2003 Media Releases:

CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
VINCENT P. SARUBBI, CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR
MEDIA   INFORMATION

February 28, 2003

Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi and Camden Police Chief Robert Allenbach announced today that John T. Pritchett, M/26, was charged on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003, with Murder in connection with the shooting death on Monday, Feb. 24, 2003, of Roy W. Avant Jr., M/40, in Camden.

Pritchett, a.k.a. Robert Pritchett and Rasheem Brown, was served with the Murder warrant Thursday evening at the Camden County Correctional Facility. He had been held at the jail since Monday after being arrested at the crime scene on a fugitive warrant from Gloucester County stemming from a drug charge.

The investigation indicates that Pritchett shot Avant and another victim, who remains hospitalized, during a robbery at 7th and Chestnut streets in Camden. Officers responding to a 12:30 p.m. call reporting shots fired arrived to find Avant lying on the sidewalk. He died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

The defendant, of the 1300 block of Lansdowne Avenue in Camden, remains at the Camden County Correctional Facility in lieu of $600,000 bail, cash or bond, set today on the Murder charge by Presiding Criminal Court Judge Linda G. Baxter.

Additional charges related to the robbery and the shooting of the second victim, a 52-year-old male, are anticipated at a future time.

All persons charged with criminal offenses are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.