Attorney General’s Office Accused of “Stonewalling” Investigating of Fatal Police-Involved Shooting of Unarmed Man on Garden State Parkway

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Bass River NJ, The NJ Attorney General’s Office is conducting an investigation of a fatal shooting involving the New Jersey State Police that occurred at approximately 6:30 a.m. yesterday, May 23, on the Garden State Parkway in Bass River, N.J. One male civilian sustained fatal injuries. The decedent has been identified as a Dutchess County College student Maurice S. Gordon, 28, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y.  studying chemistry and was a driver for UberEats.

Dutchess Community College in a press release said that Maurice Gordon was,”A native of Jamaica who moved to the U.S. when he was 19, Maurice was studying science and part of our CSTEP program. He had been identified as a standout who could take advantage of research opportunities, and was looking forward to beginning this work next semester. By all accounts, Maurice was a smart, involved, affable young man – a loving son and brother – who was destined for great things. We understand his mother has traveled here from Great Britain to make arrangements and to follow the investigation into her son’s death. Should we become aware of a way in which the DCC campus community can help Maurice’s family, we will let you know. ”

The investigation is being conducted by the Integrity Bureau within the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability and the New Jersey State Police Major Crime Bureau.This investigation is being conducted pursuant to a law enacted in January 2019, Senate Bill 1036, which requires that the Attorney General’s Office conduct investigations of a person’s death that occurs during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody.

The investigation is ongoing and no further information is being released at this time. Despite all the virtue signaling from NJ  Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal over the years , the Attorney General’s Office is being accused of “stonewalling” .

Family attorney William O. Wagstaff III told Insider NJ, that ,” he was troubled that it took him nine days “of badgering” New Jersey’s Attorney General to see even the limited portion of the video the state provided to the family.” And said that he was “at a loss to understand why the family had been denied access to the full video and the basic details like where Mr. Gordon actually died.”

Mr. Wagstaff said the apparent effort by New Jersey to withhold the details of the fatal shooting stands in sharp contrast to what happened in Minnesota where the four officers allegedly involved in the murder of George Floyd on May 25, have not only been identified, but charged and arrested.  (https://www.insidernj.com/family-student-killed-trooper-custody-kept-dark-basics/ )

He commented on his Facebook page : “When an unarmed Black man gets pulled over for a traffic stop by a white police officer in New Jersey, one of the possible outcomes should not be his death. We cannot allow the continued sacrifice of the lives of Black people at the hands of police officers and hope that it will foment an evolution towards justice and equality that should be the heritage of all Americans.”