Marcus-David Peters

Marcus-David Peters, 24, a high school biology teacher, was shot and killed by Richmond, Virginia Police Officer Michael Nyantakyi on May 14, 2018, during a mental health crisis. Peters struck several vehicles with his car, crashed near an Interstate 95 ramp, then emerged naked and unarmed and ran into rush-hour highway traffic, where he was struck by a passing car. Body camera video showed him lying in the road, rolling and moving his limbs, before getting up and running toward Nyantakyi shouting threats; the officer deployed a Taser without effect, then fired his service weapon. Richmond's Commonwealth's Attorney found the shooting a “justifiable homicide” months later in 2018, and a successor prosecutor who reopened the case at the family's request reached the identical conclusion in 2020. No one has ever been charged in Peters's death, and his name has become a lasting symbol of Richmond's police reform movement.

Richmond, VA

• 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 car crash, Peters's naked and unarmed state, and the shooting on the I-95/64 ramp, per Richmond Police body camera footage and the Commonwealth's Attorney's public reports.
• Nyantakyi, who is also Black, first deployed a Taser, which appeared to have no effect, before firing his service weapon as Peters ran toward him shouting threats.
• Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Herring released a 15-page report in August 2018 concluding the shooting was reasonable and necessary and declining to charge Nyantakyi.
• A relative of Peters admitted to removing and disposing of a Ritalin prescription bottle from his apartment after his death, according to Herring's report; toxicology found THC and Ritalin in Peters's system.
• In 2020, successor Commonwealth's Attorney Colette McEachin agreed to review the case again at the urging of Peters's family and reform advocates, and reached the same conclusion in a 10-page report: the shooting was a reasonable response to the danger Peters posed.
• Peters's sister, Princess Blanding, became a prominent police-reform advocate following his death and later ran for governor of Virginia.

• Whether Peters, in the specific disoriented state captured on body camera — unarmed, naked, having just been struck by a car — posed the level of threat both prosecutors' reports concluded has been disputed by his family and reform advocates, but was never tested in any criminal trial.
• The removal of Peters's Ritalin bottle by a family member after his death, and what that family member's reasoning was, has not been fully explained publicly beyond Herring's report noting it occurred.
• What specific de-escalation options, if any, existed between the Taser's ineffectiveness and the use of a firearm has been debated by outside police-practice observers but not resolved by either prosecutorial review.

• PBS NewsHour / AP — “Virginia prosecutor finds 2018 police shooting justified”
• Richmond Magazine — “No Charges in Peters Death”
• WRIC ABC 8News — “Richmond's top prosecutor won't reopen Marcus-David Peters investigation”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs