On a spring afternoon in Detroit, Michigan, the life of 20-year-old Terrence Kellom, a Black male, came to a violent end. On April 27, 2015, a multi-agency task force, including an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, arrived at his father's home on the city's northwest side to serve an arrest warrant for armed robbery and weapons charges. What transpired next became a point of sharp contention, pitting the account of law enforcement against that of the victim's family.
According
to the official narrative provided by authorities, officers were allowed into the residence and found Kellom hiding in an attic crawl space. They stated that Kellom was armed with a hammer and, after creating a hole in the floor to drop down into a bedroom, he lunged at ICE agent Mitchell Quinn. In what was described as an act of self-defense, Agent Quinn, who is also Black, fired his weapon multiple times, fatally wounding Kellom. An autopsy later confirmed Kellom was shot four times. A hammer was reportedly recovered at the scene and taken into evidence.
However, Terrence Kellom's father, Kevin Kellom, who was present during the incident, offered a starkly different and harrowing version of events. He vehemently denied that his son was armed with a hammer, stating that his son was unarmed with clenched fists. In his account, officers brought his son downstairs, and he was shot after reaching for his father. The family's attorney later stated that at least one of the bullet wounds was in Kellom's back, a claim made after viewing the body.
The shooting led to peaceful protests and calls for a thorough investigation, occurring amidst a heightened national debate over police use of force, particularly against Black men. The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office conducted an investigation into the shooting. In August 2015, Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced that no criminal charges would be filed against Agent Mitchell Quinn. Worthy stated that after a comprehensive review of the evidence and witness statements, her office concluded that the agent's actions were justified under the law of self-defense. She emphasized that 'credible facts' and 'provable evidence' supported the agent's account.
The Kellom family later filed a $50 million civil lawsuit against Agent Quinn for wrongful death. During the course of this lawsuit, new questions arose. An attorney for the family pointed to a report from a forensics expert suggesting that bullets struck Kellom from four different directions, and that one Detroit police officer recanted his initial statement about seeing a hammer in Kellom's hand. Despite these claims, in November 2019, a federal jury in the civil trial cleared Agent Quinn of any wrongdoing, concluding after a two-week trial that he had not violated Terrence Kellom's constitutional rights and had acted in self-defense.
