Police Brutality / Individual record
Nathaniel Wilks
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Nathaniel Wilks in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2015-08-12 in Oakland, CA. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-237
- Incident date
- August 12, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Oakland, CA
- Agency
- Oakland Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 27
What happened
Nathaniel Wilks, 27, was shot and killed by Oakland police on August 12, 2015, after a reported armed robbery and vehicle pursuit. Police said Wilks fled after crashing and attempted another carjacking while armed. Three officers—Jonathon Muniz, Jesse Lawless and John Shackford—fired at him near 27th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Residents organized a vigil and protested the shooting. The San Francisco Chronicle later reported that body-camera video did not show Wilks raising a firearm in the way some officers and witnesses initially described. The contrast between claims of an immediate gun threat and visible footage is a substantial evidentiary question; the records reviewed do not establish a later officer conviction.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 731
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- gun
- Flee status (source)
- car
- Agency IDs (source)
- 558
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