List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, April 2020

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This is a list of people reported killed by non-military law enforcement officers in the United States in April 2020, whether in the line of duty or not, and regardless of reason or method. The listing documents the occurrence of a death, making no implications regarding wrongdoing or justification on the part of the person killed or officer involved. Killings are arranged by date of the incident that caused death. Different death dates, if known, are noted in the description. The table below lists 13 people.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.


April 2020[edit]

Date Name (age) of deceased State (city) Description
2020-04-29 Shaun Fuhr (24) Washington (Seattle) Police officers responded to a 9-1-1 call from a woman who said she had been beaten by her boyfriend, that he had fired a gun at her, and had kidnapped their one-year-old daughter. Following a brief foot chase in the Mount Baker neighborhood, and without warning, Shaun Fuhr was shot in the head while carrying his daughter. In footage from an officer's body camera, Fuhr does not appear to have a weapon.[1]
2020-04-24 Michael Ramos (42) Texas (Austin) Police officers responded to a 9-1-1 call following up on a report that two people were using drugs in a car in a parking lot and that the man in the car was waving a gun in the air. Officers confronted Ramos at the location, and with video showing Ramos having his hands in the air,[2] an officer shot him with a bean bag round. Soon after, Ramos got into a car and began driving. An Austin police officer then fired a rifle at the moving car[3] and struck Ramos, who died of his injuries. Investigators executed a search warrant two days later and found no firearm inside or around Ramos’ vehicle.[4]
2020-04-21 Nicholas Chavez (27) Texas (Houston) Four officers responded to Chavez walking through traffic. After fifteen minutes where the officers failed to deescalate the situation, they used bean bags and stun guns, which also failed. The officers then shot at Chavez three times. Chavez pulled on the wires of the stun gun that was still attached to him, and officers responded by shooting him 21 times. The four officers were fired by Police Chief Acevedo 9 Sep 2020. The Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg will present the case to a grand jury for possible criminal charges.[5]
2020-04-21 Carlos Ingram-Lopez (27) Arizona (Tucson) Three officers pinned Ingram-Lopez down after his grandmother called police. After telling police he could not breathe, he fell unconscious and died. An independent autopsy determined Ingram-Lopez died due to asphyxiation.[6]
2020-04-18 Steven Demarco Taylor (33) California (San Leandro) Police were called to Walmart after reports of a possible robbery or theft taking place. A man, Steven Taylor, picked up an aluminum baseball bat before security encountered him. Officer Jason Fletcher Tasered Taylor twice from about 17 feet away. Taylor, still armed with a bat, was shot in the chest by Fletcher as backup arrived. On September 2, 2020, Fletcher was charged with voluntary manslaughter and was arraigned on September 15.[7]
2020-04-16 Juan Ayon-Barraza (24) California (Richmond, Oakland) Barraza pointed a gun at officers in Richmond when they fired at him. He survived and evaded the police until he crashed into a parked police cruiser and pinned an officer in between his cruiser and the van. Other officers surrounded the van and shot into it when Barraza tried to drive forward. Barraza died en-route to the hospital and the wounded officer recovered.[8][9][10][11][12]
2020-04-11 Leah Baker (29) Florida (Jacksonville) Baker, who suffered from mental illness called police after she had an argument with a housemate about her medication. When officers arrived, one officer knocked on the door and waited on the porch. When the door opened, Baker rushed out and stabbed the officer in the arm. The officer retreated and shot at Baker, both shots missing her. Then, her fellow officer shot at Baker and Baker fell on the ground. She got up again and grabbed her knife and tried to stab the officers. After getting her on the ground one more time by shooting her more, she finally sat on the ground clutching the knife. A while later, she was taken to the hospital where she died of her wounds. The officer was given medical treatment at the E.R and survived.[13][14] The shooting was caught on bodycamera.[15]
2020-04-10 Giuseppe Particianone (33) Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) Officers reported after reports of gunshots. After Kaitlynn Tugliese pointed a gun at the police they shot her and Particianone, killing him.[16]
2020-04-09 Zach Gifford (39) Colorado (Brandon) During a traffic stop, an unarmed and handcuffed Gifford was shot three times in the back by now-former officers Tracy Weisenhorn and Quinten Stump.[17] An investigation determined Stump knew Gifford was unarmed after a pat-down but did not inform Weisenhorn, who fired first, of this. Stump was charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of assault; the attempted murder charges were due to investigators not determining which officer fired the fatal shot. He was acquitted of one attempted murder count, while the jury deadlocked on the other two charges.[18]
2020-04-09 Desmond Franklin (23) Ohio (Cleveland) An off-duty officer in plainclothes and an unmarked vehicle witnessed Franklin allegedly steal soda from the back of a truck and put it in his own vehicle. After speaking with Franklin, the officer shot him as he drove away. The officer claimed that Franklin had fired at him, although no evidence of shots fired by Franklin were found, and Franklin's passenger stated he hadn't pointed his gun at the officer. In 2022, a 4-3 vote from the Civilian Police Review Board recommended discipline against the officer, with the members finding the officer had failed to identify himself before the shooting. The vote was along racial lines, with the four black members voting for recommending discipline and the three white members voting against it.[19]
2020-04-05 Tommie Dale McGlothen Jr. (44) Louisiana (Shreveport) Four Louisiana police officers were indicted Friday, 2020-09-18, on charges of negligent homicide and malfeasance after they used excessive force and a Taser to arrest a mentally ill Black man and then failed to give him medical attention. Officers had then placed Mr. McGlothen in a patrol cruiser on his head, limiting his ability to breathe and held in the cruiser, largely unsupervised, for 48 minutes and subsequently died at hospital.[20]
2020-04-03 Stephen Dolceamore (29) New Jersey (Trenton) Police were called to a hospital where Dolceamore was "behaving erratically." Police held Dolceamore down on the ground, where he died. Before he died, Dolceamore said, "I can't breathe."[21]
2020-04-02 Jose Soto (27) Connecticut (Manchester) Soto was killed by a SWAT team serving an arrest warrant for a parole violation. No weapon was found near him, and his family says he had post-traumatic stress disorder.[22]


See also[edit]

This section is an excerpt from Lists of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States § See also.[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Green, Sara Jean (May 7, 2020). "Medical Examiner identifies 24-year-old man fatally shot by Seattle police during domestic-violence call". The Seattle Times. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
  2. ^ Agorist, Matt (April 29, 2020). "WATCH: Man With Hands Up Shows Cops He's Unarmed, Moments Later They Murder Him". Retrieved June 2, 2020.
  3. ^ Charpentier, Marisa (26 April 2020). "Officer-Involved Shooting In Southeast Austin Spurs Investigation And Protests". KUT. Archived from the original on 28 April 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  4. ^ Plohetski, Tony (May 11, 2020). "Man killed in police shooting last month did not have firearm, chief confirms". www.statesman.com. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
  5. ^ "4 Cops Were Just Fired for Shooting a Man 21 Times When He Was Already Down". Vice.
  6. ^ Ingram, Paul (July 20, 2020). "Outside autopsy finds Ingram-Lopez died of 'suffocation' while detained by Tucson police". Tucson Sentinel.com. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
  7. ^ "Police officer charged with manslaughter in fatal shooting of Black man at California Walmart". USA Today.
  8. ^ "Police identify man killed by East Bay officers following body dump/police chase". The Mercury News. 2020-04-17. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
  9. ^ "Vallejo PD's Search for Missing Woman Ends in East Bay Chase, Fatal Police Shooting". NBC Bay Area. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
  10. ^ "Police Release Dramatic Video Of Chase And Fatal Shooting Of Kidnapping Suspect - April 16, 2020 - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
  11. ^ "Oakland/Richmond PD Critical Incident Video, Officer-Involved Shooting - April 16th, 2020 - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
  12. ^ "Caught On Video: Stunning End To Richmond Fatal Officer-Involved Shooting Of Kidnapping Suspect". 2020-04-18. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
  13. ^ "Leah Baker: Florida woman stabbed officer with butcher knife before she was shot dead, shows bodycam footage". meaww.com. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  14. ^ Miller, Joshua Rhett (2020-09-03). "Bodycam footage shows Florida woman stab cop ahead of fatal shooting". New York Post. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  15. ^ "Leah Baker: Florida woman stabbed officer with butcher knife before she was shot dead, shows bodycam footage". meaww.com. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  16. ^ Dean, Mensah M. (April 13, 2020). "Philly police identify man fatally shot by officers last week". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  17. ^ Greene, Susan; Waggoner, Priscilla (18 March 2021). "What happened to Zach Gifford? A look at a traffic stop turned police shooting in a small Colorado town". The Denver Post. denverpost.com. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  18. ^ Case, Angela; Greene, Susan (August 22, 2022). "Jury deadlocked on 2 counts against former Kiowa County deputy". NBC News 9. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  19. ^ Richmond, Matthew (December 13, 2022). "Civilian Police Review Board recommends discipline for Cleveland officer who killed Desmond Franklin". Ideastream. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  20. ^ "Four Louisiana Officers Charged in Death of Black Man With Mental Illness". NY Times. 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  21. ^ Nelson, Blake (September 4, 2020). "N.J. releases bodycam footage of man who died in Trenton police custody". nj.com. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
  22. ^ Rondinone, Nicholas (April 22, 2020). "Dozens gather for virtual rally calling for justice for Jose Soto, killed by SWAT police officers in Manchester". The Hartford Courant. Retrieved August 27, 2020.
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