Police Brutality / Individual record
Nathaniel Harris Pickett
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Nathaniel Harris Pickett in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2015-11-20 in Barstow, CA. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-314
- Incident date
- November 20, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Barstow, CA
- Agency
- San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 29
What happened
Nathaniel Harris Pickett, 29, was shot by San Bernardino County sheriff's Deputy Kyle Woods near the El Rancho Motel in Barstow, California, on November 19, 2015, and died the following day. Woods said Pickett, who was unarmed, resisted detention, struggled with him and reached toward his firearm. Surveillance evidence and several witness accounts challenged essential parts of that version. Prosecutors concluded the shooting was legally justified, but Pickett's family pursued federal civil litigation. In March 2018, a jury found that Woods unreasonably detained Pickett, negligently used deadly force and delayed medical care; the family received a $33.5 million damages verdict, including punitive damages. The differing criminal charging decision and civil jury findings must be reported separately.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1023
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- unarmed
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 236
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