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Deborah McCalla Terrell

Age : 68

Gender : Female

Race : Black

Date : 08/08/2025

Location : John P. Fricano Tower, 90 Neilson Street

City : New Brunswick

County : Middlesex

State : New Jersey

Agency : New Brunswick Police Department, New Jersey Attorney General’s Office

Officer(s) :Josue Plaza

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during mental health crisis

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/08/2025, shortly after 4:00 a.m., New Brunswick Police Department officers responded to the John P. Fricano Towers, a public senior housing building at 90 Neilson Street, after a caller reported that 68-year-old Deborah Terrell was disturbing other residents and walking in and out of her fourth-floor apartment with a knife. Terrell’s family later said she lived with schizophrenia and was experiencing a mental-health crisis.
Body-camera footage shows several officers positioned in the hallway outside Terrell’s apartment. Terrell initially remained inside while officers repeatedly ordered her to drop the knife. When she appeared in the doorway holding a large kitchen knife, one officer discharged pepper spray and another fired a Taser. The less-lethal weapons did not incapacitate her. Terrell moved briefly back toward her apartment and then came into the hallway still holding the knife.
Officer Josue Plaza fired two gunshots, striking Terrell. Officers provided medical aid before she was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Investigators recovered a knife measuring approximately 12 inches from the scene. No police officer was injured.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office investigated the killing under the state law requiring independent review of deaths occurring during encounters with police. Investigators presented the evidence—including body-camera recordings, civilian and police witness statements, physical evidence, photographs, medical findings and Plaza’s use of deadly force—to a state grand jury. On 08/03/2026, the grand jury voted not to indict Plaza. The Attorney General’s Office announced the decision on 08/04/2026, stating that the grand jury had found no basis to bring criminal charges against him.
Terrell’s family and community advocates disputed the necessity of the shooting and argued that police should have used trained mental-health professionals, additional time and physical distance rather than confronting an elderly woman in crisis inside a narrow hallway. Family members said police had previously responded to Terrell during mental-health episodes without killing her. Demonstrations and public meetings followed the shooting, with relatives and advocates demanding an independent review, release of records and changes to how New Brunswick police respond to residents experiencing psychiatric crises. No civil settlement was identified as of August 2026.
Plaza joined the New Brunswick Police Department in 2018. Department disciplinary records show that he received an eight-day suspension in 2022 for conduct unbecoming a police officer after police were called to his residential complex and found him intoxicated. An internal investigation determined that Plaza had damaged a common area, behaved discourteously and unprofessionally toward the responding officers and later paid restitution for the damage. The discipline did not prevent him from returning to duty, and he remained employed by the department when he killed Terrell.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://newjerseymonitor.com/2026/08/05/nj-new-brunswick-police-shooting-grand-jury/
https://www.njoag.gov/state-grand-jury-declines-to-file-criminal-charges-in-connection-with-august-8-2025-fatal-police-involved-shooting-in-new-brunswick/
https://www.cityofnewbrunswick.org/news_detail_T10_R1918.php
https://newjerseymonitor.com/2025/10/02/nj-attorney-general-new-brunswick-police-killing/
https://www.njspotlightnews.org/2025/09/why-no-mental-health-support-fatal-new-brunswick-police-shooting-elderly-woman/
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/new-brunswick-police-shooting/
https://newbrunswicktoday.com/2025/08/new-brunswick-cop-shoots-and-kills-68-year-old-woman-in-senior-building/
https://cms3.revize.com/revize/brunswicknj/Major%20Discipline%20Reporting%202022.pdf