Police Brutality / Individual record
Christopher Goodlow
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Christopher Goodlow in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2015-12-12 in Indianapolis, IN. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-322
- Incident date
- December 12, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Indianapolis, IN
- Agency
- Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 25
What happened
Christopher Goodlow, 25, was shot and killed by two Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officers on December 12, 2015, when police responded to a call about a suicidal person at apartments near East 38th Street and Franklin Road. Goodlow, wearing only underwear and holding a knife, was seen in video recorded by a witness during the confrontation. Police said he refused commands to drop the knife and advanced toward officers. Family members told authorities he had schizophrenia and questioned whether mental-health intervention would have produced a different outcome. Officers were placed on administrative leave during parallel criminal and departmental investigations. The encounter illustrates the stakes of responding to a psychiatric crisis with armed officers; an independently confirmed final criminal charge was not established in the reviewed reporting.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1076
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- knife
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 77
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