William Gainous

Every value below is shown exactly as Fatal Encounters recorded it.^[1]

Name as recorded

William Gainous

Age as recorded

20

Gender as recorded

Male

Race as reported

Race unspecified

Date of the injury resulting in death

July 13, 2004

Location as recorded

Newark, Essex County287 16th Street Newark NJ 07103 Essex

Highest level of force as recorded

Gunshot

Agency or agencies involved, as recorded: Newark Police Department

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.

Fatal Encounters' description of the incident, verbatim. This is the source project's own third-party narrative, not this site's reporting.

Members of the Neighborhood Enforcement Stabilization Task Force approached a group of five men standing in front of 531-533 South 16th Street, including William Gainous, 20, and Caleb Love, 25. According to police, Gainous and Love had committed an armed robbery moments before in front of a Chinese restaurant. When Officer Gonnella, 39, got out of his car and approached the crowd, Gainous fired four rounds from a handgun, hitting Officer Gonnella twice in his protective vest, once in the shoulder and once in the femur. Task force members followed Gainous into the restaurant at 287 16th Street. Gainous ignored calls to drop his gun, crouched down and took aim at the officers. Three officers fired eight rounds, killing Gainous. Love was arrested and charged with armed robbery and weapons possession.

Source reported by Fatal Encounters: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/15/nyregion/shootings-prompt-call-for-change-in-police-unit.html (external link, as recorded in the dataset).