Samuel DuBose

Samuel DuBose, 43, was shot in the head and killed by University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing during a traffic stop on July 19, 2015, after Tensing pulled him over for a missing front license plate. Body camera video showed a brief exchange over DuBose's license before he began to drive away; Tensing testified he was dragged by the car and feared for his life, while the county prosecutor called the shooting “asinine” and “totally unwarranted” when announcing a murder indictment less than two weeks later. Two separate juries, in trials roughly eight months apart, deadlocked and produced mistrials in 2016 and 2017. Hamilton County's prosecutor then dropped the case rather than pursue a third trial, saying jurors had told him he would never get twelve people to agree to convict a police officer. No one has ever been convicted in DuBose's death.

Cincinnati, OH · Hamilton County County

• 2015: 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 brief struggle, and the shooting, captured on Tensing's body camera and released publicly.
• Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters indicted Tensing on a murder charge less than two weeks after the shooting, calling his actions “asinine” and “totally unwarranted.”
• A first jury deadlocked after roughly 25 hours of deliberation in November 2016, resulting in a mistrial; prosecutors said that jury had a majority favoring conviction on the lesser voluntary manslaughter charge.
• A second jury deadlocked again after roughly 31 hours of deliberation in June 2017, resulting in a second mistrial.
• In July 2017, Prosecutor Deters formally dropped the murder and voluntary manslaughter charges rather than pursue a third trial; the judge dismissed the case in a manner that permanently barred retrial on those charges, while declining the defense's request to formally acquit Tensing.
• The University of Cincinnati settled a wrongful death lawsuit with DuBose's family for $4.85 million and a tuition-free college scholarship for his children in 2015, and separately disbanded its own police force's traffic-stop authority off campus.

• Whether Tensing was in fact dragged by DuBose's car and reasonably feared for his life, as he testified, or whether the body camera video showed a shooting that occurred before any such danger existed, as prosecutors argued, was never resolved — two separate juries considered the same video and could not agree.
• The specific numerical breakdown of each deadlocked jury's votes was reported by prosecutors as favoring conviction after the first trial, but the precise count was not made formally public.
• Whether federal civil rights charges, which the U.S. Attorney's office said it would consider after the state case ended, were ever formally pursued was not confirmed in available public reporting.

• NPR — “Judge Declares Mistrial, Again, In Cincinnati Police Shooting Case”
• NBC News — “Ray Tensing Trial: Mistrial Declared for a Second Time”
• Essence — “Charges Dropped Against Ray Tensing Who Shot Sam DuBose”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs