NEWARK — The man shot and killed in Branch Brook Park on Friday by an Essex County sheriff's detective has been identified as a former Montclair man visiting New Jersey from Atlanta, where he works as a CEO of a credit union.

Family and friends described Defarra Ivan Gaymon, 48, as a "gentleman and a "softy" as they mourned his loss and questioned the shooting, which remains under investigation.

Essex County authorities said Gaymon was apparently unarmed when he was shot once in the chest by the undercover detective, who has not been named, at 6 p.m. He died around 9 p.m at University Hospital in Newark.

Gaymon’s sister, Kelly Gaymon Armstrong, today said of her brother, “all you have to do is blow and he’ll fall to the ground. There’s nothing threatening about his character. It doesn’t add up,” she said.

Gaymon, who everyone called "Dean," returned to New Jersey because he was the organizer of his high school's 30-year reunion, which took place Friday night.

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It was the third law-enforcement related shooting in Newark in a week and the fifth in the past month.

The prosecutor’s office is investigating and has so far only said that the officer encountered Gaymon when he was dispatched to the scene after complaints about sexual activity in public. Authorities are not saying what precipitated the shooting and Gaymon did not appear to be armed.

The undercover sheriff's detective has not yet provided a full statement to investigators.

Gaymon had spent a year organizing his Montclair High School class of 1980 reunion, which took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the Meadowlands that evening. Bari Belosa, the owner of Reunions Unlimited of Englishtown, helped Gaymon organize the event.

“He was a gentleman. Lovely. He was a very kind, very respectful man," Belosa said today. "Very easy to deal with.”

Gaymon, who was married with two daughters and two sons, had traveled to New Jersey Thursday night, said his sister, Kelly Gaymon Armstrong. She said her brother lived for several years in Columbia, S.C., where he was vice president of a credit union there.

“He worked his way up,” she said. Gaymon moved to the Atlanta area six years ago with his family.

Kelly Gaymon Armstrong said her family spoke with someone from the prosecutor’s office today, but still doesn’t know what happened. “This family is destroyed,” she said. “We want answers.”

Previous coverage:

• Sheriff's Officer kills suspect in Newark park shooting