In the winter of 2017, the life of a 34-year-old Black/African American man, Frederick Douglas Wilburn, was cut short in Tucson, Arizona. On the evening of December 7th, an encounter with law enforcement escalated to a fatal officer-involved shooting. The incident unfolded in midtown Tucson, near the intersection of Speedway and Beverly, forever altering the lives of Wilburn's family and the officers involved.
According to the Arizona Department of Public Safety the events leading to
Wilburn's death began as a traffic stop. DPS reported that detectives from their Criminal Investigations Division were on assignment in the area when the interaction with Wilburn took place. The agency stated that at some point during the stop, Wilburn allegedly drove his vehicle toward the detectives. In what was described as a reaction to this perceived threat, one of the detectives discharged their weapon, striking Wilburn.
In the immediate aftermath, a spokesperson for DPS confirmed that the administrative and criminal investigation into the shooting would be handled by their own department, with a unit from Phoenix taking the lead. The department maintained that the detective fired his weapon out of fear for his life.
The family of Frederick Wilburn was left grappling with immense grief and a multitude of unanswered questions. His brother expressed the family's confusion and frustration, stating that they felt stonewalled by investigators in their search for answers. He painted a picture of his brother as a man with no criminal history who had been living in Tucson for over three years. Wilburn had recently proposed to his fiancée and was the father of two young sons, who were just two years and four months old at the time of his death. The family's public statements underscored their desire for a thorough and transparent investigation to understand the circumstances that led to their tragic loss.
