Timothy Thomas

Timothy Thomas, 19, was shot and killed by Cincinnati Police Officer Stephen Roach in a dark alley in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in the early hours of April 7, 2001, while fleeing on foot from officers attempting to arrest him on a series of misdemeanor traffic warrants. Thomas was unarmed; Roach said he believed Thomas was reaching for a weapon. Thomas was the fifteenth Black man to die in a confrontation with Cincinnati police since 1995, and his death set off three nights of rioting, the city's worst racial unrest since 1968, with hundreds arrested. A grand jury indicted Roach on misdemeanor charges of negligent homicide and obstructing official business; at a bench trial that September, a judge acquitted him on both counts, ruling the shooting was a reasonable split-second reaction to a dangerous situation. Roach remained a police officer for years afterward.

Cincinnati, OH · Hamilton County

• 2001: 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.

• Victim identity and the April 7, 2001 date and circumstances, per extensive contemporaneous news coverage and court records.
• Officer Stephen Roach was identified, indicted on misdemeanor charges, and acquitted of both at a September 2001 bench trial.

• Whether Thomas made a threatening movement, as Roach claimed, was disputed and never independently confirmed.
• The grand jury's specific reasoning for returning only misdemeanor charges, rather than more serious ones, was not made public.

• The Washington Post — “Officer Is Acquitted in Killing That Led to Riots in Cincinnati”
• IAED Journal — case retrospective
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs