Police Brutality / Individual record
Keita O'Neil
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Keita O'Neil in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2017-12-01 in San Francisco, CA. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-789
- Incident date
- December 1, 2017
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- San Francisco, CA
- Agency
- San Francisco Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 42
What happened
Keita O'Neil, 42, was shot and killed in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood on December 1, 2017, after police pursued a stolen California Lottery delivery van. Police said he took the van's keys from a delivery worker and drove away. When the van reached Fitzgerald Avenue and Griffith Street, O'Neil jumped out and ran past a patrol car. Rookie Officer Christopher Samayoa fired a single shot through the patrol car's passenger window, striking O'Neil, who was unarmed; body-camera and surveillance footage recorded the encounter. The department fired Samayoa. In 2020, the district attorney charged him with voluntary manslaughter and related offenses, but successor District Attorney Brooke Jenkins dropped the case in 2023, citing concerns about the charging process. California's attorney general separately declined prosecution. San Francisco approved a $2.5 million settlement with O'Neil's mother, Judy. The charging decision, later dismissal and civil settlement were separate outcomes, none a criminal verdict.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 3176
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- unarmed
- Flee status (source)
- car
- Agency IDs (source)
- 196
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