Police Brutality / Individual record
Meagan Hockaday
Meagan Hockaday, 26, a mother of three, was shot and killed by an Oxnard police officer less than 20 seconds after police contact during a domestic-disturbance call.
- Record ID
- PB-139
- Incident date
- March 27, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Oxnard, CA
- Agency
- Oxnard Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 26
What happened
Early on March 27, 2015, an Oxnard officer went to an apartment on West Vineyard Avenue after a man reported a dispute with his girlfriend, Meagan Hockaday. According to the police account, Hockaday approached with a knife while the officer was speaking to the caller. The officer shot her and she died at the scene. The department said fewer than 20 seconds elapsed between the officer's initial contact and the shooting, raising urgent questions about how rapidly police intervention can become lethal and whether any opportunity for de-escalation existed. Three young children were inside the apartment. The officer was placed on administrative leave pending investigation. The brief police timeline is not an independent account of Hockaday's actions or of every potential alternative to gunfire.
Investigation & findings
Oxnard police announced an investigation in March 2015. A final independent charging or disciplinary outcome was not verified here.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 245
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- female
- Armed status (source)
- knife
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 15
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