What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?

Fatal Encounters records that Raymond Looney died on December 30, 2004 in Jersey City, Hudson 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 "Jersey 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 Jersey City, Hudson County, on December 30, 2004. The address as recorded is Newark Avenue and Coles Street Jersey City NJ 07302 Hudson.

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

Raymond Looney

December 30, 2004 · Jersey City, Hudson County

Details as recorded

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

Name as recorded: Raymond Looney
Age as recorded: 49
Gender as recorded: Male
Race as reported: Race unspecified
Date of the injury resulting in death: December 30, 2004
Location as recorded: Jersey City, Hudson CountyNewark Avenue and Coles Street Jersey City NJ 07302 Hudson
Highest level of force as recorded: Gunshot

Agencies as recorded

Agency or agencies involved, as recorded: Jersey 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)

Jersey 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.

Officer Titus Johnson shot and killed 49-year-old Raymond Looney during a traffic stop at Newark Avenue and Coles Street. A Hudson County grand jury decided to take no action against Johnson, who said Looney tried to drive away as Johnson approached the car, clipping the officer in the process. Johnson opened fire, hitting the man twice, once in the side and once in the back. In October, Johnson shot a man in the leg after he allegedly aimed a gun at police officers during a foot chase; in 1999, he shot and killed a man who was in the act of stabbing another man.

Source reported by Fatal Encounters: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q7LeA0wdgERexsk7G5bMkXR-B4VL9RS9k7m-wU0GsdQ/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 Raymond Looney died on December 30, 2004 in Jersey City, Hudson 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 "Jersey 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 Jersey City, Hudson County, on December 30, 2004. The address as recorded is Newark Avenue and Coles Street Jersey City NJ 07302 Hudson.
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 26634. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩