At least 20 people were killed and 30 others wounded — more than half minorities — in police-involved shootings in New Jersey since 2014, a USA Today Network/New Jersey investigation found.

The shooting deaths span the state, from departments as large as Newark and as small as Ventnor City in Atlantic County and Little Egg Harbor in Ocean County.

In 60 percent of the cases where a police officer fired a weapon, a subject was killed or injured. The reports do not indicate if the shootings were ruled justified — such as when a subject pointed a gun an officer — or questionable enough to be sent to a grand jury for possible indictment.

Police said deadly force is the last resort to stop violent subjects from hurting others, regardless of age. In one case, a 14-year-old was shot and injured after threatening officers with a firearm.

The network's investigation provides the first-ever statewide examination of police use-of-force in New Jersey. Reporters analyzed hundreds of use-of-force reports provided by the state Attorney General's Office, which were given to the Network under the state's open records law. At least 19 known police shootings since 2015, compiled by the Washington Post, were not among the hundreds of reports provided by the Attorney General’s office.

The records, long-held secret, were cleared for release after the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of releasing such records to the North Jersey Media Group, which is part of the USA Today Network.

"One of the problems we have in New Jersey is a lack of transparency about this stuff," Alexander Shalom, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in New Jersey, said about police-involved shootings. "If we want to address problems of community mistrust of police, the first step toward doing that is full transparency."

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Most of the shooting involved minorities, according to data reviewed by the Network. While Census data shows the state's population is about 15 percent African American, they represent one-in-three death of those killed by police since 2014.

The Network found that:

30 percent of people killed by police were black, or 6 of 20 shootings.

30 percent of people killed by police were Hispanic, or 6 of 20 shootings.

40 percent of people killed by police were white, or 8 of 20 shootings.

The disparity is greater among those shot and injured – but not killed – by police. Half of the 30 people injured by police were black, while five were Hispanic.

White people were injured in eight cases, or 27 percent.

"It's disheartening but not altogether surprising," Shalom said about the racial mix. "This is totally consistent with national trends in police violence."

Newark and Camden officers killed or injured five subjects, tying for the most in the state since 2014.

Police representatives said there are times law enforcement must use deadly force to protect lives.

"Nobody wants to see more people killed," said Pat Colligan, president of the New Jersey State Policemen's Benevolent Association. "Instead of playing numbers games, we should do what it takes to slow it down. We should do some citizen training on what they should do when they interact with police.

"I'm not sure any one of those single victims would be dead, and this is a really important quote: not one of them may be dead if they just complied with lawful police orders," he said.

The reports vary as to reasons for the shootings. In one Burlington County incident, the reason stated for the shooting was that when the officer returned home, he saw someone trying to steal his car. The officer shot the subject twice. In another case, Camden police returned fire when a subject shot at them.

Some police shootings, however, were omitted from the state Attorney General reports for unknown reasons.

For example, both the 2016 suicide-by-police death of Limichael Shine in Toms River and the 2015 death of Brick resident Julian Hoffman, who had an air rifle when he was shot and killed by police, were absent from the use-of-force reports.

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And many of the use of force reports filed with the state are wholly incomplete, including reports where officers declined to name other officers involved in a shooting or were unable to report how many times they fired their weapon.

In at least one case, the death of one subject — Shawn Clyde, of Hamilton Township — was absent from the reports. Clyde, 37, was shot by two Hamilton police officers when he refused to drop a knife. The use-of-force report filed with the state listed him as "injured."

It was never edited or re-filed when Clyde died of his injuries two weeks later.

The New Jersey Attorney General's policy requires notification to their office when police severely injure or kill people. Though the Attorney General's Office didn't reply to questions about missing records, some prosecutor's offices make their notifications verbally rather than in writing.

The records provided represent the most complete information yet published on police use-of-force in New Jersey.

For instance, on April 4, 2017, Douglas Matthews, who was 49, died in Plainfield police custody, according to the reports. He was arrested in South Plainfield on outstanding warrants and was found to be in possession of heroin before being transferred into the custody of the Plainfield Police Department where he later died in a holding cell.

There isn’t a cause of death, however, listed in the report, which was reported by Lt. Ronald Fusco of the Plainfield Police Department.

Other insights regarding police use of force became available through the reports, such as an incident on April 3, 2017 involving a woman in Perth Amboy who allegedly refused to put down knives during an eviction. The Perth Amboy police officer at the scene deployed a conducted energy device, such as a taser, and apprehended the woman, identified as Susan Batista-Zboyan.

Also included in the reports is the non-fatal shooting of a Manville man while attempting to rob the home of an off-duty Franklin Township police corporal in March 2017 and the 2015 police-involved shooting deaths in Old Bridge and Woodbridge.

In Old Bridge, a township officer’s shooting of a suicidal 75-year-old wielding a knife was deemed justifiable by Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey. Likewise, the county prosecutor also ruled the officers were justified in the Woodbridge case when officers shot and killed Rodney Jencsik, 49, when he refused to drop his handgun after a standoff lasted more than three hours.

The reports also provide details for several questionable shootings by police, including children and unarmed civilians.

In 2015, eight-year-old Cassie Jones was grazed by a bullet shot by Asbury Park Police Officer Terrance McGhee, who was involved in a shootout with a suspect who fired at the officer near her home. She has recovered from the injury.

Camden resident Oscar Camacho was killed in July 2015, shot numerous times by Camden police, because he told officers he had a gun. Unknown to the officers, the "gun" was a non-working imitation.

And in May 2016, Newark Police Officer Joseph Macchia was off-duty when he got in a bar fight in Union Township with 27-year-old Michael Gaffney. He shot Gaffney three times, killing him.

Macchia was indicted on manslaughter charges last year.

Staff writers Abbott Koloff of The Record, Nick Muscavage of The Home News-Tribune and Phaedra Trethan of The Courier-Post contributed to this report.

Andrew Ford: 732-643-4281; aford3@gannettnj.com

Mike Davis: 732-643-4223; mdavis@gannettnj.com