What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?

Fatal Encounters records that a person whose name police withheld died on February 21, 2012 in Ocean City, 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.

Which agency or agencies were recorded as involved?

The record's agency field reads "Ocean City 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 Ocean City, Cape May County, on February 21, 2012. The address as recorded is 112 E. 14th St. Ocean City NJ 08226 Cape May.

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.

Fatal Encounters record · Independent third-party dataset

Name withheld by police

February 21, 2012 · Ocean City, Cape May County

Fatal Encounters records that police withheld this person's name.

Details as recorded

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: February 21, 2012
Location as recorded: Ocean City, Cape May County112 E. 14th St. Ocean City NJ 08226 Cape May
Highest level of force as recorded: Gunshot

Agencies as recorded

Agency or agencies involved, as recorded: Ocean City 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)

Ocean City Police Department

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.

Ocean City police received a call shortly before 11 a.m. from an out-of-state relative who had received a suicide note in the mail that morning from an Ocean City resident. When police went to check on the man's welfare, they spied him in a back bedroom with what appeared to be a firearm pointed at his chest. He shot and killed himself.

Source reported by Fatal Encounters: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J9YgvOn6uPEn_MRUERTjG5ejY-KQTvHmi5IKSBu-Nhk/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 a person whose name police withheld died on February 21, 2012 in Ocean City, 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.
Which agency or agencies were recorded as involved?: The record's agency field reads "Ocean City 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 Ocean City, Cape May County, on February 21, 2012. The address as recorded is 112 E. 14th St. Ocean City NJ 08226 Cape May.
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]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset. Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Row 17560. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩