Police Brutality / Individual record
George Tillman
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records George Tillman in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2016-04-17 in New York, NY. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-408
- Incident date
- April 17, 2016
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- New York, NY
- Agency
- New York Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 32
What happened
George Tillman, 32, a father of five visiting relatives from Maryland, was fatally shot by four NYPD officers on April 17, 2016, near 135th Street and 116th Avenue in South Ozone Park, Queens. Plainclothes officers said they saw a handgun in his waistband and pursued him after he ran. Police alleged he reached toward the gun when officers caught up; a .40-caliber firearm was recovered. Tillman's relatives and some witnesses disputed the account, saying he was running away and may have been shot in the back. No officer was reported injured. The initial police reconstruction and the family's allegations differ on the immediate threat at the time of firing; the contemporary reporting does not establish a final criminal verdict about the officers' actions.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1470
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- gun
- Flee status (source)
- foot
- Agency IDs (source)
- 298
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