Attorney general’s office investigates fatal police-involved shooting in Orange

ORANGE, NJ — The New Jersey attorney general’s Shooting Response Task Force is conducting an investigation of an officer-involved shooting that occurred Saturday, July 13, in Orange. A man, Jamahl Smith, 46, was fatally wounded.

According to the preliminary investigation, shortly after 3 p.m., the Orange Police Department received a 9-1-1 call reporting an altercation and a man with a knife at Oakwood Towers, 400 Oakwood Ave. Upon arrival at the location, Orange police officers encountered Smith. According to the investigation, during the encounter, one of the officers fired at Smith, fatally wounding him. Smith was transported to University Hospital in Newark, where he was pronounced dead.

The investigation is ongoing and no further information is being released at this time.

This investigation is being conducted pursuant to a law enacted in January 2019 requiring that the attorney general’s office 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.