A family is seeking answers after black man died during a confrontation with a New Jersey state police officer in late May, The Hill reports.
Maurice Gordon Jr., 28, was born in Jamaica and was living in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., while attending college. He was pulled May 23 after a state trooper suspected his car of traveling at 100 mph.
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal told The Hill a video and audio recording of the incident would be released perhaps as early as Monday. He said a team of independent investigators are probing Gordon's cause of death.
"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."
Gordon's mother, Racquel Barrett, described her son as "just a loving person," saying his death "has been traumatizing for me."
Family attorney William Wagstaff told The Hill he has seen much of the video, but not all. He said, after Gordon was pulled over, the video shows him and the officer showing an apparent nonconfrontational exchange. The officer asks Gordon to move his vehicle since it is partially in the road, but it would not crank, so the trooper calls a tow-truck.
Gordon gets back in his car to wait, but occasionally gets out to seek more information from the officer, who tells him to return to his vehicle.
The trooper finally asks Gordon if he wants to sit in the back of his patrol car, and Gordon says yes. Gordon is then patted down, which the family lawyer notes, would have told the trooper, Gordon was not armed.
Gordon removes his seat belt a couple of times and tries to exit, but the trooper tells him to stay in the car. On a third attempt, things apparently escalate.
"The police officer initiates physical engagement with Maurice," Wagstaff said.
The two men were on the driver's side of the car, meaning "it is not clear what happened,' he added.
Gordon was fatally shot, but it is unclear whether he died at the scene, in an ambulance, or at a hospital.
The incident comes amid nationwide protests against police interactions with black men, spurred by the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis by a white police officer who held his knee on his neck for almost nine minutes as Floyd pleaded he could not breathe.
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