Police Brutality / Individual record
Shamir Terrel Palmer
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Shamir Terrel Palmer in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2015-08-08 in Summerville, SC. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-235
- Incident date
- August 8, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Summerville, SC
- Agency
- Dorchester County Sheriff's Office
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 24
What happened
Shamir Terrel Palmer, 24, was killed by Dorchester County sheriff's deputies near Summerville, South Carolina, following a vehicle pursuit on August 8, 2015. State investigators said a state trooper pursued Palmer after attempting a traffic stop, and passengers jumped from the moving vehicle. Authorities alleged that Palmer fired at a trooper and later pointed a gun at deputies after the chase ended. The Dorchester County coroner classified the death as suicide by cop, citing what investigators described as Palmer's intentional confrontation with law enforcement. That classification reflects the coroner's interpretation of events; it is not an independently tested account of Palmer's state of mind.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 719
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- gun
- Flee status (source)
- car
- Agency IDs (source)
- 705
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