Update to NJ TRANSIT Shooting
Investigators confirmed through witnesses and evidence collected that Piacenta M. Jackson, of Woodbury fired a gunshot that killed NJ TRANSIT bus driver Ryon C. Reynolds, of Sicklerville, as he arrived for work about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday (6/6/17) in a parking lot of the transit agency’s Washington Township NJ bus garage, and then drove to a Mantua Township location where she used a handgun to end her own life. Jackson, an officer with the New Jersey Department of Corrections, used a gun that she personally and legally owned, investigators determined. Jackson’s car was spotted by Deptford Township police after the shooting of Reynolds at the Black Horse Pike garage. Officers of the Deptford and Mantua police departments attempted to stop the vehicle, at which time Jackson pulled off the road into a parking lot at Center and Trenton streets in Mantua, exited the car and shot herself. Autopsies conducted today determined the cause of Reynolds’ death was a gunshot wound to the back and the manner of death was homicide. The cause of Jackson’s death was a gunshot wound to the head and the manner was suicide. Interviews indicated the two had been in a dating relationship that ended before the shooting. The shooting is being investigated by the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office, the New Jersey Transit Police Department and the police departments of Washington and Mantua townships.