Authorities say a wounded 61-year-old driver reached Liberty Bell Plaza before bystanders realized he had been shot.
CHERRY HILL, N.J. — Detectives on Thursday were piecing together witness accounts and physical evidence after a 61-year-old man with a gunshot wound was found inside his pickup truck at Liberty Bell Plaza, leaving investigators to sort out where the shooting happened and who pulled the trigger.
The case moved quickly from a medical emergency to a major crime scene Wednesday afternoon when police responded to the shopping center on Route 70 East and found the wounded driver in a Ford pickup truck. The man was taken to Cooper University Hospital, where authorities said he was in stable condition. Investigators said they believe the shooting was an isolated incident, but they have not named a suspect, described a motive or explained whether the gunfire happened before the victim entered the lot.
One of the clearest parts of the public record so far comes from people who saw the aftermath. Witnesses told local reporters the truck drew attention because its horn would not stop. Armstrong said the driver appeared to be bent over the wheel as the vehicle came into the plaza. Hausler, the deli owner, said he responded after hearing the commotion and saw another man outside the truck holding a towel against the victim’s chest. Those accounts helped define the first moments after the vehicle stopped, when workers and customers were still trying to understand whether they were seeing a crash, a medical problem or the result of gunfire. The confusion is common in fast-moving public shootings, especially when the violence itself is not seen by most of the people nearby.
What happened before that moment remains the central question. Police said officers were called just before 4 p.m., with another public account placing the dispatch at about 3:53 p.m. at 2083 Route 70 East. That address points to Liberty Bell Plaza, a commercial center along one of the township’s busiest roads. Yet detectives have not said whether the victim was shot while parked, while driving, or at another location before he steered into the lot. They have not said whether the second man seen outside the truck was a witness, a passenger, a friend who arrived after the fact or someone else entirely. They also have not released the victim’s name, details on the extent of his injury or any description of the suspected shooter.
The location adds pressure to the investigation because the shooting ended in a place with steady foot traffic and multiple storefronts. Midafternoon business at a plaza can mean cameras, customers, delivery drivers and workers moving in and out of shops, each of them a possible witness or source of video. Officials have not publicly described what evidence they collected, but early investigations in cases like this often turn on surveillance footage, phone records, vehicle movements and a timeline built minute by minute. That makes the first day especially important. Detectives must decide whether the lot was the original scene or only the place where the wounded driver finally stopped. That answer can change the path of the case and determine which people or businesses hold the most useful evidence.
For now, prosecutors and police have kept their public messaging narrow. The Camden County Prosecutor’s Office said the investigation remains active, and Cherry Hill police have not announced an arrest. No charges were listed in public updates Thursday. Officials also have not said whether they believe the victim was targeted, whether there was any confrontation before the shooting, or whether a suspect may have fled in another vehicle. Their statement that the case appears isolated suggests they do not see signs of a wider random threat, but it does not answer the personal or factual questions at the center of the shooting. Until detectives release more, the public timeline begins with the truck’s arrival and ends with the victim in the hospital.
That left business owners and bystanders to carry the human side of the story. The witnesses who spoke publicly described not a dramatic gun battle, but a sudden break in an ordinary afternoon. A horn blared. People looked up. Someone called 911. A driver sat wounded in a truck while strangers tried to help. In that sense, the scene at Liberty Bell Plaza reflected the uncertainty that often follows street violence: many people see fragments, few see the whole event, and detectives must turn those fragments into a coherent account. Until then, the strongest image from Wednesday is the truck in the lot and the people around it trying to make sense of what had just happened.
The man remained in stable condition Thursday, and investigators had not said when they would next brief the public. The next significant update is expected to come when authorities identify a suspect, clarify where the shooting occurred or release more details about the victim and the events leading up to the attack.
Author note: Last updated April 16, 2026.