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Fatal Encounters record · Independent third-party dataset

Marcus Padilla

December 13, 2002 · Wantage, Sussex County

Details as recorded

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

Name as recorded
Marcus Padilla
Age as recorded
21
Gender as recorded
Male
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

Agencies as recorded

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.

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.

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).

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 record is one of the dataset's New Jersey entries from 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 Marcus 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.
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.
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.
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.

Sources

  1. [1]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset. Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Row 28787. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026.