Police Brutality / Individual record
David Joseph
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records David Joseph in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2016-02-08 in Austin, TX. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-356
- Incident date
- February 8, 2016
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Austin, TX
- Agency
- Austin Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 17
What happened
David Joseph, 17, an unarmed Black teenager, was shot and killed by Austin police Officer Geoffrey Freeman on February 8, 2016, in north Austin. Officers had responded to complaints about a young man behaving erratically, and Freeman encountered Joseph naked and without a weapon. Freeman said the teen charged toward him, but police supervisors concluded the officer violated department policies on responding to a person in crisis. The department fired Freeman; the Travis County district attorney submitted the case to a grand jury, which declined to indict him. Joseph's mother pursued a civil suit and Austin approved a $3.25 million settlement with the family. The administrative firing, grand-jury decision and civil payment reflect different standards of accountability.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1247
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- unarmed
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 141
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