Videos Released Of Fatal Police Car Chase In North Jersey

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — State prosecutors have released video footage of a police car chase that ended with a fatal crash in Essex County during the summer of 2024. The incident – which resulted in the death of Omar Williams, 43, of Hamilton – remains under investigation, authorities said.

The New Jersey attorney general’s office posted footage of the crash on Friday. The videos were taken from a dashboard camera, body-worn cameras and third-party cameras. They can be viewed online here. WARNING: Videos contain material that may be disturbing for some viewers.

According to prosecutors, the car chase began on July 23, when detectives from the Bloomfield Police Department (BPD) received an automated license plate recognition notification about a vehicle of interest in a robbery investigation.

Here’s what happened next, prosecutors said:

“After locating the vehicle and following it from Bloomfield to Newark, BPD officers attempted to initiate a motor vehicle stop. After the driver refused to pull over, BPD officers pursued the vehicle into Bloomfield and ultimately to East Orange. There, the pursued vehicle crashed into a civilian vehicle and then careened into two other vehicles, including a parked ambulance.”

The police vehicles involved in the pursuit were not directly involved in the collisions, prosecutors said.

Williams – the driver of the pursued vehicle – died from injuries sustained in the crash.

All other involved civilians suffered non-life-threatening injuries, prosecutors said.

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