Police Brutality / Individual record
Kelley Brandon Forte
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Kelley Brandon Forte in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2016-08-22 in Hamilton, OH. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-501
- Incident date
- August 22, 2016
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Hamilton, OH
- Agency
- Hamilton Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 34
What happened
Kelley Brandon Forte, 34, was killed by Hamilton Officer Kevin Ruhl inside an Ohio Walgreens on August 22, 2016, during a robbery in which he held a pharmacist at knifepoint. Surveillance footage showed the knife threat and confrontation with officers. Police said Forte ignored demands to surrender and moved toward them carrying the knife; Ruhl fired three shots. The pharmacist survived unharmed. Butler County prosecutors and a grand jury reviewed the video and declined charges against the officer. The hostage's immediate danger, video record and grand-jury finding are material facts in documenting the death, rather than presenting it as a routine unarmed police encounter.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1802
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- knife
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 1412
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