Newark Police NJ Indicted & Charged For Shooting At A Car With Tinted Windows - Earning Some Hate

The Newark police officer charged with manslaughter for allegedly shooting and killing a man fleeing a traffic stop after a harrowing pursuit caught on his own body camera tells News 4 in an exclusive interview that he would do it again if put in the same situation.

“I could have been dead,” 26-year-old Jovanny Crespo said, his first comments since he was indicted by an Essex County grand jury in May. “I believe my actions kept me alive. I think about my four kids I have and I thank God I got to go home that night.”

Crespo described in detail his perspective of the events as they unfolded late the night of Jan. 28 – a timeline that he says included an estimated seven gunshots fired only by his department-issued weapon that ultimately ended in the death of 46-year-old Gregory Griffin. Another Newark man in the car at the time, 35-year-old Andrew Dixon, was wounded in the fray but survived.

According to Crespo, Newark was on high alert at the time. In the two months leading up to the shooting, he says he arrested six people and recovered eight guns. He says his lieutenant had warned officers before they went out that January night to expect a retaliation shooting in the city. Crespo described that week as the most drastic week he experienced in his two years on the force. But he says he wasn’t “trigger-happy.”

“Trigger-happy? No, never,” Crespo said. “I never think about firing my weapon unless my life is at risk, somebody’s life is at risk.”

And to Crespo, his life – and the lives of others – were at risk that Monday night in January.

Crespo says he went to get out of his car and could see both the driver and passenger through the windshield and driver’s side window, despite the glass being tinted. The vehicle sped off again before he had a chance to do anything further. He got back in the patrol car with his partner and they started to pursue the other vehicle again.

Then the suspect’s car stops a second time. Crespo says his partner stopped their vehicle and Crespo got out; he ran around the back of the patrol vehicle and tried to open the passenger door.

“As I open it, I could see the passenger holding the gun directly at me. At that moment I fired my weapon,” Crespo said. He says he fired one shot at first, then two more as he ran back toward the patrol car. The suspect vehicle drove off once again.

For a third time, Crespo and his partner engaged in a pursuit. The 26-year-old described seeing the passenger door opening and closing, recounting his concern that the passenger would jump out and run or fire out the open door.

“At that moment, I got a split-second decision to make. I see the passenger holding the gun. At that moment, I fire again,” Crespo says, estimating he shot another two bullets.

And again, Crespo says the suspect’s vehicle started to drive away. Again, he saw the passenger door start to open, and Crespo says he told his partner the passenger had pointed a gun at him. The suspect’s vehicle slowed. Crespo says he got out of the patrol car, raced to the passenger side and could still see the man with a handgun.

Fearing he would shoot through the door, Crespo says he fired his weapon two more times. Then he opened the passenger side door and saw a gun – one that would later be confirmed to have been a loaded semi-automatic weapon – on the floorboard. Crespo says he took off the passenger’s seat belt, tried to put him in handcuffs and called for an ambulance to help the wounded man. That man died the next day.

Prosecutors have challenged Crespo’s statements that he could see the passenger holding a weapon. How could he see through the tinted windows? Crespo insists the LED lights and sirens from police vehicles, as well as the street lights, gave him a clear view through the passenger’s window. And to anyone who denies he could have seen a weapon through tinted windows in the pitch black of night, Crespo says, “That’s a lie.”

“He showed a reckless disregard for human life by shooting into a moving vehicle — a vehicle which had heavily tinted windows,"Essex County Prosecutor

To that, Crespo’s response is simple: “He wasn’t in my shoes. He didn’t see that gun pointed directly at his face. He didn't see that car driving erratic, putting other lives in danger. I saw a vehicle at 11 o’clock at night driving 70 mph on the other side of the road, putting lives at risk.”

“We didn't receive any training that could help me with that incident right there, with split second decisions,” Crespo added. “You have to go with your gut, what you think you have to do to survive.”

No police officers were injured in the shooting. No other officer fired a weapon. Crespo says that’s because no other cop got as close to the vehicle as he did.

Facing a potential life sentence if convicted of all charges against him, Crespo realizes the frightening uncertainty of his future. He says he has no regrets, though he does say he feels for the families of those he shot.