Years of mounting racial tension and police intervention shooting deaths brought the city of Cincinnati to the brink in April of 2001, culminating in multiple nights of rioting and $3 million in damage.
The flashpoint came in the early-morning hours of April 7, 2001, with the death of a 19-year-old in an Over-the-Rhine alley.
That man, Timothy Thomas, became the 15th Black man killed by police since 1995. Cincinnati Police officer Stephen Roach shot Thomas in the chest after a brief foot pursuit. At his trial, Roach would testify that he thought Thomas was reaching for a gun when he was really just pulling up his pants.
Prosecutors built a criminal case against Roach, but a jury ultimately acquitted him.
Former Cincinnati leaders reflect on the chaos of the April 2001 riots
Three key figures then — Mayor Charlie Luken, then-Fraternal Order of Police President Keith Fangman, and the Rev. Damon Lynch III, head of the Black United Front — worked to keep the city from imploding entirely…