Fatal Encounters record · Independent third-party dataset
Zion James
August 19, 2012 · Irvington, Essex County
Details as recorded
Every value below is shown exactly as Fatal Encounters recorded it.[1]
- Name as recorded
- Zion James
- Age as recorded
- 13
- Gender as recorded
- Male
- Race as reported
- African-American/Black
- Date of the injury resulting in death
- August 19, 2012
- Location as recorded
- Irvington, Essex CountySanford Avenue and Clinton Avenue Irvington NJ 07111 Essex
- Highest level of force as recorded
- Vehicle
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: Irvington 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.
A police chase came to a "sudden and violent end" when the stolen 2000 Jaguar containing 13-year-old James as a rear-seat passenger crashed in an Irvington intersection. Police said the four teens in the Jaguar had gone on a crime spree of armed robberies and a carjacking. The other three survived. The eldest was 17.
Source reported by Fatal Encounters: http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2012/08/teens_wild_ride_in_irvington_e.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 23 New Jersey records the dataset dates to 2012, 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
- Marvin Coleman (2012) November 20, 2012
- Shegan Anthony Rubin (2012) November 10, 2012
- Darroll Morris (2012) August 27, 2012
Questions and answers
What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?
Fatal Encounters records that Zion James died on August 19, 2012 in Irvington, Essex County, with "Vehicle" 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 "Irvington 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 Irvington, Essex County, on August 19, 2012. The address as recorded is Sanford Avenue and Clinton Avenue Irvington NJ 07111 Essex.
Sources
- [1]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset. Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Row 16795. Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩