Man fatally shot by police officer

AND PHILIP READ

A Newark man was shot and killed yesterday afternoon by an Essex County sheriff's officer during a struggle following a drug bust, authorities said.

The shooting unfolded at Springfield Avenue and South 15th Street in Newark where the officer, dressed in plain clothes, approached the 23-year-old male on information that a drug dealer was operating at the site, said Paul Loriquet, spokesman for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office. The officer, a member of the narcotics bureau from the sheriff's office, was being assisted by the drugs and gang unit from the prosecutor's office.

The officer approached the man and they began struggling, Loriquet said. The officer fired his service weapon into the man's side, but the struggle continued.

After the man was handcuffed, he was taken to University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:30 p.m., said Loriquet. The officer, a 17-year veteran of the department, was also taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries.

A Maplewood resident who was walking near the shooting scene said she heard a single gunshot and later saw a man facedown on the ground with handcuffs behind his back next to a laundromat. Police officers later took off the cuffs and cut off his shirt, revealing a large bullet wound on the left side of his chest, said the woman, who declined to give her name.

Linwood Rogers, who was working in the laundromat, said he heard the shot and then looked out a window and saw the man.

Investigators confiscated 20 bricks of heroin worth about $4,000 from the deceased man. Loriquet said it was not clear if the man had a weapon.

Loriquet declined to immediately name the victim, but family and friends gathered near the shooting site identified him as Amar McLean.

Saleenah Baines, who said she was McLean's stepsister, said: "He was trying to make something of himself. He doesn't sell drugs."

Baines said McLean has a 3-year-old son and another child on the way. About 30 people gathered at a street corner near the shooting as they cried and comforted each other.

Earl Best, an activist known as "Street Doctor," also came to the scene to comfort Tracy Baines, McLean's mother.

Loriquet said the professional standards bureau of the prosecutor's office and the internal affairs department of the Sheriff's Office will investigate the shooting.

Saleenah Baines said her family plans to file a complaint with internal affairs.

Sharon Adarlo may be reached at sadarlo@starledger.com or (973) 392-4088. Philip Read may be reached at pread@starledger.com or (973) 392-1851.