The Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) today identified the civilian who died following an encounter with members of the Bloomfield Police Department on July 23, 2024 in East Orange, New Jersey. Omar Williams, 43, of Hamilton, in Mercer County, New Jersey, died during the encounter.
The fatal police encounter is under investigation by OPIA. The Office is releasing footage from a dashboard camera, body-worn cameras, and third-party cameras today, pursuant to policies established by the Attorney General’s Office in 2019 designed to promote the fair, impartial, and transparent investigation of fatal police encounters. Representatives of Mr. Williams’ family were given an opportunity to review the recordings prior to their public release.
According to the preliminary investigation, detectives from the Bloomfield Police Department (BPD) received an Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) notification alerting them to the presence of a vehicle of interest in a pending robbery investigation. After BPD Deputy Chief Anthony Sisco located the vehicle in Newark, BPD officers attempted to initiate a motor vehicle stop. After the driver did not pull over, BPD Sgt. Raymond Diaz and Lt. Michael Moleski, along with Detective James Romano, pursued the vehicle into Bloomfield and ultimately to East Orange, where the pursued vehicle crashed into a civilian vehicle and then careened into two other vehicles, including a parked ambulance.
The driver of the pursued vehicle, Mr. Williams, died from injuries sustained in the crash. All other involved civilians suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The police vehicles involved in the pursuit were not directly involved in the collisions.
The recordings are available to view here:
https://njoag.box.com/s/kleopmbkwhdft6zq2pzlu31rdhdu1csx
The investigation is ongoing and no further information is being released at this time.
A 2019 law, N.J.S.A. 52:17B-107(a)(2), requires the Attorney General’s Office to conduct investigations of a person’s death that occurs during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody. It requires that all such investigations be presented to a grand jury to determine if the evidence supports the return of an indictment against the officer or officers involved.
Further information about how fatal police encounters are investigated in New Jersey under the Independent Prosecutor Directive is posted on the Attorney General’s website here.