Police Brutality / Individual record
Donte Sowell
Donte Lamont Sowell, 27, a father of four, was killed by Indianapolis police on January 15, 2015. His family later sued, saying he was unarmed and shot after surrendering.
- Record ID
- PB-085
- Incident date
- January 15, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Indianapolis, IN
- Agency
- Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 27
What happened
Donte Lamont Sowell was near the Amber Woods housing cooperative in Indianapolis on January 15, 2015 after police stopped a car driven by his brother. He ran toward the complex. Police later asserted Sowell fired at officers and wounded one of them. Sowell's family rejected that account. In a federal civil-rights lawsuit filed in September 2015, the estate alleged multiple officers and security guards shot an unarmed Sowell in the back, continued firing even after he surrendered, and withheld or obscured evidence. His attorneys said witnesses supported the account and that investigators recovered no gun from his body. The lawsuit alleged excessive force, delayed medical care and a cover-up. These were litigated allegations rather than judicial findings. His four children and family members were left demanding answers about why a traffic encounter became a fatal shooting.
Investigation & findings
A federal wrongful-death and civil-rights lawsuit was filed in September 2015 by Sowell's estate against Indianapolis and other defendants. A final resolution was not verified in this pass; the police and family accounts remain explicitly disputed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 56
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- gun
- Flee status (source)
- foot
- Agency IDs (source)
- 77
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