Talk:List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States prior to 2009

I was looking at this link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/dcpolice/deadlyforce/police1full.htm and another WaPo I can't find again which asserted that in 1970s Philadelphia police shot an average of 75 people annually, and I think this list can only be woefully incomplete and serves only to minimize the phenomenon it pretends to memorialize. 172.5.154.148 (talk) 07:40, 10 November 2018 (UTC)

This page should be deleted
The topic is not fit for an encyclopedia article since it fails the notability criterion. Police have been shooting suspects since police carried guns. Some times it is justified, some times not, almost never does such an unfortunate incident have the universal notability to be suited for an encyclopedia article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.242.135.174 (talk) 10:14, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Description Length
While any and all contributions to these lists are obviously welcome, I was wondering if we may want to include some kind of disclaimer on the talk pages about keeping descriptions brief--perhaps even with some guidelines about which details warrant inclusion. I know I can even get a little long-winded sometimes, but we aren't trying to summarize entire news articles on here. I usually look for these details:
 * Why were police interacting with the person to begin with?
 * What caused the officer(s) to shoot (or whatever other action caused the death)?
 * And then I may briefly include details about whether they were armed, or mentally ill, etc.

Anyway, I just was thinking it could be helpful to offer some sort of guide. But, many people don't look at talk pages before editing anyway, so it may not be worth the bother. Michellecornelison (talk) 02:57, 9 September 2012 (UTC)


 * I think a guide on the talk page wouldn't help. My feeling is that if someone adds a too-long entry, one of the regular editors of the pages can whack it down to size.  If the editor who added it doesn't like that we can all talk about it.  If the editor isn't going to stick around, they won't complain about getting the description edited down.&mdash; alf laylah wa laylah (talk) 03:33, 9 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Yeah, that is true. When it is just one-off editors it isn't hard to just edit it down. We could add a guide later if it an editor begins adding lots of entries like that. Michellecornelison (talk) 14:21, 9 September 2012 (UTC)

external link removed from article
There was a external link added to this article but markup was malformed (column headings removed) and domain doesn't seem to resolve at the moment. (nxdomain) Just leaving the link here in case it's useful at some point. http://civiliansdown.com/site/1999-officer-involved-shootings/ --Jeremyb (talk) 03:51, 6 January 2015 (UTC)

You need to look at this article in the guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/04/police-killed-people-fbi-data-justifiable-homicides 75.83.209.135 (talk) 00:30, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

nothing from San Francisco?
please add these from the SFPD history page...

June 4, 1995: Aaron Williams, an African-American man suspected of a pet-store burglary dies in police custody. According to witnesses and police sources, a team of police led by Officer Marc Andaya repeatedly kicked Williams in the head and emptied three canisters of pepper spray into his face. Despite the fact that Williams was having difficulty breathing, the police hog-tied, gagged and left him unattended in the back of a police van, where he died.

April 6, 1996: Mark Garcia, a 15-year teamster, killed by San Francisco police. Garcia was robbed and partially stripped of his clothing. SFPD called. Instead of helping Mark, the police beat him, pepper spray him, handcuff him, stand on his back for more than 5 minutes, hog-tie him, and then throw him into the back of a police van. Although they took him to the hospital, Garcia died.

May 13, 1998: Sheila Patricia Detoy, sitting in the front seat of a Ford Mustang, shot once in the head by plainclothes police officers as the car barreled out of the driveway of the Oakwood Apartments. Mother of slain girl files wrongful death claim.

February 2002: Off-duty officer Steve Lee in fistfight with Gregory Hooper, a street vendor. Eyewitnesses report that after the fight ended, Lee shot the unarmed Hooper four times in the chest at point- blank range.

March 2002: Five officers open fire on a mentally disabled man named Richard Tims wielding a knife, killing him. Barrage of bullets destroy a bus shelter, spray the block and hit onlooker Vilda Curry, a 39-year-old mother, causing her irreparable reproductive harm, and the loss of use of her leg.

June 12, 2001: Idriss Stelley shot more than 20 times and killed by eight San Francisco Police Officers at the Sony Metreon.[70] (see the Idriss Stelley Foundation)[71][72]

February 19, 2003: Michael Moll killed. Officers fire eight shots, striking Moll five times.[77][78][79]

December 2006 to February 2007: The 'San Francisco Chronicle' published a special report titled, The Use Of Force: When SFPD Officers Resort to Violence, detailing incidents and providing context for San Francisco police officer use of excessive force against suspects and citizens, and the consequences.[83]

May 2008: City pays $235,000 in largest settlement in an excessive force case not involving a weapon. Lawsuit claims San Francisco police officer Christopher Damonte used excessive force on schoolteacher Kelly Medora.

March 21, 2014: Alex Nieto killed by the SFPD on Bernal Hill. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.101.141.238 (talk) 04:22, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Kent State
The Kent State killings shouldn't be here, right? National Guard are not "non-military law enforcement," are they? I'd go ahead and remove them but I want to make sure I'm not confused about this. Michellecornelison (talk) 04:05, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
 * National Guard is military. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 06:02, 25 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I just removed them. Michellecornelison (talk) 19:01, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

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How to deal with incompleteness?
Could we add a lede paragraph that indicates how many people have been killed by police so that the reader can understand the magnitude of the activity? The 170 individuals listed here creates a wrong impression of the magnitude. Jehochman Talk 16:45, 15 May 2020 (UTC)

Prior to 2009?
Am I missing something? Why does the article use 2009 as the end of reportable killings when we could go up to 2020? At the very least the introductory paragraph should state why we are using 2009. JettaMann (talk) 15:36, 15 September 2021 (UTC)