George Tillman III

George Homer Tillman III, 32, a licensed electrician and father of five visiting family from Maryland, was shot and killed by NYPD officers in South Ozone Park, Queens, on April 17, 2016, after being approached over an open container of alcohol outside a double-parked vehicle. Tillman complied by handing off the bottle, but police said he then ran when officers moved to question him, and that he pointed a loaded .40-caliber pistol at an officer during the chase; four of five pursuing officers opened fire, striking him approximately 13 times. Queens District Attorney Richard Brown cleared the officers of any wrongdoing in October 2016 after a six-month, 71-page investigation, finding Tillman's DNA on the recovered gun. No non-police witness ever corroborated that Tillman was armed, and a companion who was present was held in police custody for 12 hours without charge and without access to an attorney. In 2025, nine years after the shooting, a federal jury found NYPD officers liable in the family's wrongful death lawsuit and awarded $6.3 million. No one has ever been criminally charged in Tillman's death.

South Ozone Park, NY · Queens County

• 2016: 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 encounter over the open container, the foot chase, and the shooting, per Queens District Attorney Richard Brown's 71-page report and subsequent federal civil trial testimony.
• Officers fired a total of 11 rounds; Tillman was struck multiple times, including a fatal shot to his left temple, according to the DA's report.
• The recovered .40-caliber pistol was found in Tillman's right hand and bore his DNA on the grip, magazine, and slide, per the DA's investigation; no evidence of any other person having handled the weapon with bare hands was found.
• DA Brown's October 2016 report concluded Tillman pointed the pistol at an officer and ignored commands to drop it, and that officers acted in lawful self-defense; no criminal charges were filed.
• A companion who was with Tillman at the time was taken into police custody and held for 12 hours after the shooting without being charged or given access to an attorney, according to the family's attorney.
• The Tillman family filed a federal wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit; in 2025, a jury found NYPD officers liable and awarded the family $6.3 million in damages.

• Whether Tillman in fact possessed and pointed the recovered pistol, as the DA's forensic findings concluded, or never had a weapon at all, as his family and their attorney maintained from the outset, was disputed throughout the civil proceedings and never tested in a criminal trial since none was brought.
• Why the companion held with Tillman at the time of the shooting was detained for 12 hours without charge or attorney access has not been explained in any official public accounting.
• The specific basis for the 2025 federal jury's liability finding, which arrived at a different conclusion than the district attorney's 2016 criminal review of largely the same underlying events, has not been reconciled in a single public record.

• QNS — “Cops were justified in fatally shooting an armed man during a South Ozone Park pursuit: DA report”
• DNAinfo — “NYPD Cleared in April Shooting of a Maryland Man by Queens DA”
• Jurimatic — “Jury Awards $6.3M in NYPD Wrongful Death Shooting Case”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs