The Essex County Prosecutor's Office has released final homicide investigation numbers for the year 2020 for municipalities in the county.
Through the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) RLS Media obtained the tally that has Newark leading in investigations through the close of the year with 56 individuals killed and officially investigated as homicides.
The following is the final tally for the count:
NEWARK - 56
IRVINGTON - 11
EAST ORANGE - 6
ORANGE - 3
WEST ORANGE - 1
BLOOMFIELD - 1
For more information on each homicide, please see the following document with data provided by the Essex County Prosecutors Office. Special thanks to RLS Media's Legal Team.
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens, II, announced today that the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office made arrests in 71 percent of the homicides that occurred in the county in 2020.
“In the grip of a global pandemic, which forced our Office and law enforcement across the nation to pivot, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office did an extraordinary job investigating some of the most heinous crimes that occurred in 2020 in our region,’’ said Acting Prosecutor Stephens.
“Policing and prosecuting in a pandemic are obviously challenging. But almost a year later, I believe the men and women of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, working with our partners in law enforcement and the community at large, have done an extraordinary job of balancing our duty to maintain public safety with being a part of a caring community,” Acting Prosecutor Stephens said.
There were 78 homicides in Essex County in 2020, down four percent from 2019. Of that number 55 were solved, a 71 percent close-out rate. That number does not include the six homicides from 2018 and 2019 that were solved in 2020.