Police Brutality / Individual record
Phillip Watkins
Phillip Watkins, 23, was fatally shot by San Jose officers responding to a 911 call involving a person with a knife on February 11, 2015.
- Record ID
- PB-105
- Incident date
- February 11, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- San Jose, CA
- Agency
- San Jose Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 23
What happened
Police received a call from a residence on Sherman Street reporting an armed intruder with a knife. Officers Jeff Dote and James Soh arrived within minutes and encountered Phillip Watkins outside, holding a knife. Police said he rushed toward them despite commands and both officers fired. Investigators later established that Watkins himself had placed the 911 call and had told acquaintances he was considering ending his life. The case raises serious questions about crisis intervention and whether responding officers could identify someone suffering acute emotional distress rather than treating the event solely as a criminal assault. A substantial Santa Clara County review preserved witness statements and the encounter chronology.
Investigation & findings
San Jose Police issued an official statement and Santa Clara County released a detailed district-attorney shooting review. Descriptions of Watkins charging officers are drawn from officer accounts in that investigation, not an independent video finding.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 141
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- knife
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 92
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