Police Brutality / Individual record
Keith Harrison McLeod
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Keith Harrison McLeod in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2015-09-23 in Reisterstown, MD. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-267
- Incident date
- September 23, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Reisterstown, MD
- Agency
- Baltimore County Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 19
What happened
Keith Harrison McLeod, 19, was unarmed when a Baltimore County officer shot and killed him outside a Reisterstown pharmacy on September 23, 2015. Police said an employee reported a suspicious prescription for codeine cough syrup, and an officer approached McLeod as he left. Surveillance footage showed the encounter in a parking area. Officers reported that McLeod took a stance suggesting he held a weapon, and police treated that movement as a threat; no weapon was recovered. His death raised questions about the use of deadly force for a suspected prescription offense and what the officer could reasonably perceive. The reported suspicions about the prescription must remain separate from the physical evidence of the shooting.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 859
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- unarmed
- Flee status (source)
- foot
- Agency IDs (source)
- 128
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