Police Brutality / Individual record
Reno Joseph Owens Jr.
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Reno Joseph Owens Jr. in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2017-03-24 in Baltimore, MD. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-642
- Incident date
- March 24, 2017
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Baltimore, MD
- Agency
- Baltimore Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 39
What happened
Reno Joseph Owens Jr., 39, was shot and killed by Baltimore police on March 24, 2017, during a barricade emergency at a home on North Fulton Avenue. Relatives told officers that Owens, who was temporarily staying at the residence, was acting erratically and wielding a knife. Police reported that he threatened a four-year-old girl and a one-year-old boy as adults struggled to keep them safe. Responding officers withdrew, summoned tactical personnel and attempted negotiations. After approximately an hour, the SWAT team entered and fired at Owens, saying the children's lives were in imminent danger. The children were rescued without serious injuries. Authorities described the fatal confrontation as a hostage rescue; accounts of his actions at the instant officers fired came from police and family reports given to investigators. The initial article documented the emergency response but did not establish the outcome of a later independent criminal review.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 2452
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- knife
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 149
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