What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?

Fatal Encounters records that Samir C. Nicholson died on April 29, 2017 in East Orange, Essex 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 East Orange, Essex County, on April 29, 2017. The address as recorded is 200 block South Clinton Street East Orange NJ 07018 Essex.

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

Samir C. Nicholson

April 29, 2017 · East Orange, Essex County

Details as recorded

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

Name as recorded: Samir C. Nicholson
Age as recorded: 24
Gender as recorded: Male
Race as reported: African-American/Black
Date of the injury resulting in death: April 29, 2017
Location as recorded: East Orange, Essex County200 block South Clinton Street East Orange NJ 07018 Essex
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.

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.

An off-duty Jersey City police officer shot and killed Samir Nicholson in East Orange, police said. The prosecutor's office did not immediately release more information about the circumstances leading up to the killing, which was under investigation by the agency's Professional Standards Bureau. The off-duty Jersey City police officer, Titus Johnson, has been involved in at least two other fatal shootings since 1999. Police said that Johnson observed Nicholson in the act of shooting a person and then shot and killed Nicholson.

Source reported by Fatal Encounters: https://www.tapinto.net/towns/east-orange-slash-orange/articles/update-on-police-involved-fatal-shooting-in-east (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 Samir C. Nicholson died on April 29, 2017 in East Orange, Essex 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 East Orange, Essex County, on April 29, 2017. The address as recorded is 200 block South Clinton Street East Orange NJ 07018 Essex.
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 8959. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩