Police Brutality / Individual record
Kawanza Beaty
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Kawanza Beaty in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2015-07-04 in Newport News, VA. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-203
- Incident date
- July 4, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Newport News, VA
- Agency
- Newport News Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 23
What happened
Kawanza Jamal Beaty, 23, was shot and killed by Newport News, Virginia, police on July 4, 2015. Records compiled by OpenOversight identify participating officers, including Michael Sinclair and Randy Gibson, and link to litigation over the shooting. His estate brought a federal wrongful-death claim, Dargan v. City of Newport News, challenging actions by officers during the encounter. In April 2017 a federal court approved settlement terms under Virginia's Wrongful Death Act, including payment of $6,700 by defendant Randy Gibson. That order establishes a court-approved civil settlement, not a criminal conviction. The primary materials reviewed here are stronger about the existence and resolution of the lawsuit than about each disputed moment of the shooting, so the account should not infer facts the court did not decide.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 596
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- gun
- Flee status (source)
- foot
- Agency IDs (source)
- 626
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