Police Brutality / Individual record
Brian Easley
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Brian Easley in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2017-07-07 in Marietta, GA. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-704
- Incident date
- July 7, 2017
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Marietta, GA
- Agency
- Cobb County Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 33
What happened
Brian Brown-Easley, 33, a former Marine Corps servicemember, was shot and killed by a Cobb County SWAT officer during a July 7, 2017, standoff at a Wells Fargo bank in the Marietta area of Georgia. Easley entered the bank with a note claiming he had a bomb and held two employees hostage, but he told media he was desperate over problems with his Veterans Affairs disability payments and housing. During the hours-long standoff, he spoke by phone with an Atlanta television newsroom, where an editor tried to keep him talking. A police tactical officer ultimately shot him, ending the confrontation; the hostages survived. The case attracted renewed public attention in 2022 when the feature film 'Breaking' dramatized Easley's story, portraying the struggles of a veteran seeking benefits. The bomb threat and hostage-taking were serious allegations supported by contemporary accounts, while the underlying loss-of-benefits claim reflects Easley's own explanation of why he entered the bank.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 2751
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- unarmed
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 2851
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