The encounter left a Newport officer wounded as investigators examined whether the vessel was the 40-foot sailboat stolen from Jersey City.
NEWPORT, RI — A 27-year-old Newport man was killed and a police officer was wounded Wednesday after authorities approached a sailboat resembling a vessel reported stolen four days earlier from a Jersey City marina, police said.
Newport police identified the man who died as Brendan Norris of Newport. Police said officers and members of the city’s Harbormaster’s Office approached the vessel shortly after it was spotted in Newport’s North Anchorage on Aug. 26. Authorities said Norris was on the bow when officers came alongside the boat and then went below deck despite their commands. Police said he armed himself with a firearm and gunfire followed.
The shooting brought together two investigations separated by hundreds of miles of coastline: the theft of a vintage sailboat from Liberty Harbor Marina in Jersey City and the fatal encounter in Newport. New Jersey State Police had been seeking a man captured on surveillance video in connection with the Aug. 22 theft. Newport officials said Wednesday that they had not yet established that Norris was the person shown in the Jersey City surveillance footage.
New Jersey State Police said the stolen vessel was a 40-foot 1968 Hinckley Bermuda sailboat. Troopers from the Marine Services Bureau responded to Liberty Harbor Marina at about 11 p.m. Aug. 22 after the boat was reported missing. Police later released surveillance images of a man they were seeking to identify in connection with the theft.
Authorities in Newport said the city’s Harbormaster’s Office was contacted Tuesday by a private party from New Jersey and asked to watch for a stolen sailing vessel that could enter Newport waters. Similar notifications had been sent elsewhere in the region. Shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday, the harbormaster located a sailboat matching the description while it was anchored in the North Anchorage.
Newport police officers and harbormaster personnel then approached the vessel to investigate. Police said the man on the bow went below deck after officers issued commands. Authorities said he obtained a gun and shots were fired during the encounter. Norris was fatally wounded. Officials have not released a complete account of the sequence of gunfire or identified which officers fired their weapons.
One Newport police officer suffered a gunshot wound to a lower extremity and was taken to Newport Hospital. Police said later Wednesday that the officer had been released and was recovering at home. The officer’s name was not immediately released. Police said officers who discharged firearms during the confrontation were placed on paid administrative leave, which the department described as standard procedure while the shooting is investigated.
The exact connection between Norris and the Jersey City theft remained a central unresolved question. Newport officials initially said only that the boat involved in the shooting appeared similar to the vessel reported stolen in New Jersey. They did not immediately announce a formal identification of the vessel. The owner of the Jersey City sailboat told CBS New York that the boat in Newport was his, but investigators had not publicly detailed the evidence linking Norris to its removal from the marina.
Earlier reports said authorities had been trying to locate the sailboat after its tracking signal was lost while it traveled away from the New York Harbor area. The vessel eventually appeared in Newport, a coastal Rhode Island city with a large recreational boating community. Police have not publicly said why the boat traveled there, whether anyone assisted in moving it or how long it had been anchored before the harbormaster spotted it.
Rhode Island State Police, Newport police and the Rhode Island attorney general’s office are investigating the fatal shooting. Authorities had not announced criminal findings against Norris in connection with the Jersey City theft as of Thursday, and no motive for the alleged theft or the confrontation with police had been established publicly.
Author note: Last updated August 27, 2026.