Fatal Encounters record · Independent third-party dataset
Hasani Best
August 21, 2020 · Asbury Park, Monmouth County
Details as recorded
Every value below is shown exactly as Fatal Encounters recorded it.[1]
- Name as recorded
- Hasani Best
- Age as recorded
- 39
- Gender as recorded
- Male
- Race as reported
- African-American/Black
- Date of the injury resulting in death
- August 21, 2020
- Location as recorded
- Asbury Park, Monmouth County900 block 4th Ave. Asbury Park NJ 7712 Monmouth
- Highest level of force as recorded
- Gunshot
Where the dataset places it
The marked point is the dataset's own geocoded location for this record, as recorded. Every other New Jersey record in the dataset is shown in gray. A point on a map is where a death was recorded, not a finding about anyone.
Agencies as recorded
Agency or agencies involved, as recorded: Asbury Park Police Department
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.
Department pages (matched by this site at high confidence)
The source's account
Fatal Encounters' description of the incident, verbatim. This is the source project's own third-party narrative, not this site's reporting.
At 9 p.m., police officers first responded to a domestic dispute inside a two-family residence. When police arrived, the woman was outside, and the man had barricaded himself inside the upstairs apartment. During the incident, the man reportedly opened the door, revealing that he was armed with a knife. The man continued to hold the knife, despite repeated orders from the police to drop the weapon. Officers reportedly attempted to use a Taser, but it wasn't effective. The man remained armed with the knife, and at approximately 10:10 p.m., an Asbury Park officer shot and killed him.
Source reported by Fatal Encounters: https://www.app.com/story/news/2020/09/23/full-police-body-cam-videos-show-asbury-park-police-shooting-hasani-best/3504021001/ (external link, as recorded in the dataset).
If you are a family member of the person named here, or represent one, and something in this record is wrong, or you want the record removed, requests go through the corrections page. Every request is checked against the source record.
This is one of 19 New Jersey records the dataset dates to 2020, and one of 17 it holds for Monmouth County across 2000 to 2021. Browse every New Jersey Fatal Encounters record by year.
Records from the same county and year
- Edward Nortrup (2020) January 19, 2020
Questions and answers
What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?
Fatal Encounters records that Hasani Best died on August 21, 2020 in Asbury Park, Monmouth County, with "Gunshot" 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.
Which agency or agencies were recorded as involved?
The record's agency field reads "Asbury Park Police Department". 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.
Where did this happen?
The record places the death in Asbury Park, Monmouth County, on August 21, 2020. The address as recorded is 900 block 4th Ave. Asbury Park NJ 7712 Monmouth.
Sources
- [1]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset. Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Row 2747. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩