18 shots, an officer down and a naked man killed

A bizarre encounter on a Camden street yesterday morning left a naked, knife-wielding man dead and a veteran police officer shot four times by police guns - including, perhaps, her own.

Officer Rominita Rivera was in stable condition late yesterday at Cooper University Hospital. Her assailant, Lamont Morton, died at the scene of seven gunshot wounds.

The violence in the 900 block of Morton Street erupted around 8 a.m., after police responded to 911 calls about a naked man with a knife who had stabbed one man and was threatening others.

Morton, 19, who neighbors said lived at 946 Morton St., apparently got in a heated dispute with a man and several women in the house, acting Camden County Prosecutor Joshua M. Ottenberg said.

Morton stabbed the other man, William Custis, 33, in the shoulder before the argument spilled into the street and police were called, Ottenberg said. Custis was later treated and released at Cooper.

After several people were able to get the knife away from Morton, he went back into the house and got another knife and "removed his clothes, for some reason," Ottenberg said.

Morton went back outside and across the street to a neighbor's house, where he was banging on the door, police said.

Rivera was the first officer to arrive on the scene and she confronted Morton by a nearby garage, with her gun drawn.

A police lieutenant, arriving on the scene, tried to block Morton from Rivera by driving his SUV between the two. The vehicle struck Morton, but he regained his footing and charged Rivera.

The officer fired her gun several times when Morton attacked, Ottenberg said, but he was able to take the gun and was on top of her when he was shot by a third officer, identified by police sources as Dexter Miller, 42, an 18-year veteran of the force.

In all, 18 shots were fired during the brief struggle, nine from each officer's gun, Ottenberg said. Morton was shot seven times.

Police were trying to determine whether Rivera was shot by her own gun, after Morton took it from her, or by another police officer.

Rivera, 45, a 15-year veteran of the Camden Police Department, suffered two gunshot wounds to her right shoulder, one to her left forearm, and a graze wound to her forehead.

"We're not sure who shot who or how it happened," Ottenberg told reporters. Investigators were hoping to interview Rivera later; she was conscious and talking at the hospital yesterday afternoon, Police Chief Edward Hargis said.

"Preliminarily, it looks like she may not have had enough time to do anything but what she did," Ottenberg said. "It looks like the officer acted appropriately."

Rivera is married and the mother of two children, police said. She is the first Camden officer to be shot in the line of duty since Daniel Vautier was wounded on Dec. 22, 2006.

"She is an active officer; she has a very good work ethic," said Hargis, who said he worked with Rivera earlier in his career.

"She's a good officer," local FOP president John Williamson said yesterday. "She is dedicated to the department . . . and my prayers and prayers of the entire police department are with her and her family. The FOP will support her and her family in this entire misfortune."

Police gathered at the hospital, and a man who identified himself as Rivera's brother was outside the hospital, but declined to speak about the shooting.

Miller was placed on administrative leave, as is required after a police shooting, while the investigation continues, Hargis said.

Police said they had not determined what sparked the initial dispute that brought police to the normally quiet Camden street. They said Custis is the father of a child whose mother, Tracy Morton, is Morton's aunt. She is one of the women who lives in the Morton Street house and was involved in the argument.

A woman at the scene, Geneva Smith, 23, told authorities and others gathered that Lamont Morton was the boyfriend of her sister, who lives in a nearby house.

Police said Lamont Morton had previous encounters with police, but they declined to specify what those were.