Bartlesville police killed 72-year-old Geraldine Townsend during a marijuana raid on her son’s home at about 9:30 p.m. on 17 January 2018.[1][2] Officers announced a search warrant and entered seconds later; her son Michael Livingston, the target of the raid as a suspected marijuana distributor, surrendered immediately.[1][2] Townsend, who had been asleep, woke up and fired a pellet gun, hitting two officers, and an officer shot back, wounding her in the chest; she died at the hospital.[1][2]
Body-camera footage captured the seconds-long encounter, including Livingston shouting that the gun was a BB gun and that officers had killed his mother.[1][2] Washington County District Attorney Kevin Buchanan determined the shooting was justified and declined to charge the officer.[2] Officers reported finding marijuana in a Mason jar and two sandwich-style bags, and Livingston was charged, pleaded no contest and received a seven-month suspended sentence.[2] He filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city in October 2019, which was later dismissed on procedural grounds.[2] Reason argued the nighttime raid left a confused, half-asleep woman reasonably fearing robbers, giving both sides no choice but to fire over her son’s alleged marijuana sales.[1]
