Oneil Linton, a 23-year-old Black/African American man, was killed in Paterson, New Jersey, during the early morning hours of May 18, 2014. Linton, who was living in Lodi at the time, was outside a house at 526 14th Avenue in Paterson’s Eastside neighborhood, where neighbors said a gathering or party had been taking place. A witness living across the street reported hearing two gunshots at about 5:30 a.m.
and then looking outside to see Linton on the ground while an assailant struck him with the gun. His body was found beside the passenger side of a silver Honda parked outside the residence.
Linton was known to friends as “Fuzzy.” He had come to the United States from Jamaica approximately five years earlier with his father, reportedly hoping to build a better life. Friends remembered him as a “people person.” What began as an early Sunday morning outside the Paterson residence ended with Linton suffering fatal gunshot wounds and being beaten during the attack.
The investigation eventually focused on Michael Brown, who was 33 at the time. Authorities said Brown disappeared following Linton’s killing, leaving investigators searching for him for months. The case changed significantly in late November 2014 when Brown was located and arrested in an abandoned house in Orange, New Jersey. Contemporary reporting identified Brown as the man accused of killing Linton.
Following his capture, Brown was charged with murder in connection with Linton’s death. By November 26, 2014, he had appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. His arrest demonstrated that the investigation had progressed well beyond the initially reported shooting scene and that police had ultimately identified and apprehended a suspect after he allegedly disappeared in the aftermath of the homicide.
The available independent online reporting establishes Brown’s identification as the suspect, his capture in Orange, the murder charge, and his not-guilty plea. The sources located do not reliably document a subsequent trial verdict, conviction, acquittal, dismissal, or sentencing in the case, so no later disposition can be stated as established fact from the available reporting.
