Family and community members are demanding answers after a man was fatally shot by police in New Jersey on New Year’s Day.
39-year-old Carl Dorsey, of South Orange, was fatally shot by Newark police minutes into the new year, authorities said. Newark police were called to the area of Woodland Avenue and South 11th Street at 12:03 a.m., but authorities have not said what officers were responding to.
The attorney general’s office, which is investigating the shooting, identified the police officer involved as Detective Rod Simpkins. Simpkins has been a member of the department for 18 years, according to state pension records.
Authorities have provided few details about the fatal shooting. There is no indication if Dorsey was armed or if he posed a threat to justify the shooting. Additionally, no body camera footage is available of the fatal encounter, although most police officers in Newark wear body cameras.
There is, however, non-police video footage of the shooting, the New Jersey General Attorney’s office said. That video is being investigated and is not yet being released, authorities said.
Court documents obtained by NJ Advance Media reveal some detail about the circumstances around the shooting. A group that was gathered near an intersection where Dorsey had been shot attempted to flee once police arrived, the records show.
The criminal complaint for a man who was arrested during the same incident made no mention of Dorsey’s shooting, so the exact events surrounding the shooting and Dorsey’s conduct during the incident, remain unclear.
Witnesses at a vigil and protest for Dorsey said he was not armed when he was shot.
“He didn’t even stand a chance,” Sharif Amenhotep told NJ.com.
The leader of a local advocacy group believes there won’t be any justice for the police killing because of the color of Dorsey’s skin.
“Other people are gonna say ‘Well, we’re going to make an impartial investigation,’” Lawrence Hamm, Chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress, told NJ.com. “Y’know what the end of that impartial investigation is gonna be? No police are gonna go to jail because there are two systems of justice in this country: one system of justice for us and there’s another system of justice for the police.”
Newark’s Mayor Ras Baraka said two guns were found at the scene and one person was arrested.
However, in the most recent press release about the shooting from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, there was neither any mention of firearms being recovered nor anyone being arrested.
The shooting comes at a time when activists and city leaders are re-examining the relationship with the police department.
Baraka in the summer signed a local ordinance that reallocated $11 million from the public safety department to social services shortly after protesters marched in Newark against police brutality.
Anyone with information or other sources of video is urged to contact the attorney general’s office at 1-844-OPIA-TIP.
