Charlie Pratt, a composer and New Brunswick resident, used the meeting’s public-comment period to press Middlesex County elected officials about the Aug. 8 fatal shooting of Deborah Terrell by a New Brunswick police officer and about transparency in internal-affairs reporting.

“I'm not trying to be nitpicky,” Pratt said, criticizing gaps he said exist on county websites for major-discipline reports and asking whether the county had followed up on missing records. He also asked whether a named sheriff’s officer, Sandy Perez, who he said faced a recent arrest, remained on active duty.

A commissioner responding at the meeting said the board would not comment because the incident is under investigation by the Attorney General’s Office: “We’re not gonna comment on that. That’s under investigation with the attorney general's office,” the commissioner said. Another commissioner added that elected officials did not feel the public meeting was an appropriate forum for discussion of an ongoing law-enforcement legal matter.

Pratt pressed that prior major-discipline issues involving the officer who shot Terrell — including a prior drunken-accident allegation he described — justified more scrutiny. He told the board that, had those earlier incidents been handled differently, “Deborah Terrell might still be alive today.”

Board members declined to answer questions about personnel status and discipline, saying personnel matters were not subject to public discussion. A county staff reference was given for follow-up inquiries on website or public-record issues.

The commissioners did not announce any board action in response to the comments. The meeting record shows the board referred the matter to the ongoing review by the Attorney General’s Office and did not take additional public action during the session.