Newark Mayor On Police Shooting: 'Tragic, Disturbing, Incomplete'

NEWARK, NJ — A probe continues into a police-involved shooting that killed a South Orange resident in Newark on New Year's Day.

On Thursday, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office released an update about the shooting, which claimed the life of 39-year-old Carl Dorsey III.

The officer involved in the shooting, Rod Simpkins, a detective with the Newark Police Department, is on administrative leave until the investigation ends, Mayor Ras Baraka said.

Prosecutors stated:

"According to the preliminary investigation, the shooting occurred shortly after midnight near Woodland Avenue and South 11th Street in Newark, N.J. Officers responded to the area on reports of gunfire. After Detective Simpkins got out of his car, there was brief physical contact between him and Mr. Dorsey and Detective Simpkins fired his 9mm service weapon one time, striking Mr. Dorsey. No firearm was recovered from Mr. Dorsey or his immediate area. Officers provided medical aid to Mr. Dorsey and he was transported by emergency medical personnel to University Hospital in Newark, where he was pronounced deceased at approximately 1:37 a.m. While the Newark Police Department employs body and dash cameras, there is no police video of the incident. The officers in this case, including Detective Simpkins, were in plain clothes and in unmarked vehicles, and were not equipped with body or dash cameras."

Some community members have been demanding an investigation, claiming that “people in the neighborhood have a very different version of the story” from authorities’ accounts. Read More: Police-Involved Shooting In Newark Raises Questions, Spurs Rally

After meeting with Dorsey's relatives to discuss the ongoing probe, investigators with the New Jersey Attorney General's Office released a video taken of the shooting, which can be seen here.

The footage shows a chaotic scene, with several people running in panic after apparently hearing a gunshot.

“After reviewing the video from the Jan. 1 police shooting incident, I found it to be tragic, disturbing, yet incomplete,” Mayor Ras Baraka said Thursday.

“While the Attorney General’s Office is conducting an ongoing investigation, we are asking the public’s help to fill in some gaps,” the mayor continued.

According to Baraka:

“We will be asking the Attorney General’s Office to turn over information to our consent decree unit to review if the use of force or any other policy was violated. We will also ask that all information be turned over to our Civilian Complaint Review Board to investigate and provide recommendations. Lastly, we will be requesting that our Public Safety Director look into expanding the use of body cameras to include plainclothes units as well.”

The fatal incident remains under investigation by the Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA). Anyone with information can contact the Attorney General’s Office at 609-292-4925, or 609-984-5828.

The week prior to the New Year's Day shooting, the Newark Public Safety Department said that no local police officer fired a shot in 2020.

"Our officers have embraced de-escalation training and are actively employing this resource when engaging with the community," Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey commended the Newark Police Department, which saw a 30 percent drop in the number of shooting victims citywide between 2017 and 2018. In 2019, the number of shooting victims and shooting incidents declined another 39 percent, with the number of murders reaching its lowest level in nearly six decades.

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com

Don’t forget to visit the Patch Newark Facebook page. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site. Sign up for Patch email newsletters.