Protesters name for federal civil rights probe into deadly police taking pictures in Newark

Civil rights activists are calling on New Jersey’s chief attorney to investigate the fatal shooting of Carl Dorsey III by a plainclothes detective in Newark after authorities videotaped the chaotic, fatal encounter shortly after midnight on New Years Day, apparently contradicting previous claims by local officials that guns were recovered from the scene.

“Tonight, I am publicly calling on Rachel Honig, acting US attorney for New Jersey, to open a civil rights investigation into the murder of Carl Dorsey,” said Lawrence Hamm, chairman of the People’s Progress Organization, in front of two dozen protesters who protested in the US had gathered on a bitterly cold Thursday night at the filming location on South 11th Street on Woodlawn Avenue.

“It’s not just the district attorney, it’s not the attorney general we have to rely on, there are also federal courts and the federal justice system,” said Hamm, adding that he will repeat the request before Honey’s Court Street office next week will be his group during the regular rally of Justice Assembly. “And if Carl Dorsey was unarmed, then I suspect that his civil rights have been violated.”

Detective Rod Simpkins, an 18-year-old Newark Police veteran, is on administrative leave, said a spokesman for the city’s public safety director Anthony Ambrose. Dorsey, who lived in South Orange, was 39 years old.

Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021 – Sister Dawn of the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition lights candles at a rally on Woodland Ave & S 11th St where a fatal police shot at a South Orange man, Carl Dorsey III, was shot early in Newark was on New Years Day.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Under state law regarding police deaths, the incident is being investigated by the New Jersey Attorney General, which released a civilian surveillance tape that recorded the 12:03 p.m. shooting. When the tape was released, Attorney General Gerbil Grewal said no gun was found on or near Dorsey. A first report by Mayor Ras Baraka said that two guns had been found at the scene.

Just a week before the shooting, Ambrose said not a single shot had been fired by a Newark police officer in 2020. The last fatal police shootout in Newark took place in January 2019 when police officer Jovanny Crespo killed Gregory Griffin and wounded Andrew Dixon, when her car fled police. Crespo has been charged with manslaughter, among other charges, in one pending case.

The video of the Dorsey shoot shows an unmarked hatchback pulling up next to two parked cars on South 11th Street. Simpkins jumps out of the car by the back passenger door and runs to the front of the car. At the same time, Dorsey comes running into the frame from somewhere in front of the vehicle and runs toward it in Simpkins’ direction. The two collide, if not head-on, and when Simpkins falls onto the street, he turns back to Dorsey and fires his pistol. Dorsey appears to have been hit and falls onto the sidewalk between the parked cars.

Warning: The following video shows deadly violence.

Simpkins then gets up and looks at Dorsey, first from the street, and after walking around one of the parked cars and crouching next to the collapsed victim of the shooting, according to the video.

Shortly after the shooting, the video shows two more plainclothes officers getting out of the vehicle that Simpkins was in, followed by several others who ran into the frame behind the vehicle – apparently the group of officers authorities said was in had patrolled avon near Avon Avenue and responded to gunfire.

Authorities said there was no police body or dash camera footage from the shootings.

Thursday night’s protest was the second meeting on Dorsey’s behalf, a week after a slightly larger one at the same location.

“Just because there is a videotape doesn’t mean there will be justice,” said Hamm, the longtime activist. “Just because there are witnesses doesn’t mean there will be justice.”

But Quamir Hodges did not brave the sub-zero temperatures out of pessimism. Hodges, 23, who lives in Newark and runs the Brothers Auto Shop on Avon Avenue, one block from the shooting, said he was tried after serving eight years on one at the age of 14 The county juvenile detention center was jailed in a robbery after being “bumped into” as a teenager and young adult in state prison for seven years.

“It’s something we see all over the county now, in this lifetime,” said Hodges, a member of the New Jersey Parents’ youth group, Caucus.

“The first in Newark in a long time and it touched. It was just down the street from my shop, ”he said.

Hodges was shivering after an hour outside in the wind and temperatures in the low 20s. But skipping the event never crossed his mind.

“No,” said Hodges. “We can’t let that distract us.”

Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021 – A woman holding a sign at the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition is holding a rally on Woodland Ave & S 11th St where a fatal police shot at a South Orange man, Carl Dorsey III, early in Newark was shot on New Years Day.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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Steve Strunsky can be reached at [email protected].