Police Brutality / Individual record
Deborah Danner
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Deborah Danner in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2016-10-18 in Bronx, NY. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-533
- Incident date
- October 18, 2016
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Bronx, NY
- Agency
- New York Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 66
What happened
Deborah Danner, 66, a Bronx woman who had lived for decades with schizophrenia, was shot and killed by NYPD Sergeant Hugh Barry on October 18, 2016, during a response to a psychiatric crisis at her apartment. Officers initially persuaded Danner to put down scissors but said she later picked up a baseball bat and moved toward Barry, who fired. Her family, clergy and advocates questioned why an officer used a handgun instead of continuing to de-escalate the crisis. Barry was charged with murder, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. After a bench trial, a judge acquitted him of all charges in February 2018. That verdict is a criminal outcome distinct from the concern about police responses to people with mental illness.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1975
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- female
- Armed status (source)
- blunt_object
- Flee status (source)
- not
- 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