Police Brutality / Individual record
Randy Allen Smith
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Randy Allen Smith in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2015-11-19 in Manatee, FL. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-312
- Incident date
- November 19, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Manatee, FL
- Agency
- Manatee County Sheriff's Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 34
What happened
Randy Allen Smith, 34, was shot and killed in Manatee County, Florida, during a vehicle stop in November 2015. APM Reports reviewed sheriff's investigative records showing that deputies Dino Murges and Matthew Schwartz tried to arrest him after a stop and a physical struggle began. Murges fired a Taser that failed to incapacitate Smith, apparently because the probes landed close together. Schwartz fired another Taser, momentarily bringing Smith down; investigators said he got back up, Schwartz fell and struck his head, and Smith drew a handgun toward him. Murges then fired the fatal shots. This account is based on the deputies' reconstruction and case records. The failed Taser attempts, the escalation and the claimed immediate gun threat are all relevant; an independently confirmed final criminal judgment was not found.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1020
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- gun
- Agency IDs (source)
- 929
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