Fatal Encounters record · Independent third-party dataset
Peter D. Riva
July 16, 2007 · Totowa, Passaic County
Details as recorded
Every value below is shown exactly as Fatal Encounters recorded it.[1]
- Name as recorded
- Peter D. Riva
- Age as recorded
- 60
- Gender as recorded
- Male
- Race as reported
- European-American/White
- Date of the injury resulting in death
- July 16, 2007
- Location as recorded
- Totowa, Passaic CountyTotowa Road and Mitchell Avenue Totowa NJ 07512 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: Totowa 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.
Former Totowa police officer Peter D. Riva reportedly ran his car into his former girlfriend and her attorney in a borough court parking lot and was then shot and killed by a pursuing police officer.
Source reported by Fatal Encounters: http://blog.nj.com/ledgerupdates/2007/07/totowa_police_officer_wounded.html (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 22 New Jersey records the dataset dates to 2007, and one of 36 it holds for Passaic County across 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 Peter D. Riva died on July 16, 2007 in Totowa, 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 "Totowa 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 Totowa, Passaic County, on July 16, 2007. The address as recorded is Totowa Road and Mitchell Avenue Totowa NJ 07512 Passaic.
Sources
- [1]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset. Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Row 23482. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩