A 40-year-old police officer was running toward the sound of gunfire at about 3:15 a.m. in Paterson, N.J., the state’s third largest city. A young man in a white sweatshirt darted out nearby. The officer pivoted, followed him and can be heard on video repeatedly ordering him to drop a gun.
But the officer, Jerry Moravek, never told the man, later identified as Khalif Cooper, to stop running before firing his weapon, according to video from a body-worn camera. Mr. Cooper, then 28, was shot in the back as he ran, leaving him with a disabling spinal injury.
On Monday, the state’s attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, took the unusual step of charging Officer Moravek with aggravated assault and official misconduct. Mr. Platkin said that Officer’s Moravek’s decision to shoot violated New Jersey’s use-of-force policy, which requires using the least amount of force reasonable and necessary.
“The allegations that we are discussing today fall so far outside these confines — shooting an unarmed man in the back, resulting in a serious injury — that criminal charges are appropriate,” the attorney general said.
According to a video of the June 11, 2022, shooting released by the Passaic County prosecutors office, a gun was found in the vicinity of the shooting, but Mr. Platkin said it was not “in the victim’s possession or within his reach.”
Mr. Moravek’s lawyer, Patrick Caserta, said the criminal charges were not justified, and the mayor of Paterson, André Sayegh, also defended the officer’s actions.
“During a short foot chase, there came a time when Officer Moravek believed his life and the life of other people in the street was at risk,” Mr. Caserta said in a statement.
“He believed at that split-second that the person he was chasing was turning to fire that handgun at him and he realized that if he missed, the bullets could strike anyone nearby. He made that split-second decision and fired his weapon.”
The charges come a little more than a week after videos of a deadly beating of a young Black man, Tyre Nichols, by Memphis police officers were released, shocking the nation with their intensity and duration.
In New Jersey, all deadly shootings by law enforcement officers must be presented to a grand jury, which considers whether or not to indict the officer. But Mr. Platkin made the decision to file charges against Officer Moravek even before the case was presented to a grand jury. If convicted of both the assault and misconduct charges, he faces more than 10 years in prison.
“The victim was never ever told to stop running,” Mr. Platkin said during a news conference held to announce the charges. “He was not warned that deadly force might be used.”
The state’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability, led by Thomas Eicher, investigated the shooting.
“Under the law, discharging a firearm is meant to be a last resort, used by officers when they or the public face an imminent threat of death or serious injury. That just wasn’t the situation here,” Mr. Eicher said in a statement. “This lapse of judgment, this violation of the law and police procedures, has had a steep cost for the victim and it must have consequences.”
The gunshot left bullet fragments in Mr. Cooper’s spine, leaving him unable to walk, according to the attorney general’s office. Neither he nor his relatives could be immediately reached for comment about the charges filed against Officer Moravek.
After Mr. Cooper was on the ground and handcuffed, Officer Moravek can be heard asking him, “Why did you run from me?”
“I was scared,” Mr. Cooper said, “but I don’t got no gun though.”
Zellie Thomas, an organizer with Black Lives Matter of Paterson, said the police should routinely face more serious consequences when they discharge weapons.
“This is one way he is being held accountable,” Mr. Thomas said of Officer Moravek. “I hope in the future more officers are charged, and maybe they’ll think twice about some of their actions.”
Alain Delaquérière contributed research.