Man wanted in officer's killing arrested

Jahmell W. Crockam, the 19-year-old accused of the execution-style killing of an Ocean County police officer last week, surrendered quietly to authorities Sunday morning in a low-income housing development in Camden.

"It was without a sound," said witness Sherman Streeter, 66, who lives across the grassy courtyard from Unit C-4 of the Crestbury Apartments on South Eighth Street, where state police and U.S. marshal's officers apprehended Crockam about 6:30 a.m. "There were no words. Nothing. No resistance."

Streeter said the handcuffed Crockam was immediately driven away from the development of two-story brick buildings, which are spread over several blocks in a neighborhood known for gang activity.

Crockam - whose street name is "Sav," short for "Savage" - shot and killed Lakewood Police Officer Christopher Matlosz as he sat behind the wheel of his patrol car late Friday afternoon, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office. Crockam, a resident of Lakewood, was on foot.

Like other neighbors interviewed, Streeter said he did not know who rented the apartment, which was temporarily left unlocked after the arrest.

"People come and go," said Streeter, a retired construction worker. Officials from Crestbury Apartments could not be reached Sunday night.

Ten officers stormed the apartment and found Crockam in an upstairs bedroom. Authorities would not say whether others were there, but they said no one else was arrested.

Crockam did not seem surprised to be caught and "was very quiet," state police Maj. Edward Cetnar said.

At a late-morning news conference at the Lakewood Police Department, Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford said that police received a tip that Crockam had fled to Camden. She would not elaborate, adding, "I won't discuss how he got to Camden."

The "real heroes" in the case are the "citizens who stepped forward with information" on Crockam's whereabouts, Ford said.

Crockam was being held in the Ocean County jail last night on $5 million bail for shooting Matlosz, 27, according to Michael Mohel, deputy chief of detectives for the Prosecutor's Office. He is expected to be brought before a judge Tuesday.

Ford said that the investigation was "ongoing" and that authorities were working to ascertain whether Crockam had been "assisted" in any way.

There is a reward of $145,000 to $150,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Matlosz's killer, she said.

Ford would not address reports that Crockam was in a gang. "We are piecing together his affiliations," she said.

A Camden police officer at the scene of the arrest described the area in which the housing development sits as "low-income, high-crime, with gang activity."

"It's nothing but gangs out here," said Crestbury resident Sarah Washington, a 31-year-old contractor, as stray cats scampered across the icy crosswalks. "I don't come out at night."

Matlosz, who was engaged to be married next year, conducted a "routine stop" of a man said to be Crockam at 4 p.m. Friday in Lakewood, according to the Prosecutor's Office. Matlosz drove up to the man and was speaking to him in a nonconfrontational manner, authorities said.

Ford said Sunday that eyewitnesses reported the pedestrian fired three times at Matlosz. He then ran away, kicking off a three-state manhunt involving more than 100 law enforcement officers.

Crockam had been wanted since Dec. 29 on charges of possessing an illegal rifle and hollow-point bullets. Mohel would not say whether Crockam had a criminal record.

During the Sunday news conference, which was broadcast on the Internet by the Asbury Park Press, Lakewood Mayor Menashe Miller said that news of Crockam's apprehension was "bittersweet."

"We are thrilled to have removed this cold-blooded murderer off the street," Miller said. "But at the same time, there's a grieving fiancee, and a mother has to bury her son."

Lakewood police officers wore black bands across their badges during the news conference.

Lakewood Police Chief Robert Lawson said that Matlosz was killed on only the second night of his new evening shift, 2 p.m. to midnight.

"It's been devastating for me," said a visibly weary Lawson.

In a statement, Matlosz's fiancee, Kelly Walsifer, said: "Chris was my best friend and soul mate. We did everything together. . . . He was my life."