Family, activists and community members rallied in front of Paterson City Hall Tuesday night to remember Thelonius McKnight, a 25-year-old Black man who was shot and killed by Paterson police last week. Mayor Andre Sayegh has said McKnight pulled a gun and fired at officers as he was chased through a dark alley, but McKnight’s family and witnesses maintain he was unarmed the night of the shooting and are demanding more answers.
The family is now asking that the state Attorney General’s office, investigating the shooting, provide more details into what happened in the dark alleyway leading up to his death. The officers involved in the shooting have not been identified or disciplined. It’s still unclear if they were wearing body cameras, despite a law requiring all uniformed police officers to wear them.
