David Jones

David Jones, 30, was shot twice in the back and killed by Philadelphia Police Officer Ryan Pownall on June 8, 2017, after being pulled over for riding a dirt bike illegally on a city street. Officers said Pownall found a gun on Jones during a pat-down and struggled with him over the weapon before it fell and Jones fled on foot; Pownall then fired multiple shots, striking Jones twice in the back. He was the first Philadelphia officer in roughly two decades to be charged with murder for an on-duty shooting. After more than five years of pretrial proceedings, including an appeal that reached the Pennsylvania Supreme Court over how juries should be instructed on police use-of-force law, a Philadelphia judge dismissed all charges against Pownall in October 2022, ruling prosecutors had improperly instructed the grand jury that indicted him. Pownall was reinstated to the police department with full back pay and seniority in 2024. No one has ever been convicted in Jones's death.

Philadelphia, PA · Philadelphia County

• 2017: 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 traffic stop, the struggle over the recovered handgun, and the shooting, per the grand jury presentment and Philadelphia Police Department statements, since the case never reached a trial that established facts through testimony.
• Pownall struck Jones during a struggle after finding a gun on him in a pat-down; Jones dropped the weapon and fled on foot, and Pownall fired at him, striking him twice in the back.
• A Philadelphia grand jury indicted Pownall on charges including third-degree murder in 2018, making him the first Philadelphia police officer in roughly two decades to face a homicide charge for an on-duty shooting.
• The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office sought to bar the standard jury instruction on Pennsylvania's police use-of-force justification statute, arguing it was unconstitutionally permissive; the dispute over that instruction reached the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which ruled in 2022 without reaching the constitutional question, delaying the case for years.
• Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara A. McDermott dismissed all charges against Pownall in October 2022, ruling that prosecutors had failed to properly instruct the grand jury on when officers are legally justified in using deadly force.
• The City of Philadelphia settled a wrongful death lawsuit with Jones's family for $1 million in 2018, years before the criminal case concluded.
• An independent arbitrator ruled in April 2024 that the city must reinstate Pownall to the police department with full back pay and seniority, roughly a year and a half after the criminal charges were dismissed.

• Whether Jones posed a threat justifying deadly force at the moment he was shot in the back while running away, as opposed to during the earlier struggle over the weapon, was the central legal question the case was built around and was never resolved by any trial on the merits, since the charges were dismissed before one occurred.
• The specific grand jury instructions found deficient by the dismissing judge, and what corrected version might have produced a different outcome, have not been made available in a form accessible to the public.
• Why the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office did not seek to refile charges through a properly instructed grand jury after the 2022 dismissal has not been fully explained in available public reporting.

• The Philadelphia Inquirer — “Fired Philly cop Ryan Pownall, whose murder case in controversial shooting was dismissed by judge, can get job back, arbitrator rules”
• WHYY — “4 Black men killed by Philly police and the officers who haven't yet faced a jury”
• City of Philadelphia, Citizens Police Oversight Commission — official statement on the dismissal of criminal charges against Ryan Pownall
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs