Fatal Encounters record · Independent third-party dataset
Rynell Bennett
June 7, 2018 · Lakewood, Ocean County
Details as recorded
Every value below is shown exactly as Fatal Encounters recorded it.[1]
- Name as recorded
- Rynell Bennett
- Age as recorded
- 29
- Gender as recorded
- Male
- Race as reported
- Race unspecified
- Date of the injury resulting in death
- June 7, 2018
- Location as recorded
- Lakewood, Ocean CountyMassachusetts Avenue and Cross Street Lakewood NJ 08701 Ocean
- Highest level of force as recorded
- Vehicle
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: Toms River 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)
What this site holds on the agencies named
Separate records, shown here so they can be found from this page. Nothing below is connected to this death. The Fatal Encounters dataset does not link the two, the Attorney General's releases do not, and neither does this site. The years each figure covers are printed for the same reason.
- Toms River Township
Reported 67 internal affairs investigations across 2021 to 2025. 1 major discipline record names an officer at this agency.
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.
Rynell Bennett, 29, Devine Y. Askew, 16, were killed in a fiery crash while fleeing police from Toms River into Lakewood, police said. Toms River police had tried to pull the car over because it allegedly was connected to a shooting in Lakewood earlier in the day.
Source reported by Fatal Encounters: https://www.app.com/story/news/crime/jersey-mayhem/2018/06/08/lakewood-fatal-crash-toms-river-police-chase-shooting/684695002/ (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 29 New Jersey records the dataset dates to 2018, and one of 28 it holds for Ocean County across 2000 to 2021. Browse every New Jersey Fatal Encounters record by year.
Records from the same county and year
- Edward M. Walsh (2018) November 12, 2018
- Anthony Griffin (2018) July 5, 2018
- Eric Larson (2018) July 5, 2018
Questions and answers
What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?
Fatal Encounters records that Rynell Bennett died on June 7, 2018 in Lakewood, Ocean 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 "Toms River 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 Lakewood, Ocean County, on June 7, 2018. The address as recorded is Massachusetts Avenue and Cross Street Lakewood NJ 08701 Ocean.
Sources
- [1]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset. Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Row 6968. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩