Kenneth Ross Jr.

Kenneth Ross Jr., 25, was shot in the back and shoulder and killed by Gardena, California Police Officer Michael Robbins with a rifle on April 11, 2018, as Ross ran away from officers responding to a report of a man firing a weapon in Rowley Memorial Park. Body and dash camera video reviewed by the family's attorney showed Ross running with his hands empty and his back to police when Robbins fired two shots from an AR-15. Robbins told investigators he believed Ross was reaching for a gun and feared for his life; a handgun was later recovered from Ross's shorts, which his family disputes he was carrying at the moment he was shot. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office cleared Robbins of criminal wrongdoing in June 2019, finding he acted in lawful self-defense. Robbins had been involved in three prior shootings before this one and retired from the department in 2020. No one has ever been charged in Ross's death.

Gardena, CA · Los Angeles County

• 2018: 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 shots-fired call, the foot pursuit, and the shooting, per the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Justice System Integrity Division report and body/dash camera footage described by the family's attorney.
• Officer Robbins fired two rounds from a rifle, striking Ross in the back and shoulder as Ross ran away from him with his hands empty, according to the family's attorney's description of the footage; a handgun was later found in Ross's shorts.
• The DA's report concluded that when Ross's left arm moved in a way not visible to the camera as he ran past Robbins, it was reasonable for Robbins to believe Ross was drawing the weapon, and that the law did not require Robbins to visually confirm the gun before firing.
• The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced on June 12, 2019 that Robbins acted in lawful self-defense and declined to bring any charges.
• Robbins had been involved in three prior officer-involved shootings before killing Ross, and retired from the Gardena Police Department in 2020.
• The City of Gardena settled federal civil lawsuits with Ross's mother, father, and young son for a combined total exceeding $1.3 million, without admitting wrongdoing.
• Ross's death directly prompted California Governor Gavin Newsom to sign the Kenneth Ross Jr. Police Decertification Act of 2021 (SB 2), a statewide law allowing California to strip the certification of officers convicted of serious misconduct or found to have engaged in bias, signed near the site of Ross's death.

• Whether Ross was in fact carrying and reaching for the recovered handgun at the specific moment Robbins fired, as the DA's report concluded was reasonable to believe based on an arm movement not fully visible on camera, or whether he was unarmed and merely fleeing, as his family maintained, was never resolved by any criminal trial since none was brought.
• The specific nature and outcomes of Officer Robbins's three prior officer-involved shootings, and whether any departmental review considered that pattern before this fourth shooting, has not been made comprehensively public.
• Whether Ross was in fact experiencing a mental health crisis at the time, as the DA's own statement suggested, and how that would have changed the appropriate police response, was not resolved through any independent review beyond the self-defense finding.

• Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office — official Justice System Integrity Division report
• ABC7 Los Angeles — “Family, activists demand criminal charges against officer who fatally shot man in Gardena”
• NBC News — “Son of Black man fatally shot by California police to receive $1.3 million in lawsuit settlement”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs