Fatal Encounters record · Independent third-party dataset
Thelonious "RaRa" McKnight
December 29, 2021 · Paterson, Passaic County
Details as recorded
Every value below is shown exactly as Fatal Encounters recorded it.[1]
- Name as recorded
- Thelonious "RaRa" McKnight
- Age as recorded
- 25
- Gender as recorded
- Male
- Race as reported
- African-American/Black
- Date of the injury resulting in death
- December 29, 2021
- Location as recorded
- Paterson, Passaic County99 E Main St Paterson NJ 7522 Passaic
- 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: Paterson 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.
Police were investigating an earlier incident shortly before 9 p.m. when they encountered Thelonious "RaRa" McKnight. During the encounter, one officer shot and killed him. Details as to what precipitated the killing were withheld by police.
Source reported by Fatal Encounters: https://www.nj.com/news/2022/01/family-ids-paterson-man-killed-by-city-police-officer-as-activists-demand-investigation.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 25 New Jersey records the dataset dates to 2021, and one of 36 it holds for Passaic County across 2000 to 2021. Browse every New Jersey Fatal Encounters record by year.
Records from the same county and year
- Jose Gonzalez (2021) October 2, 2021
Questions and answers
What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?
Fatal Encounters records that Thelonious "RaRa" McKnight died on December 29, 2021 in Paterson, Passaic 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 "Paterson 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 Paterson, Passaic County, on December 29, 2021. The address as recorded is 99 E Main St Paterson NJ 7522 Passaic.
Sources
- [1]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset. Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Row 13. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩