Police Brutality / Individual record
Edward Donnell Bright Sr.
Edward Donnell Bright Sr., 54, was shot by Baltimore County officers on January 31, 2015 outside a Randallstown convenience store during a call involving a knife.
- Record ID
- PB-094
- Incident date
- January 31, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Randallstown, MD
- Agency
- Baltimore County Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 54
What happened
In the early hours of January 31, 2015, officers responded to a report of a man with a knife outside a 7-Eleven on Liberty Road in Randallstown, Maryland. Police said they ordered Edward Donnell Bright Sr. to put down the knife and used a Taser before two officers fired when they believed he was approaching them. Bright later died at Sinai Hospital. A witness interviewed by WBAL described seeing him fall immediately after the shots. Bright's daughter, Edtrina, told the station her father had mental-health difficulties but was not an aggressive person, directly challenging any portrayal of him as simply a threat. The encounter highlights the vulnerability of people experiencing possible mental-health crises and the scrutiny deserved when less-lethal efforts fail and officers resort to firearms.
Investigation & findings
Baltimore County police said homicide investigators and the State's Attorney's Office would review the shooting. The contemporaneous report does not establish the review's ultimate outcome.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 339
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- knife
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 128
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