Albert Willis was a 42-year-old man from Fresno who died on July 26, 2007, after a violent confrontation with law enforcement officers that ended in officers using deadly force. He was shot multiple times during the altercation. Court documents and a subsequent civil lawsuit by his family alleged that excessive force may have been used, focusing on whether the final shots were justified because evidence suggested Willis may no longer have posed a threat at that point. A jury in the civil case found questions about the officers’ actions, particularly the last shot, while assigning a significant portion of responsibility for the outcome to Willis himself. The case fed into ongoing local debates in Fresno about police use of force and fatal encounters between officers and residents.

Does anyone have additional information about the July 26, 2007 encounter or the civil proceedings that followed?