The Attorney General’s Office today released video footage from a private security camera and audio recordings of 911 calls and a police radio call related to a fatal incident in which a police vehicle struck a pedestrian on August 1, 2021 in East Brunswick.
Officials said the pedestrian, Julius Filep, 55, of Edison, was critically injured and died in the hospital a short time afterward.
The fatal police encounter remains under investigation by the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA).
According to officials, the video is being released pursuant to policies established by the Attorney General in 2019 that are designed to promote the fair, impartial, and transparent investigation of fatal police encounters. Investigators met today with Mr. Filep’s family and their attorney to review the recordings.
According to the preliminary investigation, Officer Mitchell Ngai of the East Brunswick Police Department, who was on-duty and in uniform, was operating a marked patrol vehicle on State Route 18, responding to a reported motor vehicle accident in the southbound lanes of the roadway.
He was traveling northbound in the vicinity of the reported accident at approximately 3:35 a.m. when he struck Mr. Filep, who was walking in the roadway in front of 260 State Route 18.
Medical aid was rendered to Mr. Filep, who was transported by ambulance to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, where he was pronounced deceased at 4:13 a.m.
The recordings are posted online: Click here for recordings.
The investigation is ongoing and no further information is being released at this time.