What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?

Fatal Encounters records that Pablo Burrios-Salas died on September 18, 2004 in Wildwood, Cape May 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 "Wildwood 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 Wildwood, Cape May County, on September 18, 2004. The address as recorded is 4700 block New Jersey Ave Wildwood NJ 08260 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

Pablo Burrios-Salas

September 18, 2004 · Wildwood, Cape May County

Details as recorded

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

Name as recorded: Pablo Burrios-Salas
Age as recorded: 29
Gender as recorded: Male
Race as reported: Hispanic/Latino
Date of the injury resulting in death: September 18, 2004
Location as recorded: Wildwood, Cape May County4700 block New Jersey Ave Wildwood NJ 08260 Cape May
Highest level of force as recorded: Vehicle

Agencies as recorded

Agency or agencies involved, as recorded: Wildwood 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)

Wildwood 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.

Det. Darrell Shelton, 31, a seven-year veteran of the Wildwood Police Department, was charged with drunken driving, leaving the scene of an accident, and with having an open container of alcohol in his Dodge pickup. At about 2 a.m. Saturday, Shelton's vehicle struck Pablo Barrios-Salas as he crossed New Jersey Avenue.

Source reported by Fatal Encounters: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/alt.thebird.copwatch/kill%7Csort:date/alt.thebird.copwatch/-H4on0GqS7E/KQfElKEw2ZoJ (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 Pablo Burrios-Salas died on September 18, 2004 in Wildwood, Cape May 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 "Wildwood 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 Wildwood, Cape May County, on September 18, 2004. The address as recorded is 4700 block New Jersey Ave Wildwood NJ 08260 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 26924. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩