Police Brutality / Individual record
Mario Woods
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Mario Woods in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2015-12-02 in San Francisco, CA. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-316
- Incident date
- December 2, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- San Francisco, CA
- Agency
- San Francisco Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 26
What happened
Mario Woods, 26, was shot and killed by five San Francisco police officers on December 2, 2015, in Bayview-Hunters Point after a reported stabbing investigation. Officers surrounded Woods, who was carrying a knife, and repeatedly ordered him to drop it. Bystander videos showed the officers firing numerous rounds during a short confrontation; the footage fueled public protests and questions about tactics, distance and de-escalation. San Francisco's district attorney declined to prosecute the five officers in May 2018. Woods's mother, Gwendolyn, challenged the shooting in a federal wrongful-death suit, and San Francisco agreed to a $400,000 settlement in 2019. The case became a major impetus for police policy reforms and leadership changes. The charging decision and the civil settlement are separate legal outcomes.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1052
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- knife
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 196
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