Police Brutality / Individual record
Edson Thevenin
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Edson Thevenin in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2016-04-17 in Troy, NY. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-407
- Incident date
- April 17, 2016
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Troy, NY
- Agency
- Troy Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 37
What happened
Edson Thevenin, 37, a transit mechanic and father of twin boys, was killed by Troy police Sgt. Randall French on April 17, 2016, after a traffic stop for suspected impaired driving. Thevenin drove away and crashed against a barrier; French blocked his car with a patrol vehicle, then fired eight shots through the windshield, striking him seven times. Police initially said French was pinned between the vehicles and fired to save his life. A New York attorney general investigation found significant forensic evidence contradicting the claim that French fired from the position the department described. Troy agreed in September 2021 to pay Thevenin's family $1.55 million to settle civil litigation. The contradiction between the police's original explanation and later physical evidence is central to the case.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1472
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Flee status (source)
- car
- Agency IDs (source)
- 738
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