Police Brutality / Individual record
Ricky Javenta Ball
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Ricky Javenta Ball in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2015-10-16 in Columbus, MS. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-280
- Incident date
- October 16, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Columbus, MS
- Agency
- Columbus Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 33
What happened
Ricky Javenta Ball, 26, was shot and killed by Columbus, Mississippi, Officer Canyon Boykin after fleeing a traffic stop on October 16, 2015. Boykin said Ball had a gun and turned toward him during a foot pursuit; Ball's relatives contested that version and raised questions about forensic evidence and the officer's account. Boykin had not activated his body camera before the shots, and the city fired him for policy violations. A grand jury indicted Boykin for manslaughter in 2016. In May 2020, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch dismissed the charge with prejudice, saying the evidence supported self-defense; the local district attorney and Ball's family strongly criticized that reversal. An indictment is not a conviction, and the dismissal did not erase the family's disputed account.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 927
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- undetermined
- Flee status (source)
- foot
- Agency IDs (source)
- 866
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