Police Brutality / Individual record
Kevin Matthews
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Kevin Matthews in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2015-12-23 in Dearborn, MI. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-331
- Incident date
- December 23, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Dearborn, MI
- Agency
- Dearborn Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 35
What happened
Kevin Matthews, 35, an unarmed Black man, was killed by Dearborn Police Officer Chris Hampton near the Dearborn–Detroit city line on December 23, 2015. Hampton recognized Matthews as a suspect in a minor reported theft and pursued him on foot. The officer alleged that Matthews fought and tried to seize his gun; the family's experts disputed the account, pointing to evidence consistent with shots fired downward. Matthews suffered nine gunshot wounds, and there was no eyewitness video of the fatal moments. Wayne County prosecutors declined charges, while a federal judge found factual disputes serious enough to deny the officer's motion for summary judgment. Dearborn agreed in March 2021 to pay Matthews's family $1.25 million in a civil settlement.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1118
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- unarmed
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 992
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