Police Brutality / Individual record
Janet Wilson
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Janet Wilson in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2016-01-27 in Dearborn, MI. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-346
- Incident date
- January 27, 2016
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Dearborn, MI
- Agency
- Dearborn Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 31
What happened
Janet Wilson, 31, was shot and killed by Dearborn police outside Fairlane Town Center in Michigan on January 27, 2016. Mall staff called for help after Wilson allegedly behaved disruptively inside a store. Officers confronted her as she drove through the parking area; police said she accelerated toward security personnel and an officer. Officers fired into her vehicle and she died after a crash. Wilson's family questioned the necessity of deadly force and sued. Dearborn ultimately agreed to a $1.25 million civil settlement with the family, according to an African American Policy Forum case summary. The reported threat is the officers' account; the settlement documents a civil resolution rather than a criminal conviction.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1209
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- female
- Armed status (source)
- vehicle
- Flee status (source)
- car
- 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