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Newark Cops Kill Alleged Drug Dealer, Neighbors Attack Police

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #809)

Two undercover Essex County sheriff's deputies shot and killed a suspected drug dealer Wednesday, sparking an angry response from area residents. The dead man, so far identified only as "Jose," becomes the 35th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.

According to the Newark Star-Ledger, citing Essex County Chief of Detectives Anthony Ambrose, the deputies were doing a drug investigation and approached "Jose" in a building on North 9th Street. Ambrose said the man came out of the building with a loaded weapon, and both deputies opened fire, killing him.

Neighbors at the scene, who pelted the sheriff's office vehicle with rocks and debris, breaking at least one window, had a different version of events. Several of them told a Star-Ledger reporter that the deputies hit the man with their vehicle, then shot him as he lay on the ground. None of those interviewed would give their names, saying they feared retribution from the police.

"Why did you have to hit him with a car? Why'd you have to shoot him in the back?" people shouted over Ambrose as he spoke to reporters.

One neighbor who did identify himself, Jamar Smith, said he was a friend of the dead man and was on his way to his house when he heard the sound of a car crash followed by the loud bang of two gun shots. Smith and several others said one of the officers involved is well-known in the neighborhood for his aggressive policing and that they had had violent encounters with him, too.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

Moonrider (not verified)

Isn't it interesting that two days after this incident there was a similar (fictional) story on the TV show Blue Bloods.  I read the article about this incident on Thursday, then by chance, on Friday night I happened to have seen a major part of the show (which I've never watched before, cop stories, real or fictional, do not interest me, except for Grimm, due to the way they portray frequent violations of the BoR by cops as a good thing).  I was surprised at the apparent coincidence, that there was a fictional show portraying an incident of a cop killing a "suspect" where the witnesses and neighborhood react in a similar manner to the real incident which happened just two days earlier.  Could they have put that show together so quickly, basing it on the real incident?  Were the writers precognitive?  Or was it merely coincidence?

Sun, 11/10/2013 - 4:04am Permalink
vapingsolo (not verified)

The police are becoming more of a threat to the people than many other threats to society. There is too much corruption, too much hate and too much blind ignorance within the police force. They are taught that a drug user is an expendable commodity in life, that people don't really mean anything. Every life is sacred, and for them to just use their power as means to kill is absolutely disgusting. This shit needs to be sorted out if people are going to have trust in their police department and government. More and more people are growing distrust in the current powers, and rightly so. The corruption needs to stop, the lies need to stop. People need to come together and remove these inhuman monsters from power and police. We need real people doing these jobs, not slimy pieces of shit who have no care for human life.

Sun, 11/17/2013 - 8:53am Permalink

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