Mt. Laurel woman sues over son’s shooting death

A Mount Laurel woman has filed a federal lawsuit over the 2012 shooting death of her son by a Burlington City police officer.

Teri Schuchman contends a police officer used excessive force when he repeatedly shot her son, 32-year-old Jason Bunnell. The suit also asserts the officer, John Fine, lacked a valid reason to stop Bunnell as he walked along Route 130 on a September night in 2012.

Officials allege Bunnell, released from state prison two months earlier, died during an exchange of gunfire with Fine. They say Bunnell fired once while running from Fine and that his gun was recovered at the scene near Willis Honda in Burlington Township.

The civil rights suit, filed Monday in federal court in Camden, asserts Bunnell was unarmed. It says a dashboard camera in Fine’s patrol car shows Bunnell wore a sleeveless shirt and “tight-fitting blue jeans with no visible bulges.”

The suit acknowledges Bunnell ran away after Fine attempted to check him for weapons. But it also says he was “responsive and cooperative (after being initially stopped) and acted in neither an aggressive nor threatening manner.”

The suit seeks unspecified damages from Fine, Burlington City and Police Chief Anthony Wallace.

It also asks a judge to order an end to police department practices it calls unconstitutional, saying officers show “deliberate indifference” to people’s civil rights.

William Buckman, a Moorestown attorney representing Schuchman, could not be reached. An attorney for Burlington City was not available.

According to the suit, Fine stopped Bunnell around 11:55 p.m. on Sept. 17, 2012. It says the officer’s microphone stopped working during a brief foot chase, but that Fine could be heard on the radio a few minutes later saying Bunnell was dead.

An autopsy showed Bunnell sustained “five close-range gunshot wounds,” while Fine was not hurt.

According to the state Department of Corrections, Bunnell was freed after serving about six weeks of a three-year term for drug possession. He was also imprisoned for a drug offense in 2010, when he served five months of a three-year term.

Reach Jim Walsh at jwalsh@courierpostonline.com or (856) 486-2646.