Fatal Encounters record · Independent third-party dataset
Jeffrey Oakley
July 9, 2016 · Elizabeth, Union County
Details as recorded
Every value below is shown exactly as Fatal Encounters recorded it.[1]
- Name as recorded
- Jeffrey Oakley
- Age as recorded
- 24
- Gender as recorded
- Male
- Race as reported
- African-American/Black
- Date of the injury resulting in death
- July 9, 2016
- Location as recorded
- Elizabeth, Union CountyNorth Avenue and Newark Avenue Elizabeth NJ 07208 Union
- Highest level of force as recorded
- Vehicle
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: Union County Police Department, Elizabeth 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)
What this site holds on the agencies named
Separate records, shown here so they can be found from this page. Nothing below is connected to this death. The Fatal Encounters dataset does not link the two, the Attorney General's releases do not, and neither does this site. The years each figure covers are printed for the same reason.
- Union County Police Department
Reported 132 internal affairs investigations across 2021 to 2025. 3 major discipline records name officers at this agency.
- Elizabeth Police Department
Reported 840 internal affairs investigations across 2021 to 2025. 16 major discipline records name officers at this agency.
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.
During a chaotic police chase, the driver of a semi, Danny Clyde Burnam, injured two people and killed Jeffrey Oakley.
Source reported by Fatal Encounters: http://www.nj.com/union/index.ssf/2016/07/elizabeth_man_24_identified_as_victim_in_elizabeth.html (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 21 New Jersey records the dataset dates to 2016, and one of 24 it holds for Union County across 2000 to 2021. Browse every New Jersey Fatal Encounters record by year.
Records from the same county and year
- Michael Gaffney (2016) May 13, 2016
Questions and answers
What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?
Fatal Encounters records that Jeffrey Oakley died on July 9, 2016 in Elizabeth, Union 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.
Which agency or agencies were recorded as involved?
The record's agency field reads "Union County Police Department, Elizabeth 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 Elizabeth, Union County, on July 9, 2016. The address as recorded is North Avenue and Newark Avenue Elizabeth NJ 07208 Union.
Sources
- [1]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset. Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Row 10301. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩