Killing of Samuel DuBose

On July 19, 2015, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Samuel DuBose, an unarmed man, was fatally shot by Ray Tensing, a University of Cincinnati police officer, during an off-campus traffic stop for not having the front license plate on the vehicle.

After asking DuBose to get out of the vehicle, Tensing pulled his gun and shot Sam DuBose in the head. Sam was unarmed and sitting in his car with his seat belt on at the time of the killing. Ray Tensing shot Sam DuBose in the head moments after DuBose turned the key in the car ignition. Tensing told police he had to shoot DuBose in the head because DuBose was dragging him down the street. Prosecutors investigated and found that video footage from Tensing's bodycam showed that he was indeed not dragged or caught in the vehicle at any time. Prosecutor Deters and a grand jury indicted Ray Tensing on charges of murder and voluntary manslaughter. Tensing was then fired from the police department. A judge put Tensing on a $1 million bond, and Tensing was released on bail shortly after being arrested.

A November 2016 trial ended in mistrial after the jury became deadlocked. A retrial begun in May 2017 also ended in a hung jury. The charges against Tensing were later dismissed with prejudice though Prosecutor Deters continued to assert that Tensing should have been convicted for shooting Sam DuBose in the head without provocation.