DeFarra Gaymon, president/CEO of Credit Union of Atlanta, had traveled to New Jersey last week for his high school's 30th class reunion, the Star-Ledger reported today.
According to the article, Gaymon spent a year planning the Montclair High School reunion. He arrived in New Jersey July 15 to attend the event scheduled to take place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at the Meadowlands. The following evening, Gaymon was shot and killed by an undercover sheriff's detective at Branch Brook Park in Newark, N.J.
The unnamed detective was set to give his statement yesterday on the details that led up to Gaymon being shot, said Katherine Carter, press agent for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, which is conducting an investigation of the shooting. Carter said the detective's statement is set to be released today and a press conference may occur "since this is such a high profile case."
In New Jersey, a police shooting typically calls for the prosecutor to convene a grand jury to conduct an investigation, said a source familiar with the process. The state is one of a few where a grand jury indictment is necessary to charge someone with a felony. Carter was not immediately available to answer if this is the direction the prosecutor's office will take.
Meanwhile, Gaymon's family is seeking answers, the Star-Ledger reported. Kelly Gaymon Armstrong, DeFarra's sister, said the family plans to fly to New Jersey next week to get more information.
"There's nothing threatening about his character," Armstrong said about her brother, who was married and the father of four children. "He's a softie. It doesn't add up."
