sirens and lights did not rise to the level of criminal recklessness.

"Police officers have to be held accountable for their actions as anyone else," Dalton said. "But certainly their duties involve different responsibilities than an ordinary citizen.

"If the same facts were presented with respect to a private citizen," he added, "that conduct would still not rise to a level of criminal recklessness."

That, he said, would require a "conscious disregard of a known risk," including being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, talking or texting on a cellphone, or being sleep-deprived. Locilento did not present any of those signs, Dalton said.

In a statement released Friday, Dalton's office also addressed the speed of Locilento's cruiser. New Jersey law, the statement said, allows officers to exceed a speed limit while responding to a call "as long as they exercise due caution and not recklessly disregard the safety of others."

Asked whether the use of emergency lights and sirens, or a lower speed, could have prevented the accident with Matthew, Dalton said, "It's tough. It's really difficult to speculate."

Locilento, 23, became a full-time patrolman Nov. 25 and has not spoken publicly since the crash. He remains on paid administrative leave and still faces a separate administrative review from the Prosecutor's Office.

A recording of emergency calls obtained from Gloucester County this week indicate that Locilento made the first call about the crash.

"I was just involved in a car accident with a pedestrian," he told dispatchers, before requesting medical assistance.

A few seconds later, a dispatcher asked for the patient's condition.

When Locilento, who authorities said was providing medical assistance to Matthew, did not respond, another officer said he was headed toward the scene.

Cleary, the friend of Matthew's family, said the findings presented by investigators were "pretty much what we already knew."

"No matter what the findings are, it doesn't bring Matthew back," Cleary said, discussing the feelings of Matthew's mother. "And that's her main concern."

Matthew was a fifth grader at Caroline L. Reutter School and, in the summer, attended a junior police academy in Franklin Township. Friends of the family say he hoped to become a police officer one day.