In the early morning hours of January 22, 2015, the life of Robert Newell, a 50-year-old White male, came to a tragic end inside the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse in Lower Manhattan. A retired New York City Police Department officer, Newell was found in the basement locker room of the federal courthouse with a single gunshot wound to his head. His death, which occurred around 5:30 a.m., was immediately investigated as an apparent suicide.
There were no reports of arrests or any suspects in relation to this incident.
Originally from Brooklyn and a former resident of Staten Island, Newell had been living in Hazlet, New Jersey for 12 years prior to his passing. After a 16-year career with the NYPD, he had taken on a new role as a court security officer, a position he held for the last 12 years of his life at the very courthouse where he died. His retirement from the police force was due to disability after sustaining serious spinal and neck injuries in the line of duty.
The news of his death was met with sorrow by those who knew him. He was remembered as a member of the NYPBA and a communicant of Holy Family Church in Union Beach, New Jersey. His life outside of law enforcement was centered around his family in Hazlet. He was a husband and a father to two children. Family and friends gathered to mourn his loss at a funeral home in Hazlet, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at his local church. The circumstances of his death, as reported, did not lead to a criminal investigation involving suspects or arrests, and the narrative that emerged was one of a personal tragedy rather than a public crime.
