Police Brutality / Individual record
Bruce Kelley Jr.
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Bruce Kelley Jr. in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2016-01-31 in Wilkinsburg, PA. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-352
- Incident date
- January 31, 2016
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Wilkinsburg, PA
- Agency
- Allegheny County Port Authority
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 37
What happened
Bruce Kelley Jr., 37, was killed by Port Authority of Allegheny County police in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, on January 31, 2016. Officers approached Kelley and his father after complaints about people drinking near the Wilkinsburg transitway. Police said Kelley attacked police K-9 Aren with a knife during a struggle; officers fired, killing Kelley, and the dog died from its wounds. The incident prompted protests and demands for footage from local activists and relatives. The Allegheny County district attorney reviewed the shooting and determined the officers would not be charged. The case's chronology and competing accounts of the police encounter are more complex than a generic armed-suspect description, and the dog's death forms part of the documented context.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1220
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- knife
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 1055
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