Shawn Smith

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

Name as recorded

Shawn Smith

Age as recorded

25

Gender as recorded

Male

Race as reported

Race unspecified

Date of the injury resulting in death

September 20, 2003

Location as recorded

Newark, Essex CountyChancellor Avenue and Green Terrace Newark NJ 07112 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.

Police were dispatched to a home on Van Velsor Place in Newark on a report of shots fired, police said. Police saw Smith running through an alley with a gun in his hand. Smith saw the officers and fired shots at them, then ran onto Chancellor Avenue, where he carjacked a Ford Escort at gunpoint. Newark police pursued the car into Irvington, where Smith struck a parked vehicle and a utility pole. Smith got out of the car and ran west toward an alley on Chancellor. Officers chased him in there, where Smith allegedly brandished a knife and charged at the officers. Officer Onelio Tellez shot and killed him.

Source reported by Fatal Encounters: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A3RIV0lLOmSfzi5_X8D4Cb464h5ioPWWWpg7YGzL4Gs/edit?usp=sharing (external link, as recorded in the dataset).

What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?

Fatal Encounters records that Shawn Smith died on September 20, 2003 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 September 20, 2003. The address as recorded is Chancellor Avenue and Green Terrace Newark NJ 07112 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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