Danielle Padilla

Every value below is shown exactly as Fatal Encounters recorded it.^[1]

Name as recorded

Danielle Padilla

Age as recorded

21

Gender as recorded

Female

Race as reported

Race unspecified

Date of the injury resulting in death

December 13, 2002

Location as recorded

Wantage, Sussex County888 NJ-23 Wantage NJ 07461 Sussex

Highest level of force as recorded

Vehicle

Agency or agencies involved, as recorded: Wallkill Police Department, Middletown Township Police Department, New York State Police

An agency appears here because it appears in the record's as-reported agency field, nothing more. Its presence is not a claim of fault or responsibility.

Fatal Encounters' description of the incident, verbatim. This is the source project's own third-party narrative, not this site's reporting.

Police pursued a stolen car for more than 30 miles before it crashed, killing Clyde Bynum Jr. and Danielle Padilla. The driver, Marcus Padilla, 21, died Dec. 17.

Source reported by Fatal Encounters: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_NxlEtVjx9_5DUZ13qLKj6VUT6HSxVS2tdTrUfY-N-o/edit?usp=sharing (external link, as recorded in the dataset).

What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?

Fatal Encounters records that Danielle Padilla died on December 13, 2002 in Wantage, Sussex County, with "Vehicle" as the highest level of force. Fatal Encounters is an independent, crowdsourced dataset of deaths that occurred during police encounters of any kind; a record is not a finding of fault or misconduct.

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Which agency or agencies were recorded as involved?

The record's agency field reads "Wallkill Police Department, Middletown Township Police Department, New York State Police". Presence in that field means the agency appears in the record as reported, nothing more; it is not a claim of fault or responsibility by any officer or agency.

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Where did this happen?

The record places the death in Wantage, Sussex County, on December 13, 2002. The address as recorded is 888 NJ-23 Wantage NJ 07461 Sussex.

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Does this record mean police caused or were at fault for this death?

No. Fatal Encounters documented deaths that occurred during police encounters of any kind, including vehicle pursuits and crashes, suicides that occurred in police presence, and medical emergencies. This record documents that a death occurred during an encounter; it is not a finding of fault, misconduct, or wrongdoing, and it has no connection to the discipline records elsewhere on this site.

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