Urban News Staff Reports
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal’s office is investigating the Aug. 6 fatal police-involved shooting of Black 30-year-old Amir Johnson in Ventnor, N.J.
According to the preliminary investigation, Ventnor and Atlantic City Police Department officers responded to a 911 call concerning a man behaving erratically in the vicinity of Wellington Avenue and West End Avenue. When the responding officers encountered the man, later identified as Johnson from Wilkes-Barre, PA, he was walking in and out of a marshy area along the roadway, while holding a broken glass bottle in his hand.
The A.G.’s office says officers attempted to engage Johnson and offer him assistance, but he refused to comply with their commands, including repeated requests for him to drop the bottle. Instead, he continued to walk back and forth on the roadway, where officers had stopped traffic for safety reasons.
Johnson reportedly advanced on officers with the broken bottle in his hand and multiple officers fired their weapons, fatally wounding him. He was rushed by ambulance to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, Atlantic City Campus, where he was pronounced dead.
The investigation is being conducted by the Attorney General’s Office, pursuant to law which requires 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.
Reports indicate that Johnson was dealing with the recent death of his fiancée who died of a drug overdose in July.
“He was a good person at heart,” said Johnson’s friend Alhassan Abdulfattaah in a published interview. The two recently traveled for a trip to Atlantic City where Abdulfattaah said Johnson seemed fine.
Gurbir’s office says the investigation is ongoing and no further information has been released.