Sean Sharpe

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

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.

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).

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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