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A basic background search turned up a six-year history of arrests for Everett Rand, 29, of Newark after New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin identified him on Tuesday, May 16, as the man shot and killed by police two weeks ago.
Responding to a 911 call, officers found 27-year-old Newark resident Wyleek Shaw dead and young Zahmire Lopez mortally wounded in a home on Johnson Avenue shortly after 8:30 p.m. May 3, Platkin said.
The killer reportedly grabbed Zahmire and shot him in the chest as his mother tried to protect him. She apparently escaped out a second-story window.
Zahmire was pronounced dead at University Hospital at 9:14 p.m., the attorney general said.
SEE: Newark Police Down Gunman After Killing Of City Man, 8-Year-Old Boy, NJ Attorney General Says
“Police encountered [Rand] with a firearm running away from the residence where the two individuals had been shot,” Platkin said.
“Several police officers from the Newark Police Department engaged in a foot pursuit, and Officer Steven Ferreira and Officer Ryan Castro fired their weapons during the encounter, fatally wounding [Rand],” the attorney general said Tuesday.
At this point, no one has said whether they believe that Rand was the killer. Ballistic tests on the semiautomatic handgun that he reportedly was carrying would show whether or not it was used in the homicides.
Meanwhile, a mandated review is being conducted of Rand’s death.
Both state law and his own guidelines require the attorney general to review any death that occur in New Jersey “during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody," no matter what the circumstances are.
The guidelines guarantee that the investigation is done “in a full, impartial and transparent manner," removing politics or personal agendas, the attorney general has said.
Once the investigation by Platkin’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) is completed, the results are presented to the grand jury “in a neutral, objective manner, and with appropriate transparency,” he said.
The panel then renders a ruling on whether it was a clean shoot or a criminal investigation is warranted.
“An officer may use deadly force in New Jersey when the officer reasonably believes it is immediately necessary to protect the officer or another person from imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm,” Platkin has noted.
ALSO SEE: Boy Killed In Newark Shooting Was 'Life Of The Party' Like His Mom, Loved Ones Say
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