There will be no criminal prosecution of a Morris Plains police officer who fatally shot a disturbed man brandishing an airsoft pistol in a Morris Township driveway in 2020.
“An officer may use deadly force in New Jersey when the officer reasonably believes it is immediately necessary to protect the officer or another person from imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm,” the state Attorney General’s Office said Tuesday, announcing that a state grand jury declined to file criminal charges against Sgt. Christopher Cornine for shooting Timothy O’Shea, 24.
“I’m angry,” Marianne O’Shea, Timothy’s mother, said of the finding.
Choking back tears, she said Cornine was a longtime neighbor who knew of her son’s mental health issues, arrived late to the armed standoff on Fairchild Avenue, and escalated the confrontation by approaching in the open and screaming at the young man.
“If Chris had stayed back things might have been different,” the mother said.
Tuesday was the first time authorities disclosed the shooter’s identity. Morristown Green has reached out to Cornine and to Morris Plains Police Chief Michael Koroski and will update this story with any responses from them.
‘THEY’RE GOING TO HAVE TO SHOOT ME’
Police from the Township, Morristown and Morris Plains responded to the O’Shea residence in response to Marianne’s 911 call on the afternoon of July 14, 2020.
Tim had been discharged the day before, over his mother’s objections, from Morristown Medical Center, where he had checked himself in a week earlier for a psychiatric evaluation. It was one of many hospital visits over the years; Tim had survived three suicide attempts as he struggled with depression and bipolar issues.
Marianne, a retired nurse, called for help when she came home and found him bleeding and holding a gun. She remembers taking cover outside, behind a truck. On a recording she can be heard pleading with the 911 dispatcher: “Please, don’t let them shoot him!”
But Tim — who once dreamed of following in the footsteps of his dad, a Township cop — had warned his mom that if she called police, “they’re going to have to shoot me.”
Body- and dash-cam footage depicted that scenario unfolding swiftly, as Tim emerged along a neighbor’s driveway.
According to the Attorney General’s statement:
“…officers encountered Timothy O’Shea, who was holding a pistol and bleeding from the neck and wrists. Officers pleaded with Mr. O’Shea to drop the weapon, but he did not comply. Mr. O’Shea raised the weapon and pointed it in the direction of Sgt. Cornine, who then fired four shots, striking Mr. O’Shea twice.”
Police later determined Tim was carrying a Beretta 9 mm replica, an “airsoft” target pistol that fires plastic projectiles.
A 2019 state law requires the Attorney General’s office to investigate all deaths that stem from encounters with police, or occur in police custody. These investigations must be presented to a grand jury.
“The investigation of this fatal police encounter included interviews of witnesses, collection of forensic evidence, review of video footage, and autopsy results from the medical examiner,” said Tuesday’s statement from Acting Attorney General Matt Platkin’s office.
“After hearing testimony and evidence from the investigation, the grand jury concluded its deliberations yesterday April 11, and voted ‘no bill,’ meaning the grand jury determined that the actions of the officer who shot at Mr. O’Shea should not result in charges against him.”
AFTERMATH
Marianne O’Shea said she was not asked to testify before the grand jury. Last October, she and her former husband, Kevin O’Shea, submitted their concerns in a letter to then-Acting Attorney General Andrew Bruck, whose office, she said, declined several requests for a meeting.
One of their concerns was Marianne’s treatment in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
Labeling Marianne as a witness, police did not allow her to go to her son’s hospital deathbed, or leave the shooting scene, or even talk with her older son for hours following the incident, she said.
Sgt. Cornine was sent to the hospital and visited by his wife, while the victim’s mother was treated “like a criminal,” the O’Sheas said in their letter.
“I was left to sit in the road… until 1:30 in the morning,” Marianne told Morristown Green.
After a grand jury decision, the Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability still may direct appropriate law enforcement agencies to conduct administrative reviews of officers’ conduct.
K.C. Lopez, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office, said any further such reviews in this case are up to Morris Plains police.
A representative of the Attorney General “has been in contact with Mrs. O’Shea over the months,” Lopez said.
Citing confidentiality of Grand Jury proceedings, she declined to discuss why Marianne was not called to testify. As required by law, Lopez said, “sufficient evidence was presented to the Grand Jury in order to provide the jurors with a full, complete, and accurate representation of the relevant facts of the law enforcement incident.”
Cornine has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting, for medical reasons attributed to that incident, according to Morris Plains Borough Clerk Rosanne Denman.
A statewide review of police use-of-force by The Star-Ledger found that Cornine led the Morris Plains department with five such reports filed between 2012 and 2016.
Marianne still questions why the sergeant responded to the scene, with his M & P rifle, out in the open, when a small army of heavily armed officers that included Township Patrolman John Burk, a member of the Morris County Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team, was attempting to defuse the situation while sheltering behind police vehicles.
Cornine had known Tim O’Shea since Tim was a little boy, Marianne said.
She maintains that Cornine responded to a location that was different from where he was instructed to go. She also contends the Sheriff’s K-9 unit had just been summoned when the fatal shots were fired.
Tim O’Shea was a mechanic with gifted hands and a big heart, according to his friends and family. On his good days, he loved helping others — even snowplowing the Cornines’ sidewalk when he figured Chris was on duty, Marianne said.
With images of that tragic July afternoon seared into her memory, the grieving mother last year sold the home that once belonged to her great-grandparents.
Marianne O’Shea said she accidentally encountered Chris Cornine at a car wash last spring. Heated words were exchanged, by her account.
“I snapped,” she said.
She doubts she ever will get over her loss.
“I miss that kid so much,” she said of her Timmy. “He was my little absolute goof-ball. He could always make me laugh.”
This article has been updated with Sgt. Cornine’s duty status, and responses from the state Attorney General’s Office to questions about the grand jury investigation.
So that’s his truck with #OMW2FYB on the windshield? He must have been such an angel.
How can people be anti-cop on this one? The details seem to support that the officer’s action were justified.
Cops can literally do anything and get away with it, even if their “mistakes” end up with a citizen that pays their salaries being dead. A big problem is prosecutors and cops are on the same “side” in all matters, and they’re simply not going to go after their own (who they rely on to prosecute).
Hopefully the family can get some justice in a civil suit (although thanks to qualified immunity, taxpayers, not the guilty party will pay those costs).
Cops aren’t mental health professionals, and since such huge portions of our budgets go to them, there’s not any sort of “first responder” to deal with routine mental health crises, homeless folks, etc. Awful system incapable of doing much beyond sweeping problems it can’t deal with under the rug. Militarizing cops really isn’t helping things – this isn’t a war zone and citizens aren’t combatants.
The grand jury made the right decision. This was a sad event and a young life lost, but he pulled a gun on police officers and got shot. Simple as that. My concern is for Officer Cornine who had to make a split second decision on the job that sad day. I hope he and his family are doing well.
Article says O’Shea “was a mechanic with gifted hands and a big heart”. Really? It would be more accurate to change that to “was a mechanic who drove a pickup truck covered in filthy obscenities”.
A very sad situation, to be sure.
He had mental health problems – not “issues.”
But ultimately if you point a gun at a cop you are going to get shot. Period. You can be an old lady in a wheelchair, a 14-year-old, or an executive. It doesn’t matter. The result is always the same.
Miscarriage of justice. Watch the video. This cop got out of his truck with an itchy trigger finger and barely got his feet set before he opened fire.