State AG Identifies Co. Detective Involved in October Shooting

VINELAND – A Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office detective was identified by the state Attorney General’s Office as the individual in the police-involved shooting of a Cumberland County man at a Vineland auto rental business Oct. 18, 2018.
According to an Oct. 31 release from the state Attorney General’s Shooting Response Team (SRT), the unit continues to investigate the fatal, police-involved shooting.
The shooter was identified as Detective John Caccia of the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office, and the service weapon involved was a Glock 19 (9mm).
According to the preliminary investigation, on Oct. 18, Caccia and other detectives from the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office and Lower Township Police Department were conducting surveillance in the vicinity of Just Four Wheels Car, Truck and Van Rental at 2587 South Delsea Drive, Vineland, as part of an investigation of a violent crime that occurred in Cape May County earlier in October. 
During the surveillance operation, Caccia encountered Jacob Servais, 19, of Millville, who was driving a Nissan Altima and was known to the detective as a possible suspect in the investigation. 
During the encounter, Caccia fired his service weapon three times, fatally wounding Servais.
Officers from the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office and Vineland Police Department responded to the scene, and the investigation into Servais’s death was immediately turned over to the Attorney General’s Shooting Response Team.
The nature of any resistance and the use of any weapon on the part of Servais remain the subject of that ongoing investigation, and no further information will be released at this time.
In New Jersey, all investigations of police deadly-force incidents are governed by the Attorney General’s Independent Prosecutor Directive, issued in 2006 and strengthened in 2015. It establishes strict procedures for conducting such investigations.
It requires the Attorney General to review all deadly-force investigations, and in some cases conduct them as well.
In this case, the investigation is being conducted directly by the Attorney General’s Shooting Response Team. The directive further provides that unless the undisputed facts indicate the use of force was justified under the law, the circumstances of the incident must ultimately be presented to a grand jury, composed of 23 civilians, for its independent review.
The Independent Prosecutor Directive is posted on the Attorney General’s website at the following link: http://www.nj.gov/oag/dcj/agguide/directives/2006-5_SRT_OIS.pdf .
Further information about how officer-involved shootings are investigated in New Jersey under the directive is found at this link:
http://www.nj.gov/oag/independent-prosecutor/ .