Note: This list will continue to be updated as time and information allows.
2020
May
George Floyd
46, May 25th [One officer charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, three others will face charges of aiding and abetting murder – it took several days of WORLDWIDE protest to get charges filed]
Killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit bill. Officer Derek Chauvin, knelt on Floyd’s neck for almost eight minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down, begging for his life and repeatedly saying “I can’t breathe” Officers J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane further restrained Floyd, while officer Tou Thao prevented bystanders from intervening. During the final two minutes, Floyd was motionless and had no pulse while Chauvin ignored onlookers’ pleas to remove his knee, which he did not do until medics told him to.
Finan H. Berhe
30, May 8th [Killing officer currently on paid administrative leave]
Behre was shot and killed by a Montgomery County Police Department officer in White Oak, Maryland. Hours after the shooting, the Montgomery Police Department identified the police officer who fatally shot Finan H. Berhe as Sgt. David Cohen and released a 30-second video of the shooting recorded from a police officer’s bodycam. An investigation is currently underway.
Sean Reed
21, May 6th [Still under investigation.]
Police in Indianapolis shot and killed Reed, a 21-year-old U.S. military veteran who was unarmed. Unbeknownst to the cops, Reed was live-streaming the episode on Facebook, a circumstance that allowed the police to be recorded joking about the shooting.
April
Steven Demarco Taylor
33, April 18th [Still under investigation.]
Two San Leandro Police officers killed Taylor, a 33-year-old father of three who was holding a baseball bat and having a manic episode when he was tasered multiple times and shot in a Walmart store in northern California.
March
Breonna Taylor
26, March 13th [Still under investigation.]
Taylor was in bed, sleeping, when she was shot by Louisville detectives serving a “no knock” warrant in her home. Taylor was a front-line EMT. No drugs were found in her apartment. The police department’s use of no-knock warrants has since been suspended indefinitely.
February
Ahmaud Arbery
25, February 25th [Killers arrested 74 days after killing. Awaiting trial.]
Arbery was killed when white ex-police officer Greg McMichael and his son Travis pursued Arbery after spotting him running in their neighborhood. The father said he suspected Arbery of break-ins.
January
William Green
43, January 27th [Killing officer (who is black) is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and associated weapons charges. Trial is pending.]
Green was reportedly pulled over for driving erratically, handcuffed and placed in the front seat of a police cruiser in Prince George’s County, Maryland, before a police officer entered the car and shot him while he was restrained by the cuffs as well as a seat belt. Police have tried to criminalize him as a suspected drug user, but either way Green was already restrained when police shot him, meaning there is no way cops could have feared for their lives before deciding to shoot him.
Darius Tarver
23, January 21st [Still under investigation.]
Tarver, a University of North Texas student, was shot and killed by police in Denton, Texas, during a confrontation at an apartment complex. According to the cops, Tarver was approached by responding officers after residents called 911 about a guy who was banging on doors and yelling for someone to let him in. “Tarver’s father, a McKinney Police Department chaplain, was allowed to see the bodycam from the shooting and believes it sharply contradicts official narratives,” civil rights attorney S. Lee Merritt said.
Kwame “KK” Jones
17, January 5th [Still under investigation.]
Jones was killed by police after he and a friend were stopped while driving in a car in Jacksonville, Florida. Police said that an officer approached the car and “an exchange” ensued. The cop then fired his weapon several times, striking both Jones and the other unidentified male, who survived the shooting. Jones did not. Police claim there was a rifle in the car, which Jones’ family said was suspicious since the photo evidence is “of a gun that has already been booked into evidence and not a photo from the scene.”
2019
November
Ariane McCree
28, November 23rd [Attorney General has requested federal review.]
McCree was shot and killed by two Chester Police officers in South Carolina after being detained for allegedly shoplifting at a Walmart (he did not shoplift – he was returning to the store because he had not been charged for something and wanted to pay for it). Police claimed that he was placed in custody, then fled and showed officers a gun. However, the family of McCree, who have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, claims that he was “handcuffed, with his hands behind his back, when he was fatally shot.”
October
Christopher Whitfield
31, October 15th [Killing officer not criminally charged.]
Whitfield, an unarmed, mentally ill Louisiana man was shot and killed by police after he was accused of stealing raw chicken from a convenience store.
August
Elijah McClain
23, August 30th [on June 24, 2020, after a social media outcry and Aurora lawmakers’ requests for a new, third-party investigation into McClain’s death, Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced his administration would reexamine the case.]
McClain was a massage therapist from Aurora, Colorado, who died following an encounter with the police while walking home from a convenience store. An Aurora citizen reported to police that McClain was wearing a ski mask and acting “sketchy”, although the caller also indicated that he did not believe anyone was in danger, and that he believed McClain was unarmed. The three police officers who were involved in the incident, Nathan Woodyard, Jason Rosenblatt and Randy Roedema, said that their body cameras were knocked off during a struggle with McClain. McClain was forcibly held to the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back, after which an officer applied a chokehold and paramedics administered ketamine to McClain to sedate him. While being transported to the hospital McClain went into cardiac arrest. Three days after arriving at the hospital he was declared brain dead, and he was removed from life support on August 30. McClain’s autopsy was inconclusive.
De’Von Bailey
19, August 3rd [Killing officers not criminally charged.]
Two officers shot and killed Bailey after they stopped him and another man on the street and questioned them about an alleged armed robbery. Body-cam footage recorded Bailey running away from officers during the stop, who then shot Bailey in the back three times. He later died in the hospital. Officers found a gun in his pants immediately after shooting him, though attorneys for Bailey’s family argued the footage showed he wasn’t a threat to the officers.
June
Robert White
41, June 11th [Killing officer not criminally charged.]
White was fatally shot in Silver Spring, Maryland. A minutes-long confrontation ensued between Montgomery County Police Department officer Anand Badgujar over a “suspicious” person reported in the area. White, who was unarmed, began walking away from the scene. The officer fired several rounds and White was killed.
Ryan Twyman
24, June 6th [Still under investigation.]
Twyman, a father of three, was reportedly unarmed inside a parked car when he was shot 37 times by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s department.
Miles Hall
23, June 2nd [Killing officers not criminally charged.]
Hall, who suffered from mental illness, was fatally shot by Walnut Creek Police in San Francisco. Hall’s family claims they called the police because he was behaving erratically, while running outside with a metal pole. Instead of de-escalating the situation using crisis intervention training, which the officers had received, the man was fatally wounded. The family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.
January
Jimmy Atchison
21, January 22nd [Killing officer fired. Still under investigation.]
Police allegedly entered an apartment complex with military assault-style rifles to execute a run-of-the-mill warrant for a cell phone robbery. Atchison was unarmed, found hiding in a closet, attempted to surrender then was shot once in the face and killed by police officer Sung Kim.
2018
November
Emantic “EJ” Fitzgerald Bradford Jr.
21, November 23rd [Killing officer not criminally charged.]
Bradford was shot by police while trying to save people from a shooter at an Alabama mall. The military veteran was killed on Thanksgiving night.
Jemel Roberson
26, November 11th [Killing officer put on paid administrative leave. Still under investigation.]
Roberson, a clearly identified security guard at a bar, was gunned down by a city police officer when he was trying to save people from a mass shooter in Oak Lawn, Illinois.
September
Botham Jean
26, September 6th [Killing officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Currently appealing the case.]
Jean was shot and killed inside his apartment by Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, who said she mistook his apartment for her own. Jean was eating a bowl of ice cream when he was killed.
March
Stephon Clark
22, March 18th [Killing officers not criminally charged.]
Clark was shot and killed in Meadowview, Sacramento, California by Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet, two officers of the Sacramento Police Department, in the backyard of his grandmother’s house while he had a phone in his hand. The encounter was filmed by police video cameras and by a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department helicopter which was involved in observing Clark, on the ground and in directing ground officers to the point at which the shooting took place. The officers stated that they shot Clark, firing 20 rounds, believing that he had pointed a gun at them. Police found only a cell phone on him. While the Sacramento County Coroner’s autopsy report concluded that Clark was shot seven times, including three shots to the right side of the back, the pathologist hired by the Clark family stated that Clark was shot eight times, including six times in the back.
2016
September
Terence Crutcher
40, September 16th [Killing officer acquitted of manslaughter.]
Crutcher was shot and killed by police officer Betty Jo Shelby in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was unarmed during the encounter, in which he was standing near his vehicle in the middle of a street.
August
Jamarion Robinson
26, August 5th [The District Attorney of Fulton County actually tried to investigate this shooting, but the US Marshals Service refused to cooperate with his investigation. No further action was taken.]
Robinson, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, was killed by police in East Point, Georgia. He was shot 59 times after refusing to open the door of his girlfriend’s home when officers knocked. Police then kicked in the door and began firing.
July
Philando Castile
32, July 6th [Killing officer was acquitted of all charges in a jury trial but was immediately fired by the City of Saint Anthony. Wrongful death lawsuits against the City brought by Reynolds and Castile’s family were settled for $3.8 million.]
Castile was driving with his partner, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter when their vehicle was pulled over by Officer Jeronimo Yanez and another officer in a suburb of Saint Paul, Minnesota. After being asked for his license and registration, Castile told Officer Yanez that he had a firearm, which he was licensed to carry, to which Yanez replied, “Don’t reach for it then”, and Castile said “I’m, I, I was reaching for…” Yanez said “Don’t pull it out”, Castile replied “I’m not pulling it out”, and Reynolds said “He’s not…” Yanez repeated “Don’t pull it out” and then shot at Castile at close range seven times, hitting him five times. Castile died about 20 minutes after being shot. Reynolds posted a live stream video on Facebook in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, which prompted the incident to achieve national notoriety.
Alton Sterling
37, July 5th [No criminal charges filed against officers. Soon after the determination one officer was fired for violating use of force policies, and the other was suspended for three days for losing his temper.]
Sterling was shot dead at close range by two Baton Rouge Police Department officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Police were responding to a report that a man in a red shirt was selling CDs and that he had used a gun to threaten a man outside a convenience store. The owner of the store where the shooting occurred said that Sterling had started carrying a gun a few days prior to the event as other CD vendors had been robbed recently. He also said that Sterling was “not the one causing trouble” during the situation that led to the police being called. The shooting was recorded by multiple bystanders.
2015
April
Freddie Gray
25, April 12th [Regarding the state charges, four officers had all charges dropped and the remaining two were found not guilty. The US Department of Justice refused to bring federal charges against the six officers involved.]
Gray was arrested by the Baltimore Police Department and subsequently charged for possessing a knife. While being transported in a police van, Gray fell into a coma and was taken to the hospital where he died on April 19. His death was ascribed to injuries to his spinal cord. On April 21, 2015, pending an investigation of the incident, six Baltimore police officers were suspended. The circumstances of the injuries were initially unclear; eyewitness accounts suggested that the officers involved used unnecessary force against Gray during the arrest—a claim denied by all officers involved. Commissioner Anthony W. Batts reported that, contrary to department policy, the officers did not secure Gray inside the van while driving to the police station; this policy had been put into effect six days prior to Gray’s arrest, following review of other transport-related injuries sustained during police custody in the city, and elsewhere in the country during the preceding years. The medical investigation found that Gray had sustained the injuries while in transport. The medical examiner’s office concluded that Gray’s death could not be ruled an accident, and was instead a homicide, because officers failed to follow safety procedures “through acts of omission.” On May 1, 2015, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney, Marilyn Mosby, announced her office had filed charges against six police officers after the medical examiner’s report ruled Gray’s death a homicide.
March
Anthony Hill
26, March 9th [Killing officer was convicted by a jury of one count of aggravated assault, two counts of violating his oath of office and one count of making a false statement.]
Hill, a veteran of the United States Air Force who had served in Afghanistan was, according to his family, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He had been medically discharged from the Air Force two years before after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. According to his girlfriend, he had recently stopped taking his medication due to side effects, believing he would see his doctor at the VA within the week. Hill had been an intern at Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department before joining the US Air Force. He had been a staunch supporter of police officers, before being shot by one. Hill was noted to be acting erratically when police were called. He had reportedly been running around the complex naked and knocking on doors asking for his medicine and laying and crawling on the ground. The woman who called 911 told Hill’s family’s lawyer that she had called in order to get medical personnel to come for Hill. Hill, apparently unarmed, ran toward Officer Olsen, who stepped back and called to him to stop. Hill began to walk naked with hands to his side, failing to comply with orders to stop. Olsen shot him twice. They were six to seven feet apart when the shots were fired. Hill died at the scene. Olsen had also been carrying a Taser, police baton, and pepper spray, but Olsen chose the firearm over those options.
2014
November
Tamir Rice
12, November 11th [Killing officer was not criminally charged but was fired in 2017 once it was revealed that he lied on his application and was deemed unfit for duty in a previous police job. A $6 million dollar settlement was awarded to Rice’s family.]
Rice was at a recreation center with his 14 year-old sister. He had just received an airsoft pistol from a friend, but the pellet gun had it’s orange tip removed. A 911 caller reported that a male was pointing “a pistol” at random people at the Cudell Recreation Center, a park in the City of Cleveland’s Public Works Department. At the beginning of the call and again in the middle, he says of the pistol “it’s probably fake.” Toward the end of the two-minute call, the caller states that “he is probably a juvenile”; however, this information was not relayed to officers Timothy Loehmann or Frank Garmback, who responded to the initial dispatch. The officers reported that upon their arrival, they both continuously yelled “show me your hands” through the open patrol car window, however according to a review of video footage of the incident, it clearly shows that the car is still in the process of stopping when Rice is shot. Officer Loehman shot twice, hitting Rice once in the torso. It was then that the gun was found to be an airsoft replica. Rice died the following day.
October
Laquan McDonald
17, October 20th [Killing officer found guilty of second-degree murder, as well as 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm.]
McDonald, who was acting erratically and carrying a knife, was shot 16 times by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke in the city’s South Side area. Preliminary internal police reports described the incident similarly, leading to the incident being judged a justifiable shooting and to Van Dyke not being charged at that time. When a court ordered the police to release a dash cam video of the shooting thirteen months later, however, it showed McDonald had been walking away from the police when he was shot.
August
Kajieme Powell
25, August 19th [Killing officers not criminally charged.]
Two police officers from the St. Louis Metropolitan police fatally fired 12 shots at Powell, a mentally ill man who was suspected of shoplifting at a convenience store. Powell was carrying a knife and told the officers to shoot him. This happened less than four miles from where police killed Michael Brown, 10 days earlier, on Aug. 9, 2014.
Michael Brown
18, August 9th [Killing officer was not criminally charged.]
Brown was fatally shot by 28-year-old Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the city of Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Brown was accompanied by his 22-year-old friend Dorian Johnson. The officer said that an altercation ensued when Brown attacked him in his police vehicle for control of his gun until it was fired. Johnson claimed that the officer initiated a confrontation by grabbing Brown by the neck through his car window, threatening him and then shooting at him. At this point, both parties state that Brown and Johnson fled, with the officer pursuing Brown shortly thereafter. The officer stated that Brown stopped and charged him after a short pursuit. Johnson contradicted this account, stating that Brown turned around with his hands raised after the officer shot at his back. According to Johnson, Wilson then shot Brown multiple times until Brown fell to the ground. In the entire altercation, Wilson fired a total of twelve bullets, including twice during the struggle in the car; the last was probably the fatal shot. Brown was struck six times, all in the front of his body.
John Crawford lll
22, August 5th [Killing officers not criminally charged.]
Crawford was fatally shot after police responded to an emergency call about someone waving a rifle – which was, in fact, a bb gun that was on sale at a Walmart store in Beavercreek, a suburb in Dayton, Ohio.
July
Eric Garner
43, July 17th [Killing officer not criminally charged.]
Garner was approached by police officer Daniel Pantaleo on suspicion of selling single cigarettes from packs without tax stamps. After Garner told the police that he was tired of being harassed and that he was not selling cigarettes, the officers attempted to arrest Garner. When Pantaleo placed his hands on Garner, Garner pulled his arms away. Pantaleo then placed his arm around Garner’s neck in an illegal chokehold and wrestled him to the ground. With multiple officers pinning him down, Garner repeated the words “I can’t breathe” 11 times while lying face down on the sidewalk. After Garner lost consciousness, he remained lying on the sidewalk for seven minutes while the officers waited for an ambulance to arrive. Garner was pronounced dead at an area hospital approximately one hour later. The medical examiner ruled Garner’s death a homicide.
Dontre Hamilton
31, April 30th [Killing officer not criminally charged but was fired. ]
Police officer Christopher Manney fired 14 shots and killed Dontre Hamilton, who was reportedly mentally ill, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin after responding to a call for a welfare check on Hamilton, who was sleeping in the park. This event is what prompted the Milwaukee Police Department to start requiring bodycams.
Victor White lll
22, March 3rd [Victim died under very suspicious circumstances.]
White, who had been arrested by Louisiana State Police officers, died while handcuffed in the back of a police car. Authorities said his death was due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound however, White’s hands were cuffed behind his back and he was shot in the front of his body.
January
Jordan Baker
26, January 16th [Killing officer not criminally charged.]
Baker was unarmed and fatally shot by Houston, Texas police officer Juventino Castro, a cop who was off duty but in uniform, during what Jordan’s family described as a racial profiling stop at a strip mall.
Gregory Hill Jr.
30, January 14th [The family of Gregory Hill was awarded a grand total of four cents after a federal jury concluded in 2019 that the police involved in the shooting did not use excessive force.]
Hill was killed in a matter of seconds after police shot him in his own garage in Fort Pierce, Florida. Reports said local residents called police with a noise complaint because of the loud music being played in the garage. When Hill opened the garage and saw it was police, he tried to close it before police shot him in the head and elsewhere. Hill’s family has maintained he was unarmed when he was shot.
2013
September
Jonathan Ferrell
24, September 14th [Killing officer charged with voluntary manslaughter but not convicted.]
Ferrell, a former Florida A&M University football player, gave a co-worker a lift home on the night of his murder. While doing so, he crashed his car. Stranded, he went to a house in the Bradfield Farms neighborhood and knocked on the door. The resident, Sarah McCartney, called the police and three officers came. Ferrell, who was unarmed, then ran towards them, whereupon one of the officers fired a taser at him and missed. Officer Randall “Wes” Kerrick then opened fire on Ferrell, shooting him twelve times and killing him. A toxicology test of Ferrell’s blood showed a blood alcohol level within the legal limit for driving.
July
Larry Jackson, Jr.
23, July 26th [Killing officer charged with manslaughter but the judge dropped the charge.]
Jackson, a father of three, was at the scene of a bank robbery in central Austin, and a struggle between Jackson and Detective Charles Kleinert ensued. Jackson fled. Kleinert commandeered a woman’s car. Upon reaching Jackson, one gunshot was fired by Kleinert, fatally striking Jackson in the back of the neck.
February
Trayvon Martin
17, February 26th [Killer charged with murder but acquitted.]
Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old man who was the neighborhood watch coordinator for his gated community where Martin was visiting his relatives. Zimmerman shot Martin, who was unarmed, during a physical altercation between the two. Zimmerman, injured during the encounter, claimed self-defense in the confrontation.
In a widely reported trial, (This is the event that started the Black Lives Matter movement.)
Ramarley Graham
18, February 2nd [Killing officer charged with manslaughter, charges dropped. A civil suit by the family was settled for $3.9 million. Officer Haste was encouraged to vest out with full benefits, went to department trial, then resigned.]
Graham was unarmed when New York City police officer Richard Haste – who chased Graham into his Bronx home during an alleged drug bust gone awry – shot and killed him in front of his grandmother and little brother in their bathroom.
2009
January
Oscar Grant
22, January 1st [Killing officer found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and illegal gun enhancement. Not guilty of second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.]
Grant was killed in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2009 by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California. Responding to reports of a fight on a crowded Bay Area Rapid Transit train returning from San Francisco, BART Police officers detained Grant and several other passengers on the platform at the Fruitvale BART Station. BART officer Anthony Pirone kneed Grant in the head and forced the unarmed Grant to lie face down on the platform. While Pirone held Grant down in a prone position, Mehserle drew his pistol and shot Grant in the back. Grant was rushed to Highland Hospital in Oakland and pronounced dead later that day. The events were captured on multiple official and private digital video and privately owned cell phone cameras. Owners disseminated their footage to media outlets and to various websites where it went viral.