The investigator for the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office is accused of fatally shooting a driver in Maryland after the two got into argument.
Joe Walker was at his attorney's office, out on bail.
The detective was charged in Maryland with murder.
"It is textbook self defense," said Anthony Pope, defense attorney.
Well-known defense attorney Anthony Pope took the case immediately after hearing Detective Walker's version of events last Saturday night.
It starts with the detective on his way back to New Jersey with his wife and three young children in his minivan.
Another car, driven by Joseph Harvey came up alongside, apparently angry that Detective Walker cut them off.
Pope says the two men inside that car began screaming racial slurs including the N-word at the detective and his family.
They threw a bottle at his wife's side and eventually ran them off Route 3 onto the shoulder.
Detective Walker says he got out to check for damage to his car.
"His wife starts yelling, 'Joe they're coming,'" Pope said.
She called 911 and was on the phone with a dispatcher when Detective Walker says he pulled his badge and his department issued glock 45 and screamed, "'I'm ordering you not to advance any further.' There is a pause and they charge him. And the first guy he fires at, he hits him, I understand twice. He went down. He stopped firing. He held his position and the police came."
They took Detective Walker and his family to the hospital to be checked out, then arrested him for murder.
Unbelievable his attorney says.
"They're by his car; he's not by their car. I mean, basic logic says 'wait a minute something's wrong with this. They must have been advancing on him. They must have been the aggressors,'" Pope said.
