Aura Rosser

Aura Rosser, 40, an artist and mother of three who was living with addiction, was shot and killed by Ann Arbor, Michigan Police Officer David Ried in her home in the early morning hours of November 10, 2014, within five to ten seconds of officers entering the house. Her boyfriend, Victor Stephens, had called police to report a domestic dispute and asked them to remove Rosser from the home, but said afterward that lethal force was not justified. Police said Rosser approached officers with a knife; Officer Mark Raab fired a Taser at the same moment Ried fired his handgun, striking her once in the chest. The Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office declined to charge Ried in January 2015, finding the shooting lawful self-defense. No one has ever been charged in Rosser's death.

Ann Arbor, MI · Washtenaw County

• 2014: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The domestic violence call, the officers' entry, and the shooting within five to ten seconds of entry, per the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's report following a two-month Michigan State Police investigation.
• Officer Raab discharged his Taser at the same moment Officer Ried fired his handgun; Rosser was struck once in the chest and pronounced dead at the scene.
• Rosser's boyfriend, Victor Stephens, who made the 911 call, said afterward that he wanted police to remove Rosser from the house but did not believe lethal force was justified.
• Washtenaw County Prosecutor Brian Mackie announced on January 30, 2015 that Ried would not be charged, concluding he acted in lawful self-defense.
• Ann Arbor Police Chief John Baird later wrote in an internal memo that the shooting was "justified by any legal, policy or reasonable moral standard," while also calling it "incredibly tragic."
• In response to Rosser's death, Ann Arbor's City Council passed a resolution in December 2014 to implement body cameras for the police department, and the shooting prompted years of sustained local organizing under the name "Ann Arbor to Ferguson."

• Whether Rosser's approach with the knife, in the five to ten seconds after officers entered an unfamiliar situation at night, presented the kind of imminent threat that justified lethal force was never tested at any criminal trial.
• Full, unedited body camera or dashcam footage of the shooting itself was not available at the time, since the department had not yet adopted body cameras — a gap the shooting itself prompted the city to address going forward.
• Whether responding officers had any advance information about Rosser's mental health or substance use history, and whether that would have changed their approach, has not been detailed in public reporting.

• ACLU of Michigan — “Fatal Police Shooting in Ann Arbor”
• The Michigan Daily — “Prosecutor will not press charges against officer who shot Ann Arbor resident”
• AAIHS (African American Intellectual History Society) — “Gender and the Politics of Anti-Black State Violence”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs