Police Brutality / Individual record
Marcus-David L. Peters
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Marcus-David L. Peters in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2018-05-14 in Richmond, VA. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-903
- Incident date
- May 14, 2018
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Richmond, VA
- Agency
- Richmond Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 24
What happened
Marcus-David Peters, 24, a biology teacher at Essex High School, was shot and killed by Richmond, Virginia Officer Michael Nyantakyi on May 14, 2018, near an Interstate 95 entrance ramp. Peters, who was in an acute behavioral crisis, had been involved in a traffic crash before removing his clothes and running onto the roadway. He was completely naked and unarmed when Nyantakyi confronted him. The officer first attempted to use a Taser, which officials said did not stop Peters, then fired his gun as Peters moved toward him. Richmond's Commonwealth's Attorney reviewed body-camera footage, civilian video, officer testimony, forensic results and medical records, and concluded the use of deadly force was justified under Virginia criminal law. Peters's family and advocates challenged how police responded to a person in crisis and demanded changes to behavioral-health emergency practices. The prosecutor emphasized that his office's criminal review was not a determination of police-policy compliance or best practices.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 3696
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- unarmed
- Flee status (source)
- car
- Agency IDs (source)
- 696
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