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Captured from across the street, the video released this week by state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal shows Carl Dorsey III, 39, running at Detective Rod Simpkins as the plainclothes investigator got out of the passenger side of an unmarked police vehicle just after midnight on New Year’s Day.
The pair collide and spin around, as Simpkins shoots Dorsey with his service weapon as he falls backwards.
SEE: Dorsey Shooting
The video is the only footage of the fatal encounter, Grewal said.
The attorney general said he released it under policies he established two years ago that “are designed to promote the fair, impartial and transparent investigation of fatal police encounters.”
Authorities first met with Dorsey’s relatives “to review both the video recording and aspects of the ongoing investigation with them,” he added.
The incident occurred as several officers responded to a report of a shooting near Woodland Avenue and South 11th Street.
“No firearm was recovered from [Dorsey] or his immediate area,” Grewal said. “Officers provided medical aid…and he was transported by emergency medical personnel to University Hospital in Newark, where he was pronounced deceased at approximately 1:37 a.m.”
Because the detectives were undercover in an unmarked vehicle, there’s no dash or body camera footage, the attorney general said.
State law and his own guidelines require Grewal’s office to investigate deaths that occur “during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody."
These must be done “in a full, impartial and transparent manner,” he said.
He released the video under another directive of his that requires doing so when requested in a use-of-force law enforcement incident "once the initial phase of the investigation is substantially complete."
That ordinarily takes 20 days, Grewal said.
“Under state law and the Independent Prosecutor Directive, when the entire investigation is complete, the case will be presented to a grand jury, typically consisting of 16 to 23 citizens, to make the ultimate decision regarding whether criminal charges will be filed,” the attorney general said.
Grewal’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability is continuing its investigation into the Dorsey shooting. He asked that anyone with additional information or video related to the incident contact his tips line at: 1-844-OPIA-TIP. All callers will remain anonymous, he said.
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