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Fatal Encounters record · Independent third-party dataset

Richard Campisi

March 1, 2002 · Bernards, Somerset County

Details as recorded

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

Name as recorded
Richard Campisi
Age as recorded
33
Gender as recorded
Male
Race as reported
Race unspecified
Date of the injury resulting in death
March 1, 2002
Location as recorded
Bernards, Somerset CountyI-78 Bernards NJ 07920 Somerset
Highest level of force as recorded
Gunshot

Where the dataset places it

The location Fatal Encounters recorded for this death: Bernards, Somerset County

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: New Jersey State Police

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.

A trooper attempted to stop Richard Campisi for erratic driving and hitting two vehicles. He fled into the woods and when the trooper caught up, attempted to take his gun before the trooper shot and killed him.

Source reported by Fatal Encounters: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-l9Ys3cd80faW9yNzI4VnVDdUk/view?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 is one of 22 New Jersey records the dataset dates to 2002, and one of 11 it holds for Somerset County across 2000 to 2021. Browse every New Jersey Fatal Encounters record by year.

Records from the same county and year

Questions and answers

What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?

Fatal Encounters records that Richard Campisi died on March 1, 2002 in Bernards, Somerset 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 "New Jersey State Police". 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 Bernards, Somerset County, on March 1, 2002. The address as recorded is I-78 Bernards NJ 07920 Somerset.

Sources

  1. [1]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset. Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Row 29553. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩