Fatal Encounters record · Independent third-party dataset
Amar McLean
November 5, 2009 · Newark, Essex County
Details as recorded
Every value below is shown exactly as Fatal Encounters recorded it.[1]
- Name as recorded
- Amar McLean
- Age as recorded
- 23
- Gender as recorded
- Male
- Race as reported
- African-American/Black
- Date of the injury resulting in death
- November 5, 2009
- Location as recorded
- Newark, Essex CountySouth 15th Street and Springfield Ave. Newark NJ 07103 Essex
- Highest level of force as recorded
- Gunshot
Where the dataset places it
The marked point is the dataset's own geocoded location for this record, as recorded. Every other New Jersey record in the dataset is shown in gray. A point on a map is where a death was recorded, not a finding about anyone.
Agencies as recorded
Agency or agencies involved, as recorded: Essex County Sheriff's Office
An agency appears here because it appears in the record's as-reported agency field, nothing more. Its presence is not a claim of fault or responsibility.
Department pages (matched by this site at high confidence)
The source's account
Fatal Encounters' description of the incident, verbatim. This is the source project's own third-party narrative, not this site's reporting.
An officer, Norberto Moita, dressed in civilian clothes, approached McLean on information that a drug dealer was operating at the location. The officer, a member of the narcotics bureau from the sheriff's office, was being assisted by the drugs and gang unit. Upon approaching Amar McLean, they began to struggle. The officer shot McLean in the side, but the struggle continued. McLean was eventually handcuffed and taken to University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Source reported by Fatal Encounters: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/newark_residents_protest_shoot.html (external link, as recorded in the dataset).
If you are a family member of the person named here, or represent one, and something in this record is wrong, or you want the record removed, requests go through the corrections page. Every request is checked against the source record.
This is one of 19 New Jersey records the dataset dates to 2009, and one of 118 it holds for Essex County across 2000 to 2021. Browse every New Jersey Fatal Encounters record by year.
Records from the same county and year
- Edwin Munoz (2009) July 2, 2009
- Lynn Kimbrough (2009) June 6, 2009
- Darryl W. Elder (2009) June 5, 2009
Questions and answers
What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?
Fatal Encounters records that Amar McLean died on November 5, 2009 in Newark, Essex County, with "Gunshot" as the highest level of force. Fatal Encounters is an independent, crowdsourced dataset of deaths that occurred during police encounters of any kind; a record is not a finding of fault or misconduct.
Which agency or agencies were recorded as involved?
The record's agency field reads "Essex County Sheriff's Office". Presence in that field means the agency appears in the record as reported, nothing more; it is not a claim of fault or responsibility by any officer or agency.
Where did this happen?
The record places the death in Newark, Essex County, on November 5, 2009. The address as recorded is South 15th Street and Springfield Ave. Newark NJ 07103 Essex.
Sources
- [1]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset. Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Row 20644. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩