Police Brutality / Individual record
Earnest Fells
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Earnest Fells in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2016-07-07 in Selma, AL. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-472
- Incident date
- July 7, 2016
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Selma, AL
- Agency
- Selma Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 63
What happened
Earnest Fells, 62, was shot and killed by a Selma police officer on the night of July 7, 2016, at a home in the 700 block of King Street. Officers had responded to a domestic disturbance in which investigators alleged Fells had shot a woman close to him. Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson said the woman was wounded but expected to survive, and that officers attempted to calm Fells when they arrived. Authorities stated that Fells fired at responding officers, grazing one officer's nose, before an officer returned fire and fatally wounded him. Early reports varied in describing the wounded woman's relationship to Fells, so that description should not be treated as settled. The Alabama State Bureau of Investigation opened an outside inquiry at the Selma Police Department's request, with findings intended for the district attorney's review. Contemporary reports documented the shooting and review but did not provide a final charging decision.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1699
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- gun
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 1364
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