Name withheld by police

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

Name as recorded

Name withheld by police

Age as recorded

not reported

Gender as recorded

Male

Race as reported

Race unspecified

Date of the injury resulting in death

January 9, 2002

Location as recorded

Rio Grande, Cape May CountyDavis Road Rio Grande NJ 08242 Cape May

Highest level of force as recorded

Gunshot

Agency or agencies involved, as recorded: Middle 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.

Fatal Encounters' description of the incident, verbatim. This is the source project's own third-party narrative, not this site's reporting.

Lower Township police asked police departments in Cape May County to look for a two-tone blue Camaro. Its occupants were reported to be armed with a handgun. Middle Township police found the vehicle, police said. The car pulled into the parking lot of a Rio Grande law office, and police pulled in behind it. A passenger brandishing a handgun jumped out of the car and fled. Police detained the driver. Later, police received a call from a Davis Road resident who reported seeing someone with a handgun walking down the street. Three minutes later, police received a second call saying someone had shot and killed himself outside one of the ranch-style homes.

Source reported by Fatal Encounters: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-fmaF_2Ghss9ofRTmXHoO_699Oe_p9WcpgQhP2Zml18/edit?usp=sharing (external link, as recorded in the dataset).

What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?

Fatal Encounters records that a person whose name police withheld died on January 9, 2002 in Rio Grande, Cape May 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.

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Which agency or agencies were recorded as involved?

The record's agency field reads "Middle 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.

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Where did this happen?

The record places the death in Rio Grande, Cape May County, on January 9, 2002. The address as recorded is Davis Road Rio Grande NJ 08242 Cape May.

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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.

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