As of Friday, United States police officers shot and killed 957 people in 2016, according to a Washington Post database that tracks police shooting incidents throughout the year. Although the number is still considerably high, it’s still 36 deaths shy of 2015’s number of people shot and killed by police, which accounted for 991 deaths.Along with more deaths in 2015, there were more black people shot and killed by police last year. In 2015, 258 black people were shot and killed by cops while only 228 black people were shot and killed in 2016.
The number of Hispanics shot and killed by police was higher in 2015 as well. There were 156 people who were fatally shot by officers in 2016 while 2015 saw 16 more deaths of Hispanic people, amounting to 172 Hispanics shot and killed by cops.
More white people were also killed by police gunfire in 2015. There were 462 white people shot and killed by officers in 2016, including the death of a 71-year-old white woman in Texas, who was gunned down by police Tuesday. There were 33 more white people shot and killed in 2015, though, accounting for 495 deaths.
Despite more people being fatally shot by officers in 2015, there were more police officers shot and killed in 2016 compared to 2015.
Jody Smith, an officer at Georgia Southwestern State University, was the most recent cop killed during a line of duty on Dec. 8. He was shot along with fellow officer Nicholas Smarr, who died just the day before from injuries while answering a domestic violence call.
Smith was the 64th officer to be killed from a firearm-related incident in 2016, increasing the total number of overall police officer fatalities to 135, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF), a database that tracks the death toll of police officers nationwide. Last year only saw 123 officer fatalities with 41 deaths caused by firearm related events.
