Police Brutality / Individual record
Anthony Bess
Anthony Bess, 48, was fatally shot by Memphis police during an attempt to serve an arrest warrant in Whitehaven on February 10, 2015.
- Record ID
- PB-104
- Incident date
- February 10, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Whitehaven, TN
- Agency
- Memphis Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 49
What happened
Memphis police officers went to a home on Aldridge Drive to arrest Anthony Bess on an outstanding aggravated-assault charge connected to an earlier incident involving an off-duty officer. According to police, family members admitted officers into the house, and Bess stood with his hands behind his back when confronted. Officers said he produced a loaded handgun and pointed it at them. One officer fired and fatally wounded Bess; during the exchange another officer was struck by friendly fire from a fellow officer. Bess died at hospital. The agency's description is a preliminary police account, and no independent reconstruction of every movement was established in the reporting reviewed.
Investigation & findings
Two officers were placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation. The contemporaneous source does not identify a later conviction, settlement or definitive external review.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 139
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- gun
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 31
Sources & records
- Primary 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