Police Brutality / Individual record
Alton Fitzgerald Witchard
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Alton Fitzgerald Witchard in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2016-05-07 in St. Petersburg, FL. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-425
- Incident date
- May 7, 2016
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- St. Petersburg, FL
- Agency
- Pinellas County Sheriff's Office
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 37
What happened
Alton Fitzgerald Witchard, 37, was killed by Pinellas County sheriff's Deputy Yariel Mata during an early-morning pursuit in St. Petersburg, Florida, on May 7, 2016. The sheriff's office said Witchard fled an encounter involving a vehicle and moved around a home while carrying a loaded AR-15-style rifle. Mata reported ordering Witchard to drop the weapon and firing when he turned toward the deputy holding it. Investigators recovered the rifle with ammunition. In June 2016, State Attorney Bernie McCabe determined that Mata's gunfire constituted justifiable homicide under Florida law, declining prosecution. That prosecutor conclusion is documented in a public sheriff's office release; the precise movement that the deputy perceived as threatening is drawn from the department's investigative account.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1525
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- gun
- Flee status (source)
- other
- Agency IDs (source)
- 1255
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