Maurice Gordon

Maurice Gordon, 28, a Jamaican-born chemistry student experiencing a mental health crisis, was shot six times and killed by New Jersey State Police Sergeant Randall Wetzel on the Garden State Parkway on May 23, 2020, two days before the murder of George Floyd. Over roughly four hours that morning, Gordon had five separate encounters with law enforcement across New Jersey after his car repeatedly stalled; a friend had called 911 the day before to report him missing and in a “panicked state.” Wetzel, the fifth officer to stop him, let Gordon wait in the back of his patrol car for a tow truck; when Gordon got out and tried twice to get into the driver's seat of the cruiser, Wetzel pepper-sprayed him, then shot him six times during a physical struggle. A state grand jury declined to indict Wetzel in May 2022. No one has ever been charged in Gordon's death.

Bass River, NJ · Burlington County

• 2020: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• Gordon's five separate law enforcement encounters over roughly four hours and the shooting itself, per more than a dozen video and audio recordings the New Jersey Attorney General's Office released publicly in June 2020.
• A friend of Gordon's called 911 on May 22, 2020 to report him missing from his home in Poughkeepsie, New York and in a “panicked state”; an investigation later found Gordon had driven from New York through Connecticut into New Jersey overnight.
• Gordon was stopped four times earlier that morning after his car ran out of gas or stalled; officers on each occasion arranged for a tow and let him go on his way without incident.
• Sergeant Randall Wetzel stopped Gordon a fifth time at 6:26 a.m. for driving over 100 mph on the Garden State Parkway in Bass River; when Gordon's car would not restart, Wetzel patted him down and let him wait in the back seat of the patrol car for a tow truck, asking him more than 70 questions during the wait, to which Gordon gave few audible responses.
• After roughly 21 minutes, Gordon got out of the patrol car and twice attempted to get into its driver's seat; Wetzel pepper-sprayed him on the first attempt, and during the second attempt a physical struggle broke out during which Wetzel fired six shots, killing Gordon at the scene.
• Gordon's family said he had no criminal record and was suffering from psychiatric difficulties at the time of his death; the shooting drew national attention when video was released in June 2020, days after George Floyd's murder had already sparked nationwide protests.
• A state grand jury declined to indict Wetzel on May 17, 2022, nearly two years after the shooting; the family's attorney said the outcome was “not a surprise” given New Jersey's own data showing police used force against Black people at roughly eight times the rate used against white people in comparable encounters.
• Gordon's parents filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in March 2021 alleging race was a factor in his death; a subsequent investigation, per Gothamist reporting, examined whether officers along Gordon's route that morning were adequately trained to recognize and respond to a mental health crisis.

• Whether Wetzel's account of the physical struggle justified deadly force, as opposed to de-escalation options given Gordon's documented psychiatric crisis and the roughly four hours of prior, incident-free encounters with other officers that morning, was never tested at any criminal trial since the grand jury declined to indict.
• Whether any of the five separate law enforcement agencies that encountered Gordon that morning identified or flagged signs of a mental health crisis before Wetzel's fatal stop has not been comprehensively addressed in available public reporting.
• The full reasoning behind the grand jury's decision not to indict, beyond the state attorney general's public announcement, has not been made available, as grand jury proceedings are sealed under New Jersey law.

• NBC News — “Video released in fatal shooting of unarmed Black man by N.J. state trooper”
• Gothamist — “A NJ State Trooper Fatally Shot A Black Man. Now The Case Raises Questions About Mental Health Training for Officers”
• Newsweek — “No Charges for Cop Randy Wetzel, Who Shot Unarmed Black Man Maurice Gordon”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs