A Cherry Hill man killed during an encounter with police shot himself before an officer opened fire, AG says

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday identified the man who died after being shot during an encounter with Cherry Hill police last week as Joseph Bestic Jr., 63. The incident remains under investigation, officials said, and some details of the shooting could not be learned.

Officers were called to Bestic’s home on Chapel Avenue on Oct. 11 to conduct a wellness check, according to a statement from the Attorney General’s Office. When officers arrived, the statement said, Bestic picked up a gun and shot himself.

One of the officers, Jared Fox, saw Bestic grab the gun and opened fire, the statement said. Bestic was pronounced dead at the scene.

» READ MORE: New Jersey Attorney General’s Office is investigating a fatal shooting involving Cherry Hill police

It remained unclear Tuesday whether Bestic’s fatal injuries were self-inflicted or the result of the officer’s gunfire.

It could not be learned whether Fox has been placed on desk duty as the investigation continues. Representatives for Cherry Hill Police Chief Robert Kempf and Cherry Hill Mayor Susan Shin Angulo declined to comment, referring questions to the Attorney General’s Office.

Daniel Prochilo, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office, did not respond to multiple requests for information about the shooting.

Neighbors said Tuesday that Bestic had lived alone in the home for about four years, after his wife, Honey, died of kidney failure. After her death, they said, Bestic, who had always kept to himself, was seen around the neighborhood even less frequently.

Stacy Covelli, who lives next door to Bestic, said he and his wife had moved to Chapel Avenue in the early 1990s, and were known in their first years there for hosting large Halloween parties.

In later years, after Honey Bestic died, her husband suffered a stroke and had to walk with a cane, Covelli said. She would often shovel his sidewalk after snowstorms, and would talk with him about the weather and, given her background in fitness, stress the importance of staying active. Bestic’s mother-in-law would often check in on him, Covelli said, but she died in March 2021.

“I just feel terrible that I could’ve reached out and paid more attention to him, to help him,” Covelli said after learning of the shooting. “When something like this happens, you can’t help but think, ‘Maybe there was something I could have done to help him not be so alone.’”