OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Thirty-three men died last year in Oklahoma as a result of an officer-involved shooting, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
The tally, which represents the highest total since the agency began keeping records on such deaths, shows that about 65 percent of the shooting deaths last year occurred in rural areas outside of Tulsa and Oklahoma counties.
Twenty of Oklahoma’s 77 counties logged an officer-involved shooting in 2015, but Oklahoma County led all counties with 10 fatal shootings last year, according to the study, The Oklahoman newspaper reported (https://bit.ly/2a5BBTF ).
Of the 33 fatal shootings, 21 of those killed were white, nine were black, one was Hispanic and two were American Indians, the data show.
Included on the list of the 33 men killed by officers in 2015 was Eric Harris, who was gunned down in a Tulsa street by an ex-reserve Tulsa sheriff’s deputy who said he mistakenly shot his handgun rather than his stun gun. Harris was unarmed and being restrained on the pavement when he was fatally shot.
The ex-volunteer deputy, Robert Bates, was convicted by a jury of second-degree manslaughter and sentenced in May to four years in prison.
Justin Nix, a use of force expert and an assistant professor at the University of Louisville, urged caution when interpreting the data.
“I’ve seen an argument out there that police are killing more people than ever,” Nix said. “We just didn’t find any evidence of that. It’s actually stayed pretty stable, on the national level, over the last decade or so.”
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Information from: The Oklahoman, https://www.newsok.com
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