Man shot by police after they hear screams, find woman stabbed in NJ vehicle

🚨Police say officers found a man holding a knife to a wounded woman inside a minivan

🚨The woman was hospitalized after suffering several stab wounds.

🚨The man's family says he struggled with mental illness and recently sought help

MIDDLE TOWNSHIP — A man police say was holding a knife to a woman was shot inside a vehicle Friday morning after officers heard screams and forced their way inside.

Police heard screams coming from a disabled minivan on Route 9 in front of Walmart in the Rio Grande section of Middle Township around 10:20 a.m. and forced their way inside, according to Attorney General Jennifer Davenport.

Two Middle Township officers fired at the man when they saw he was holding a knife to a woman who already had several stab wounds. She was taken to a hospital. The man, whom Davenport did not identify, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The man's family says he had sought help

A GoFundMe campaign created by the man's sister identified him as Andre Moore, a father of six with one on the way who had mental illness issues. Vienna L. Smith said he sought help from "the system" twice, including once less than a month ago.

She told 6 ABC Action News things had gotten "worse and worse and worse" due to paranoia.

"Despite his internal battles, he still had a heart as big as anyone. He loved his family and friends with all of it and was willing to share and give anything he had. They took a person who has children who will never experience the amazing father that he would’ve been," Vienna L. Smith wrote.

Under state law, the Attorney General's office must investigate a person's death that occurs during an encounter with an on-duty law enforcement officer.

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