Fatal Encounters record · Independent third-party dataset
Sean Sharpe
December 14, 2018 · Newark, Essex County
Details as recorded
Every value below is shown exactly as Fatal Encounters recorded it.[1]
- Name as recorded
- Sean Sharpe
- Age as recorded
- 54
- Gender as recorded
- Male
- Race as reported
- Race unspecified
- Date of the injury resulting in death
- December 14, 2018
- Location as recorded
- Newark, Essex County20 block Irving St Newark NJ 07104 Essex
- 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: Newark 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.
Sean Sharpe was waiting inside his ex-girlfriend's home in Newark when she and their 11-year-old daughter returned home just after 9 p.m. The woman had an active restraining order against Sharpe. Sharpe forced the woman and his daughter out of the house at gunpoint, but his daughter was able to escape and call police. Sharpe held the woman hostage for more than seven hours while police tried to end the crisis with non-lethal methods. At about 5:30 a.m., Sharpe pointed his gun at his ex-girlfriend's head and then at police, who shot and killed him.
Source reported by Fatal Encounters: https://www.nj.com/essex/2018/12/authorities-name-man-shot-dead-by-police-during-standoff.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 29 New Jersey records the dataset dates to 2018, and one of 118 it holds for Essex County across 2000 to 2021. Browse every New Jersey Fatal Encounters record by year.
Records from the same county and year
- Paul Braswell (2018) September 26, 2018
- Allen Travers (2018) September 25, 2018
- Priscilla Godoy (2018) May 5, 2018
Questions and answers
What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?
Fatal Encounters records that Sean Sharpe died on December 14, 2018 in Newark, 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 "Newark 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 Newark, Essex County, on December 14, 2018. The address as recorded is 20 block Irving St Newark NJ 07104 Essex.
Sources
- [1]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset. Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Row 5998. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩