Joshua Barre

The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Joshua Barre in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2017-06-09 in Tulsa, OK. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.

What happened

Joshua Barre, 29, was shot and killed by Tulsa law enforcement on June 9, 2017, after repeated attempts to take him into custody for a court-ordered mental-health evaluation. The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office Mental Health Unit had received the civil pickup order on May 31. On earlier visits, deputies said Barre carried a hammer or made threats, but officers withdrew when he was alone inside his home and posed no immediate public danger. On June 9, multiple neighbors called 911 to say Barre was walking in public carrying two large knives. Sheriff's deputies requested Tulsa police assistance. Officers confronted Barre as he moved through the neighborhood, and deputies and police officers fired, killing him. A joint agency timeline documented the previous contacts and the escalation from a mental-health pickup order to deadly force. The pickup order was not a criminal conviction, and the officers' accounts of the immediate knife threat require attribution rather than being presented as uncontested witness findings.

Investigation & findings

Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.

What happened

Investigation & findings

Sources & records