SCHOOL
OFFICER IS SLAIN IN NEWARK SHOOTOUT
2nd cop injured, 1 suspect
wounded
Tuesday, July 19, 2005 • BY JONATHAN SCHUPPE AND
WILLIAM KLEINKNECHT • Star-Ledger Staff
A Newark school police officer was shot
and killed yesterday after he and his partner tried to break
up a fight between two female students outside Weequahic
High School, authorities said.
Officers Dwayne Reeves and Akia Scott
were talking with the feuding girls at around 2 p.m. when
two men pulled up in a car and confronted the officers,
police said. One of the men pulled out a gun and shot Reeves
in the head.
Scott, 26, was shot in the hand and
returned fire, hitting one of the attackers in the stomach,
police said. The injured man, a 24-year-old paroled member
of the Bloods street gang who police identified as Omar
Tindell, the brother of one of the girls, ran off but was
arrested a few blocks away. He was then taken to University
Hospital in Newark.
The second attacker remained at large
last night as bloodhounds and low-flying State Police
helicopters searched the surrounding neighborhood of the
city's South Ward.
Reeves, 35, a newlywed and father of
several children, was taken to University Hospital in
Newark, where he was pronounced dead at 5:25 p.m.,
authorities said. Scott was treated at the same hospital and
released, hospital spokesman Rogers Ramsey said.
The last officer to die in the line of
duty in Newark was officer Melvin Lisojo in 2003. Lisojo was
killed when his police cruiser was broadsided by a drunken
driver.
Mayor Sharpe James and Police Director
Anthony Ambrose called Reeves and Scott heroes.
"These two officers went beyond the call
of duty to assist two girls in a fight," James said during a
news conference outside the school. Instead, it became
another case of "guns being in the wrong hands."
"Our condolences go out to officer
Reeves' family," Ambrose said. "This is a sad day for the
Newark Police Department. He was one of our own."
Reeves and Scott were among 100 or so
special police officers trained by Newark police. The
officers have full police powers, carry guns and police
radios and wear police uniforms but do not work for the
city.
Instead, they are paid by the private
businesses and public agencies who hire them. Many are
employed by the city Housing Authority.
On May 1, the Newark Board of Education
assigned a half-dozen of the special officers to meet
parents' demands for better security at several city high
schools, including Weequahic High, said Willie Freeman, the
district's security director. Previously, only unarmed
security guards patrolled the schools.
For the summer term, two officers are
assigned to each of the three high schools holding classes:
Barringer, East Side and Weequahic, Superintendent Marion
Bolden said. Reeves, a special officer for three years, and
Scott, a special officer for four, were assigned to
Weequahic.
"If we did not have officers here,
(yesterday's shooting) could have been more tragic," Bolden
said. "(The shooters) could have come into the
school."
Classes will resume today at Weequahic,
Bolden said, but with added security and grief counselors
available.
Many details of yesterday's shooting,
which occurred shortly after classes had let out for the
day, remained murky.
Officials said the two girls, whom they
declined to identify, had been fighting since the weekend,
but would not say what they were fighting about.
The fight continued at school yesterday,
police said. They fought for the first time at around 1
p.m., at the corner of Chancellor and Aldine avenues, three
blocks from the school, Ambrose said.
About an hour later Reeves and Scott were
driving in a marked security car when they saw the girls
fighting again at the corner of Chancellor and Summit
avenues, outside the Weequahic athletic fields. The officers
got out and tried to break it up, Ambrose said.
At some point, one of the girls called a
relative "for help or reinforcement," Ambrose said. Then the
two men arrived in a new white Chrysler 300C, he
said.
A witness who declined to be identified
said he saw two girls who were about to fight and saw an
officer step in to stop it. Then he heard several
shots.
"I didn't pay it any mind until I heard
pop, pop," the witness said. "Then the officer went
down."
Last night, police had yet to charge
anyone in the shooting. Ambrose said investigators were
still interviewing witnesses, including the two girls. And
they were still looking for the attacker who got away, whom
Ambrose described as African-American, in his 20s, with
brown eyes, 5-feet 7-inches tall, with a lazy right
eye.
Police said a gun was found inside the
Chrysler, though they could not be sure it was the one used
in the shooting.
One of Reeves' colleagues, who asked not
to be identified because he did not have permission from his
superiors to talk, said the dead officer had been working
two assignments at once: schools by day and the Housing
Authority at night. Reeves was popular among the tight-knit
group of special officers and was respected for his
aggressive policing.
"He arrested so many people that he was
always at the precinct doing paperwork," the colleague said.
"He was a good cop. He would always be willing to chip in if
somebody needed help."
But he also did not take unnecessary
risks.
"He was the last person I thought this
would happen to," the fellow officer said.
Joseph Foushee, chief of security for the
Newark Housing Authority, said Reeves worked for him for
about four years and was an outstanding officer.
"He was a very pro-active police officer,
very energetic," Foushee said. "He was a leader among his
peers."
Staff writers Barry Carter, Elizabeth Moore, Kasi
Addison, Katie Wang and Jeffery C. Mays contributed to this
report. Jonathan Schuppe may be reached at (973) 392-7960 or
jschuppe@starledger.com or (973) 392-7960.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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