Fifty-seven police officers feloniously were killed in the line of duty during 2007, according to preliminary statistics released yesterday by the FBI, which also said 83 officers died in accidents.
The 140 deaths for 2007, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, are up from 2006. That year, 114 police officers died in the line of duty — 48 officers who were shot, stabbed or otherwise assaulted and 66 who died in accidents.
Regionally, those killed last year included Baltimore Police Department Det. Lamont Chesley Sr., who died Jan. 9 in a gunfight; Campbell County, Va., Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Lee Saunders, who died April 3 during a vehicle pursuit; Metropolitan Police Department Officer Wayne Pitt, who died April 10 in an automobile crash; and Montgomery County Police Officer Luke T. Hoffman, who died April 25 when he was struck by a vehicle.
Other local deaths were Howard County Police Department Cpl. Scott Wheeler, who died June 18, when he was struck by a vehicle; Stafford County, Va., Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Edward Mooney, who died Oct. 19 in an automobile crash; and Smithsburg, Md., Police Department Officer Christopher Nicholson, who died Dec. 19, 2007, in a gunfight.
Geographically, 31 of the officers who were feloniously killed died in Southern states, nine in the West, nine in the Midwest and seven in the Northeast. One officer was slain in Puerto Rico.
The preliminary report said that by circumstance, 16 deaths occurred as a result of ambush situations, 16 died during arrest situations, 11 were killed while handling traffic pursuits/stops, six died responding to disturbance calls, three while investigating suspicious persons or circumstances, three during tactical situations, one while conducting investigative activities, and one while handling and transporting prisoners.
A breakdown of weapons used in these slayings said firearms were used in the majority of incidents, the report said. Of the 55 officers killed with firearms, it said 38 were killed with handguns, nine with shotguns and eight with rifles. Two officers were killed with vehicles.
At the time they were killed, 35 law-enforcement officers were wearing body armor. Eleven officers fired their weapons, and 14 of those slain attempted to fire their weapons. The report also said that four officers had their weapons stolen and that two officers were slain with their own weapons.
The 57 law-enforcement officers were killed in 51 separate incidents in 2007. Fifty of the 51 incidents have been cleared by arrest or exceptional means.
In 2005, 55 police officers were killed feloniously in the lines of duty 67 died in accidents for a total of 122.
The FBI will release final statistics in the Uniform Crime Reporting Program’s annual report, Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, which will be published on the Internet in the fall.
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