On a June day in 2012, the life of 23-year-old Shantel Davis, an African-American woman, came to a sudden and violent end on the streets of East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The events that culminated in her death began when police observed a car, which they alleged was stolen, being driven erratically. After running several red lights, the vehicle crashed into a minivan at an intersection.
Two plainclothes officers, Detective Phil Atkins and his partner, Daniel Guida, who had been pursuing the car, then approached the vehicle on foot.
What happened next is a matter of some dispute. According to the police account, as the officers approached, Davis tried to escape. They stated that in an attempt to stop her, Detective Atkins reached into the car to shift it into park. During the ensuing struggle for control of the vehicle, Atkins' gun discharged, firing a single, fatal shot into Davis's chest. She was unarmed. Witnesses reported that after being shot, Davis stumbled out of the car, bleeding profusely and crying out that she didn't want to die. Paramedics arrived and rushed her to Kings County Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The officer who fired the fatal shot, Detective Phil Atkins, was no stranger to controversy. At the time of the shooting, he had been sued on multiple occasions for allegations including excessive force and fabricating charges, with the city paying out over a hundred thousand dollars in settlements. Residents of the East Flatbush neighborhood described him as a terror who often harassed young Black men. In the aftermath of Davis's death, her family and community members voiced their outrage, denouncing the shooting as an act of murder. They maintained that Shantel was trapped by the car's deployed airbag and was not attempting to flee when she was shot.
Despite the public outcry and the officer's history, no charges were ever filed against Detective Atkins for the death of Shantel Davis. The Brooklyn District Attorney's office did open an investigation into the incident, meeting with Davis's family and assuring them a proper inquiry would take place. However, years after the shooting, her family reported that they had received no updates on any departmental or criminal investigation. The family has continued to fight to clear her name from what they describe as a smear campaign by the police and media, who highlighted her past criminal record. To this day, they continue to seek justice and keep her memory alive.
