Police Brutality / Individual record
Terrence Coleman
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Terrence Coleman in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2016-10-30 in Boston, MA. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-540
- Incident date
- October 30, 2016
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Boston, MA
- Agency
- Boston Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 31
What happened
Terrence Coleman, 31, who had schizophrenia, was shot and killed by Boston police in October 2016 after his mother Hope called for an ambulance to take him for mental-health treatment. Officers accompanied emergency medical workers at her South End home, and police said Coleman held a kitchen knife during a struggle as they tried to move him. Hope disputed that deadly force was necessary in a call meant to obtain medical care. Local prosecutors declined charges. Coleman’s mother filed a federal civil-rights and wrongful-death case, and in March 2024 Boston agreed to settle for approximately $4.6 million, including legal expenses. The payment was a civil resolution without a criminal conviction or city admission of liability.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 1999
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- knife
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 3
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