Officer Jose Vega and Officer Lesley Zerebny of the Palm Springs Police Department, both killed in the line of duty on Oct 9 while responding to a family disturbance. (Photo : Palm Springs Police Department)
The number of police officers in the United States killed in the line of duty from January 1 until October 9 stands at 102, a figure over 40 percent higher than the comparable period in 2015.
Data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund also shows that 715 people were killed by police in that time frame.
Data from the fund shows that on average, one law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty somewhere in the United States every 61 hours. Since the first known line-of-duty death in 1791, more than 20,000 U.S. law enforcement officers have made the ultimate sacrifice.
The Memorial Fund serves as a nationwide clearinghouse of information and statistics on law enforcement line-of-duty deaths. Its Research Department maintains a comprehensive fatality database, and publishes regular Fatalities Reports examining trends and issues in officer fatalities.
Preliminary data from the fund's Mid-Year Law Enforcement Officer Fatalities Report shows that as of July 20, 67 federal, state and local law enforcement officers died in the line of duty. This death toll was eight percent over the 62 officers killed in the same period in 2015.
The data also shows "an alarming 78 percent spike in firearms-related officer fatalities, many of which were ambush-style killings."
These total deaths included two police officers from the Palm Springs Police Department, one of them a woman, who were killed Oct. 9 in Palm Springs, 170 km east of Los Angeles, while responding to a family disturbance call.
Officer Jose Vega and Officer Lesley Zerebny of the Palm Springs Police Department were both killed in the line of duty by a 26 year-old man who fired through the door of his house to kill both officers. A third officer was wounded. The gunman, who had a history of violence in police records, was later taken alive.
The call that led to the death of both officers was made by the suspect's mother.
As the officers arrived at the house, she screamed "My son is in the house, and he's crazy. He has a gun. He's ready to shoot all the police."
Data from the fund shows 32 officers were killed in firearms-related fatalities this year, a dramatic increase of 78 percent, compared to 18 deaths during the same period last year.
Traffic-related fatalities were the second leading cause of officer deaths, with 24 officers killed thus far in 2016. This represents a 17 percent decrease over the 29 officers killed in traffic-related incidents during the same period last year.
More officers were killed in Texas (13) than any other state. Louisiana lost seven officers during the period. California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia all lost three officers thus far in 2016.
Three federal officers were also killed in the line of duty in 2016. Six states lost two officers and eleven states lost one officer. Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia did not lose an officer in the first half of this year.
