Willie Tillman

Willie Sherman Tillman, 33, a father of three, died on May 9, 2016, eighteen days after being shot four times by Fayetteville, Arkansas Police Officer Brandon Jones during a traffic stop that turned into a struggle inside Tillman's moving vehicle. Police said Tillman re-entered his car after being asked to step out, and that officers used Tasers on him without effect before the car began moving with Officer Jones still inside; police characterized Tillman's driving as having dragged the two officers, justifying the shooting. Both the Fayetteville Police Department's internal investigation and the Washington County prosecutor concluded the shooting was justified, lawful, and within department policy. Jones returned to duty after three weeks of paid leave. Tillman was the second Black man in recent memory shot and killed by Fayetteville police, following the earlier fatal shooting of a white man in an unrelated incident that the department also ruled justified. No one has ever been charged in Tillman's death.

Fayetteville, AR · Washington 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 traffic stop, the struggle inside the vehicle, and the shooting, per Fayetteville Police Department and Washington County Prosecutor Matthew Durrett's investigative findings.
• Officers Brandon Jones and Cpl. Patrick Hanby used Tasers on Tillman without effect before his car began moving with Jones inside it; police said this constituted Tillman using the vehicle as a deadly weapon against the officers.
• The Fayetteville Police Department's internal investigation, completed May 11, 2016, found both officers' actions justified, lawful, and within department policy.
• Washington County Prosecutor Matthew Durrett separately reviewed the case and reached the same conclusion, declining to bring any charges.
• Officer Jones returned to work after roughly three weeks of paid administrative leave; Corporal Hanby was never placed on leave at all.
• Tillman's death prompted community protests and a petition calling for an independent, external investigation, given both reviewing bodies (the department and the county prosecutor who works closely with it) were seen by some community members as insufficiently independent.

• Whether Tillman's movement of the vehicle was a deliberate attempt to harm the officers, as police characterized it, or a panicked reaction while an officer was still partially inside the car, as his family's advocates suggested, was never tested in any criminal or civil trial that reached a public resolution.
• The specific reasoning behind both the department's and the prosecutor's parallel conclusions, beyond their public statements that the shooting was “justified, lawful and proper,” has not been made available in a detailed public report.
• Why Corporal Hanby was never placed on administrative leave at all, unlike Officer Jones, has not been explained in available public reporting.

• Arkansas Democrat-Gazette — “Police clear officers involved in Tillman shooting, residents protest”
• KNWA/FOX24 — “Officer-Involved Shooting of Willie Tillman Justified”
• KNWA/FOX24 — “Willie Tillman's Family Speaks”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs