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Less than two weeks ago, an unnamed #NJ state trooper shot and killed Maurice Gordon, 28 years old.

He was not under arrest, was unarmed, and was waiting for roadside assistance in the back of a police cruiser.
The officer wouldn’t let Gordon take his seat belt off and exit the cruiser, and when the young man tried to exit—again, he was sitting there voluntarily and not being detained—the officer shot him, then placed him in handcuffs as he bled.
The attorney general is reviewing dashcam video and has not allowed the family lawyer to see all of the footage yet.

This seems so absolutely avoidable and senseless and I don’t think there could be any excuse that validates lethal force.
“You have a young man who had his whole life ahead of him who ended up dead, presumably, on the side of the Garden State Parkway for what should have been a routine traffic stop.”
Speeding ticket, then car wouldn’t start, frisked and made to sit for half an hour belted in the cruiser, then roughed up and shot multiple times—after he was FRISKED—for trying to exit freely while not being detained.
Technically, the family has no idea where Gordon died because police and state officials will not say whether he died at the scene or was taken to a hospital. (Fucking ridiculous bullshit that has nothing to do with protecting the integrity of an investigation, btw @NewJerseyOAG)
So as we await the dashcam footage, I’m going to say again that this seems to have been completely avoidable and seems indefensible for a trained law enforcement officer to allow escalation of this sort when dealing with an unarmed citizen not under arrest. #MauriceGordon
Some of the best experts in the state are on it, btw
Maurice was studying to be a chemist, too.
FYI: For those calling on @GovMurphy to review footage and release name, state law expressly prohibits the governor to be a part of the investigation. It is in the hands of his appointed attorney general, who has been a trailblazer for social justice issues thus far into the term
UPDATE: Rep for @NJGov said this a.m. they expect the initial attorney general investigation will produce results “soon”, but in the case that it does not government watchdogs are already on it
One thing bothering me: this reporting from a generally-accurate-but-politically-connected blog quotes a source stating #MauriceGordon had several interactions with police the day he was killed. No one else has reported this and @wildstein didn’t respond to a message about it.
Few things:

1. Why has no one else reported this, if it’s accurate?

2. How does one have that many police interactions (four) in one day, yet not have any charges brought against them?

3. How does one have that many police interactions by 6:30 am, when he was murdered?

🤔
Murphy supports #BLM & the protests. (See below quote at a march today.) He’s been quick to stop reporter interference & arrest, and is pushing progressive policy in conjunction with @GurbirGrewalNJ. Public records transparency, esp during #COVID, has been an Achilles heal.
But since I don’t think he would proactively encourage another week of protests in #NJ with this case hanging in the air, I would suspect they are moving quick and will release some information very soon.
BREAKING: Video/audio to be released as soon as Gordon family has been given a chance to review

@NewJerseyOAG: “That initial investigation is now complete, and we are in a position to publicly release the audio and video recordings of the incident.”
As we wait for release of video, I bring your attention to this person who thinks no one should be reporting on this until ALL THE FACTS are out and that we’ll all be apologizing to the police when it’s over. 🤯
The big question today--aside from details shown in the video--is whether charges will be brought against the yet-unnamed state trooper (I'm *assuming* they'll be named today) or whether the @NewJerseyOAG punts the decision to a grand jury.
@NewJerseyOAG Since the Gordon family lawyer has already cast doubt on whether the state attorney general can fairly and independently investigate a state police matter, the likely outcome may be a grand jury process.
@NewJerseyOAG "When there's a police-involved shooting, it's normally a municipal police officer. In that circumstance, to have the AG's office as the independent prosecutor makes sense. Here you have the attorney general doing an investigation on the state police."
patch.com/new-jersey/gal…
No charges to be announced today. Grand jury.
The video does not explain why the trooper was detaining Gordon, and why he would would need to force him back into the police car. Unless the officer, who was offering a mask to Gordon, had announced he was being arrested prior, there seems to be no excuse to detain him.
While the end of the video shows Gordon being shot while reaching over the back of the trooper, that does not seem like an unreasonable response to being attacked and placed at gunpoint without reason.
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