Anti-Violence Documentary Star 'Creep' Shot Dead In Newark

Newark, NJ - Darel “Creep” Evans, a self-professed reformed gang member who was profiled on an award-winning anti-violence documentary, was shot dead in Newark late Monday night, authorities confirmed.

According to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, Evans, 33, was fatally shot on Clinton Place around midnight.

No word was available about a possible motive for the shooting as of Tuesday, prosecutors stated.

A law enforcement source told Patch that Shaw was shot while leaving a Dewey Street home and managed to make it several blocks before collapsing.

According to an online biography on Sundance TV, Evans was born at University Hospital in Newark and raised in the Weequahic section of the city.

An “above-average student” who was “heavily involved in sports,” Evans reportedly began stealing cars in the eighth grade and was eventually arrested in a stolen car with marijuana and guns.

Evans’ daughter was born while he was 18 and locked up at the Essex County Juvenile Detention Center, where he reportedly made his first connections with the Crips gang members he would become heavily involved with upon his release.

Pledging to become a better father to his daughter, Evans reportedly rose to “OG” status within the gang, but began to rethink his future when he noticed that all his friends “were getting locked up or dying.”

Evans soon started working as part of an anti-gang initiative within the Newark community, taking a position with Newark therapeutic center, Integrity House.

• See related article: President Obama Visits Integrity House

At this time, Evans began a romantic relationship with a Bloods member, moving in with her and eventually having a child in a storybook romance between rival gang members.

In 2009, Evans’ life story and efforts at recovery were featured in the Peabody Award-winning Sundance Channel documentary series, “Brick City.”

He was arrested for marijuana possession (under 50 grams) a few months later in November.

According to the Sundance biography, Evans was working with at-risk young males as a coordinator at Integrity House on the weekends and at the New Jersey Food Bank on weekdays, in addition to developing a career in comedy and raising his family.