Police Brutality / Individual record
Cornelius Brown
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Cornelius Brown in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2015-11-18 in Opa-Locka, FL. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-309
- Incident date
- November 18, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Opa-Locka, FL
- Agency
- Opa Locka Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 25
What happened
Cornelius Brown, 25, died after Opa-locka police shot him near a convenience store in Florida on November 18, 2015. According to APM Reports' examination of state attorney records, Brown was shirtless and carrying a wooden pole when an officer observed him swinging it near a Kwik Stop. Officers pursued him on foot, repeatedly ordering him to drop the stick. Five Taser deployments failed to incapacitate him; APM reported that Brown sometimes became more agitated after the shocks. Officers Ludwin Vielman and Marvin Gamarra then fired, killing him. His mother said he had schizophrenia and routinely carried a walking stick. Local prosecutors found the shooting justified, but the family later brought a wrongful-death suit challenging the officers' actions. The repeated unsuccessful attempts at less-lethal force are central to this case.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1017
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- unknown
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 927
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