NJ state police under scrutiny after killing of black man  

The family of a black man killed in a confrontation with a police officer want to find out the truth about what happened, amid a broader national uproar over racial inequities in policing.

Maurice Gordon Jr., 28, died after being pulled over on New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway early on the morning of May 23. He had apparently been stopped because he was suspected of speeding. 

Gordon, who was born in Jamaica but was living in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., died after being shot by a New Jersey state trooper. 

According to William Wagstaff, the attorney for Gordon’s family, Gordon was handcuffed by the trooper after he was shot.

Gordon’s killing is being investigated by the New Jersey attorney general’s office.

There is video and audio of the incident but it has not been released publicly. Wagstaff has viewed much of the tape, but says he was not able to view it in its entirety. The Hill has not seen the video.

It is understood that the recording will be released imminently — perhaps as early as Monday. 

Its release would come as the nation continues to simmer over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. 

Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer ground his knee into Floyd’s neck as he lay prone. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with second-degree murder.

Floyd’s killing has sparked protests across the country and indeed the world, as well as calls for significant reform to police departments.

Meanwhile, Gordon’s killing is drawing increased scrutiny and media attention. Wagstaff and Gordon’s mother, Racquel Barrett, appeared on MSNBC on Monday morning and the case has also been covered by The Wall Street Journal.

In a statement provided to The Hill, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said video and audio of the incident involving Gordon would soon be released and that a team of independent investigators was working to conclude its probe into his death as quickly as possible. 

“That initial investigation is now complete, and we are in a position to publicly release the audio and video recordings of the incident,” Grewel said. “We have reached out to Mr. Gordon’s family to provide them an opportunity to privately view the footage before its public release.”

Barrett, who lives in the United Kingdom, has returned to the United States to try to get to the bottom of what happened to her son, whom she described to The Hill as “just a loving person.”

Barrett, who broke down at times during a phone interview Sunday, said that her son’s death and the aftermath “has been traumatizing for me.” 

She added, “I’m just reliving the moment over and over again.”

According to Wagstaff, Gordon was pulled over on the Garden State Parkway allegedly for traveling over 100 mph. The recording, he says, shows a standard and apparently non-confrontational exchange between Gordon and the trooper. 

After that, however, Gordon is unable to get his vehicle to restart, and it is parked close to the median. “He was not fully off the road and the car was no longer operable,” according to Wagstaff.

The attorney says that the state trooper then calls for a tow truck to move Gordon’s vehicle. For some time, Gordon remains in his own vehicle but occasionally gets out to seek more information from the state trooper. He is cautioned to return to his own car.

Wagstaff says that the trooper eventually asks Gordon if he wants to sit in the back of the police vehicle. Gordon accepts and the trooper first pats him down — something that, if true, would mean the trooper knew Gordon was unarmed.

At no time, according to Wagstaff, is Gordon placed under arrest. In the trooper’s vehicle, there are apparently a couple of interactions where Gordon takes his seatbelt off as if to exit and is ordered by the trooper to stay in the vehicle.

The attorney says that, after a third effort by Gordon to exit the vehicle, there is some kind of escalation. 

“The police officer initiates physical engagement with Maurice,” Wagstaff said, adding that the position of the two men at this point on the driver’s side of the vehicle means “it is not clear what happened” from the recording.

In the end Gordon was shot — apparently more than once — sometime around 6:30 a.m. 

The family had not, as of Sunday, been told whether he died at the scene, or was declared dead at a later point such as in an ambulance or at a hospital.

It is not clear why Gordon would be handcuffed after being fatally shot. 

According to Wagstaff, when he was permitted to view the video of the incident, the authorities stopped the recording soon after this point.

“I was expecting to see all of the footage they had available to them, but there was a laundry list of excuses why I could not see the rest of the video,” he said.

Racquel Barrett was at home in London when her son’s father called.

“He asked me, ‘Where are you? Is somebody with you?’ I knew there and then something happened,” she told The Hill.

She woke up her partner, and was told her son had been killed. She fainted at the news.

Her son was studying chemistry while earning a living as an Uber driver. Some of his final texts with his mother are about him wanting to get a haircut. 

“Why do you want to cut your hair??” she replies.

Barrett sometimes still talks about her son in the present tense.

“My son is a wonderful, wonderful son. He is just a loving person,” she says. 

Gordon, like his mother, was born in Jamaica and she recalls his “laidback personality, joking — making jokes with his Jamaican accent.”

He was enjoying his studies, according to his mother, and thinking about the future.

“Mom, I would love to be a professor one day,” he told her.