Erick Gilmore

On a summer evening in Cornwall, New York, a dispute between neighbors escalated into a fatal encounter, leaving one man dead and a community in shock. Forty-year-old Erick Gilmore, a male resident of the town, was shot and killed on July 6, 2020. The man who pulled the trigger was his neighbor, an off-duty Town of Ramapo police detective named Rob Fitzgerald.

The incident unfolded around 11 p.m. following what authorities described as a disagreement between the two men. In the aftermath of the shooting, investigators recovered a knife at the scene. It was also reported that Gilmore had a recent run-in with the law, having been arrested in March of that year on charges of menacing a police officer, resisting arrest, and weapon possession. Fitzgerald, who was placed on administrative leave from the Ramapo Police Department, was not using his service weapon at the time of the shooting.

The Orange County District Attorney's Office announced that the case would be presented to a grand jury to determine if the use of force was justified and whether criminal charges were warranted against Fitzgerald. However, the convening of the grand jury was delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which had created a backlog in the legal system.

The investigation into Erick Gilmore's death was conducted by the New York State Police. Despite the initial reports and the stated intention to bring the case before a grand jury, publicly available information does not specify the final outcome of this investigation or whether the grand jury ever rendered a decision on potential charges against Rob Fitzgerald.