Fatal Encounters record · Independent third-party dataset
Michael J. Rivera
January 23, 2020 · Bloomingdale, Passaic County
Details as recorded
Every value below is shown exactly as Fatal Encounters recorded it.[1]
- Name as recorded
- Michael J. Rivera
- Age as recorded
- 32
- Gender as recorded
- Male
- Race as reported
- African-American/Black
- Date of the injury resulting in death
- January 23, 2020
- Location as recorded
- Bloomingdale, Passaic CountyMathews Drive and Pleasant View Avenue Bloomingdale NJ 7403 Passaic
- 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: Bloomingdale 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.
Police reportedly were searching for the car Michael Rivera was driving in connection with a shoplifting investigation from a Riverdale Home Depot. Police vehicles from Bloomingdale and Riverdale were chasing the car when it turned onto a dead end. Rivera allegedly turned the car around to face a police car. When an officer tried to get out of the car, Rivera drove forward, hitting the police vehicle and pinning the officer's leg. The officer shot and killed Rivera. Police allege vehicular assault.
Source reported by Fatal Encounters: https://dailyvoice.com/new-jersey/northpassaic/police-fire/fleeing-suspect-32-who-tried-to-run-down-police-officer-killed-in-bloomingdale/782297/ (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 36 it holds for Passaic County across 2000 to 2021. Browse every New Jersey Fatal Encounters record by year.
Records from the same county and year
- Sook Lee (2020) October 22, 2020
- Malik Canty (2020) July 8, 2020
- Sergio Rodriguez (2020) June 27, 2020
Questions and answers
What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?
Fatal Encounters records that Michael J. Rivera died on January 23, 2020 in Bloomingdale, Passaic 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 "Bloomingdale 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 Bloomingdale, Passaic County, on January 23, 2020. The address as recorded is Mathews Drive and Pleasant View Avenue Bloomingdale NJ 7403 Passaic.
Sources
- [1]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset. Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Row 3940. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩