Police Brutality / Individual record
Artago Damon Howard
Artago Damon Howard, 36, was unarmed when a Union County sheriff's deputy shot him during an encounter at a Strong, Arkansas pharmacy on January 8, 2015.
- Record ID
- PB-082
- Incident date
- January 8, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Strong, AR
- Agency
- Union County Sheriff's Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 36
What happened
On January 8, 2015, a Union County sheriff's deputy answered a burglary alarm at a pharmacy in Strong, Arkansas. Authorities said the deputy discovered a broken entrance and encountered Artago Damon Howard inside. A physical struggle followed. The deputy shot Howard, who subsequently died. The Washington Post included Howard among Black men killed by police while unarmed during 2015; its case summary describes a struggle for control of the deputy's weapon but identifies no gun carried by Howard. The distinction matters: allegations that a struggle occurred should not transform an unarmed person into an armed suspect. The officer's account was the principal publicly available explanation for the shots. Howard's death belongs to the wider record of lethal force in situations involving people who did not themselves possess a deadly weapon.
Investigation & findings
The available national investigative reporting documents Howard as unarmed; an independently verified later criminal prosecution or civil disposition was not located.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 36
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- unarmed
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 249
Last reviewed: October 25, 2026
Sources & records
- Primary source
- Additional source
- Methodology and national police killings trackingMapping Police Violence · Dataset/methodology
- Fatal Force v2 — fatal on-duty police shootings, 2015–2024The Washington Post · Dataset
- Fatal Force methodology and data limitationsThe Washington Post · Methodology