STATEMENT BY ATTORNEY FOR FAMILY OF UNARMED BLACK MAN KILLED BY NEW JERSEY STATE TROOPER IN SUPPORT OF NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE CIVILIAN REVIEW BOARD BILL

White Plains, NY (March 17, 2021) William O. Wagstaff, III, the attorney who represents the family of Maurice Gordon, Jr. who was fatally shot by New Jersey State Police Sergeant Randall Wetzell after a traffic stop on the Garden State Parkway on May 23, 2020, releases the following statement regarding the New Jersey Assembly Community Development and Affairs hearing on proposed Bill A4656. 

“The lack of police oversight in the State of New Jersey has engendered an environment of officers feeling they’re above the law. Communities of Color bear the brunt of this lack of accountability at alarming rates, leading to bruised black bodies and too often even deaths. Maurice Gordon Jr.’s killing at the hands of New Jersey State Trooper Randall Wetzel is yet another example of the perils unchecked police misconduct yields.

While the world has focused its attention on the shocking killing of George Floyd, Maurice Gordon Jr. was killed in New Jersey two days before him, but during the hearing, not one official mentioned him and the fact that he was killed in their own backyard. 

The Gordon family urges the New Jersey Legislature to pass A4656 because it’s the beginning of real civilian oversight of police in New Jersey. Its passage will go a long way towards preventing another family from suffering the tragic loss of a loved one.”