On a Tuesday afternoon in Jersey City, a pursuit began that would end in the death of 20-year-old Lavon King. On June 24, 2014, at about 4:30 p.m., two officers from the Jersey City Police Department's Emergency Services Unit started to pursue King. One officer was on foot, and the other was in a police vehicle as they followed him through backyards on Ege Avenue.
Authorities later stated that King was being sought for five outstanding cases in Hudson County Superior Court related to drugs and theft, and he also had a pending probation violation.
The chase led to an unlocked shed, which King entered. One of the officers, later identified as Kenneth Bowes, followed King into the shed with his gun drawn. According to the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office, a struggle ensued inside the shed as the unarmed King tried to disarm the officer. During this struggle, Officer Bowes fired his service weapon once, striking King in the torso. Lavon King was pronounced dead at 8:54 p.m. An autopsy determined the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the torso, and the manner of death was homicide.
More than six months after the incident, the officer who shot King was publicly identified as Jersey City Police Officer Kenneth Bowes. At the time of the shooting, the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office stated that the investigation was ongoing to determine if the act constituted criminal homicide. A relative of King disputed the official account at his funeral, stating they did not believe he went into the shed. The investigation into the shooting was still pending in the Homicide Unit and Internal Affairs Unit months later, with no final determination announced at that time.
