Police Brutality / Individual record
Che Taylor
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Che Taylor in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2016-02-21 in Seattle, WA. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-369
- Incident date
- February 21, 2016
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Seattle, WA
- Agency
- Seattle Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 46
What happened
Che Taylor, 46, was shot and killed by Seattle police on February 21, 2016, in the Wedgwood neighborhood during an undercover firearms-and-drugs operation. Officers surveilled Taylor as he stood near a Ford Taurus, then approached in a marked vehicle and ordered him to put his hands up. The department said officers believed he was reaching for a gun inside the vehicle; relatives and advocates disputed that account after viewing dashcam footage and questioned whether Taylor was attempting to comply. A King County inquest jury reviewed the evidence, and prosecutors announced in January 2019 that they would not bring criminal charges because they could not disprove the officers' justification under applicable law. Taylor's family also pursued a wrongful-death claim.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1289
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- undetermined
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 651
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