Police Brutality / Individual record
James Powell
Fifteen-year-old James Powell was shot by off-duty NYPD lieutenant Thomas Gilligan in Manhattan on July 16, 1964; his killing sparked the Harlem uprising.
- Record ID
- PB-002
- Incident date
- July 16, 1964
- Date of death
- July 16, 1964
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- New York, NY
- Category
- Police shooting
What happened
Powell was outside a school where teenagers were attending summer classes after a building superintendent sprayed water at students, provoking a confrontation. Lieutenant Gilligan intervened and shot Powell multiple times. Gilligan claimed the boy lunged at him with a knife; witness testimony conflicted about Powell's actions and whether Gilligan identified himself as an officer. Powell's killing provoked days of demonstrations demanding an investigation and police accountability.
Investigation & findings
A federal Justice Department civil-rights cold-case review documented inconsistent witness accounts. The 1964 killing remained a focal point of campaigns against racist policing.
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- Historical source-derived record, pre-2015
Sources & records
- Primary source
- Additional source
- Methodology and national police killings trackingMapping Police Violence · Dataset/methodology
- Published historical compilation of Black people killed in police custody (1999–2014)SAGE journal / cited NAACP LDF memorial listing · 2016 · Secondary scholarly source