X

Find a shooting

There were 772 cases of police shootings between 2009 and 2014. Use the filters below to find cases that match a certain set of criteria.

Read more on how we defined these filters

Or start with these randomly selected cases:

WHY COPS SHOOT

Search all cases

July 28, 2010 — Deltona

On July 28, 2010, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office sent two deputies to investigate a report someone had been shot.

Volusia SO

Upon arrival, the two deputies encountered an injured woman, Sislyn Gonsalves, and five children standing at the driveway's end. Four more deputies arrived. The six deputies walked up the driveway and encountered Clayton Gonsalves, 48, sitting in a chair.

Gonsalves stood up, walked toward the officers and fired one or two rounds in the air. The officers took cover and called in a SWAT team. Read more

The SWAT team sent in four deputies to approach Gonsalves. Two deputies were armed with .223-caliber Colt M4s semiautomatic rifles and two deputies held ballistic shields. As the four walked up the driveway, two more SWAT team members took up positions to their rear, armed with sniper rifles.

Pulling a gun from his waistband, Gonsalves walked toward the officers and refused orders to stop and lay down his weapon. He raised his gun at them, then Deputies Thomas Dane and Vidal Mejias fired an unknown number of rounds at Gonsalves.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation found the officers' use of force justified.

Gonsalves was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

This was the 57th police shooting in Florida in 2010.

One day earlier, one officer shot one person in Crestview .

One day later, six officers shot one person in Hialeah .

7 ways this case compares to others

  1. Sgt. Mejias was involved in two other shootings from 2009 to 2014. Only 10 officers were involved in more than two shootings in that time period.
  2. Gonsalves approached police in a threatening manner before being shot. That's true in almost 10% of police shootings.
  3. Gonsalves did not immediately comply with police instruction, a factor in nearly a quarter of shootings.
  4. A SWAT or tactical team was involved in the incident. Tactical teams are involved in 7 percent of police shootings.
  5. Gonsalves was armed with a firearm. That’s true of almost half the people shot.
  6. Gonsalves was involved in a domestic disturbance, a factor in 115 cases.
  7. Gonsalves pointed a weapon at officers. Twenty-eight percent of shootings involved people who police say pointed a weapon at them.

More cases

2012. MELBOURNE — Officer Brian Cavanaugh was participating in a SWAT team's "buy and bust" drug raid the evening of July 3,... 1 injured
2009. MIAMI — Michael Davis, 31, who had previously been identified as 22-year-old Oswain Walcott, was wanted in connection with a Feb. 21... 1 killed
2012. KISSIMMEE — A St. Cloud SWAT team was raiding a house in Kissimmee at about 2 p.m., looking for armed drug... 1 injured