A 61-year-old man was found wounded in a pickup truck at Liberty Bell Plaza and remained hospitalized in stable condition.
CHERRY HILL, N.J. — Police were searching Thursday for the gunman who shot a 61-year-old man and left him wounded inside a Ford pickup truck at a busy Cherry Hill shopping center Wednesday afternoon, prompting a large emergency response and shutting down part of the plaza.
The shooting drew a fast response from local police and county detectives to Liberty Bell Plaza on Route 70 East, where officers found the victim in the parking lot shortly before 4 p.m. Authorities said the man was taken to Cooper University Hospital and was in stable condition. Investigators said the case appeared to be isolated, but they had not announced a suspect, a motive or where the gunfire first broke out.
Witnesses said the scene unfolded with little warning. Teenagers who had been inside a nearby Dunkin’ told television crews they walked outside to panic and confusion as people rushed toward the truck. Jameson Armstrong said the pickup pulled in with the driver slumped over the steering wheel while the horn kept sounding. Phil Hausler, who owns Phil’s Deli & Market, said he ran outside after hearing the commotion and called 911. He said he saw the wounded driver in the seat and another man outside the vehicle holding a towel against the victim’s upper right chest. The truck came to rest near businesses that were still open at the time, adding to the fear among workers and customers in the center.
Authorities have released only a narrow set of details so far. Police said officers were dispatched at about 3:53 p.m. to 2083 Route 70 East for a report of a person shot in a vehicle. The victim was identified only as a 61-year-old man. Investigators have not said whether the shooting happened inside the lot, on a nearby stretch of roadway, or somewhere else before the truck entered the shopping center. Hausler said one of his employees heard the horn before the vehicle stopped, raising the possibility that the driver was already hurt as he moved through the lot. That account has not been confirmed by investigators, and officials have not described any suspect vehicle, weapon or direction of travel.
The case rattled a shopping plaza that normally serves as a routine stop for coffee, lunch and errands in a heavily traveled commercial stretch of Cherry Hill. Route 70 is one of the township’s busiest corridors, and Liberty Bell Plaza sits in an area where daytime traffic is steady. That setting made the response especially visible as police vehicles and investigators closed off parts of the lot. The public nature of the scene also left many questions. No information was released about whether surveillance video had been recovered from storefronts, whether shell casings were found in the lot, or whether detectives had interviewed everyone who was near the truck when it stopped. For nearby businesses, the disruption lasted into the afternoon as officers worked the scene.
The investigation now rests with detectives from the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit and the Cherry Hill Police Department. As of the latest public update, no arrest had been announced and no charges had been filed. Authorities said the shooting appeared isolated, a phrase often used early in an investigation when police do not believe there is an ongoing broad threat to the public. Even so, the absence of a suspect means detectives still must answer the basic questions that shape the case: who fired, where the shooting happened, whether the victim knew the shooter and what led to the gunfire. Officials asked anyone with information to contact investigators as they continue to collect evidence and witness statements.
For the people who saw the aftermath, the strongest memory was not a gunshot but the car horn. Witnesses described a long blast cutting through the noise of the shopping center before people realized a man inside the truck had been shot. Hausler said he was grateful the vehicle stopped when it did. He said the truck could have rolled farther through the plaza and created an even more dangerous scene. That detail added another layer to an already tense afternoon, when customers stepped out of stores expecting an ordinary day and instead found police tape, frightened bystanders and a criminal investigation unfolding in front of them.
The victim remained hospitalized in stable condition Thursday, and investigators had not announced an arrest or a new public briefing. The next milestone is likely the release of additional details from county prosecutors or Cherry Hill police as detectives work to identify the shooter and reconstruct what happened before the truck came to a stop.
Author note: Last updated April 16, 2026.