Fatal Encounters record · Independent third-party dataset
Jelani Manigault
January 23, 2003 · Princeton, Mercer County
Details as recorded
Every value below is shown exactly as Fatal Encounters recorded it.[1]
- Name as recorded
- Jelani Manigault
- Age as recorded
- 24
- Gender as recorded
- Male
- Race as reported
- African-American/Black
- Date of the injury resulting in death
- January 23, 2003
- Location as recorded
- Princeton, Mercer County1000 block Great Road Princeton NJ 08540 Mercer
- 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: Princeton Township 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.
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.
University of Maryland senior Manigault became distraught and agitated at a Christian Science retreat, drove away at 1:30 a.m., crashed the car in an affluent neighborhood, randomly chose the house of a banker, slit his own wrists, and assaulted the banker with a 12-inch knife causing serious injuries. Responding police officers shot him to death.
Source reported by Fatal Encounters: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/24/nyregion/police-fatally-shoot-man-they-say-attacked-a-stranger.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 23 New Jersey records the dataset dates to 2003, and one of 32 it holds for Mercer County across 2000 to 2021. Browse every New Jersey Fatal Encounters record by year.
Questions and answers
What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?
Fatal Encounters records that Jelani Manigault died on January 23, 2003 in Princeton, Mercer 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 "Princeton Township 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 Princeton, Mercer County, on January 23, 2003. The address as recorded is 1000 block Great Road Princeton NJ 08540 Mercer.
Sources
- [1]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset. Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Row 28646. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩