Law Enforcement Officers Feloniously Killed

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This page provides information about duly sworn local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement officers who were feloniously killed in the line of duty during 2005 and met certain other criteria.

Overview

• 55 law enforcement officers were killed in 53 separate incidents.
• The majority (36) of the 55 officers feloniously killed were employed by city police departments.
• Line-of-duty deaths occurred in 24 states and in Puerto Rico. (Based on Table 1.)

More information about these topics (including annual totals from 1996 to 2005) is provided in Tables 1 and 2.

Victim profile

• 37 years old—the average age of officers who were feloniously killed.
• 10 years—the slain officers’ average length of law enforcement service.
• 54 of the slain officers were male.
• 47 of the victim officers were white; 8 were black.

More information about these topics is provided in Tables 6, 7, 10, and 11.

Circumstances

• 15 officers were feloniously killed during traffic pursuits or traffic stops.
• 8 officers were slain during arrest situations.
• 8 officers were killed when ambushed.

More information about this topic (including a complete breakdown of the types of circumstances in which officers were feloniously killed) is provided in Table 20.

Assignments

• 34 of the victim officers were on assigned vehicle patrol.
• 6 of the victim officers were off duty but acting in an official capacity.
• 15 of the slain officers were assigned to “other” duties at the time of the fatal incidents; 3 of them were alone when attacked.

More about this topic is provided in Table 24.

10-year data on assignments of the officers feloniously killed is provided in Table 26.

Weapons

• 50 of the 55 officers killed in the line of duty were murdered with firearms.

(A breakdown of the types of firearms used in these slayings is provided in Tables 28 and 34.)

• 5 officers were killed with vehicles that were used as weapons.
• 15 officers fired their own weapons during the incidents that led to their deaths; 6 officers attempted to use their own weapons.
• 31 incidents involving firearms occurred when the distance between the offender and the victim was 5 feet or less.

More information about these topics is provided in Tables 13, 28, and 35.

Body armor

• 30 of the 50 officers killed with firearms were wearing body armor when they were fatally wounded.
• Of the 30 officers who were wearing body armor (based on Table 36):
• 18 officers suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the front, back, or side of the head.
• 9 officers were mortally wounded from shots to the torso.
• (A breakdown about where bullets circumvented or penetrated body armor is provided in Table 38.)
• 3 officers succumbed to gunshot wounds to the neck/throat.

More information about this topic (including annual totals from 1996 through 2005) is provided in Tables 36, 37, and 38.

Regional and outlying area breakdowns

Of the 55 officers who were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2005:

• 28 officers were employed in the South.
• 10 officers were employed in the Midwest.
• 10 officers were employed in the West.
• 5 officers were employed in the Northeast.
• 2 officers were employed in Puerto Rico.

More about this topic (including annual totals from 1996 to 2005) is provided in Table 1.

Months, days, and times of incidents

• More officers (7 in each month) died from felonious assaults that occurred in August and November than in any other month.
• More officers (10) were involved in fatal assaults that occurred on Thursday than on any other day.
• The fewest number of officers (5) died from felonious assaults that occurred on Wednesdays.
• More officers (10) were fatally injured in assaults that happened from 10:01 p.m. to midnight than at any other time period.

More information about these topics (including annual totals from 1996 to 2005) is provided in Tables 3, 4, and 5.

Profile of alleged assailants

• 30 years old—the average age of alleged offenders.
• 5 feet 10 inches/175 pounds—the average height and weight of the alleged offenders.
• All 57 of the alleged assailants were male.
• 36 of the 57 known offenders were white; 21 were black.
• Of the 57 men arrested and accused of the murders of a law enforcement officer, 54 had previous criminal arrests.

More information about these topics is provided in Tables 40, 41, 42, and 44.

 

• Summaries of Officers Killed, by State
• Methodology
• Criteria

• Roll over table numbers for table titles

• Table 1
• Table 2
• Table 3
• Figure 1
• Table 4
• Figure 2
• Table 5
• Table 6
• Table 7
• Table 8
• Table 9
• Table 10
• Table 11
• Figure 3
• Table 12
• Table 13
• Table 14
• Table 15
• Table 16
• Table 17
• Table 18
• Table 19
• Table 20
• Table 21
• Figure 4
• Table 22
• Table 23
• Table 24
• Table 25
• Table 26
• Table 27
• Table 28
• Figure 5
• Table 29
• Table 30
• Table 31
• Table 32
• Table 33
• Table 34
• Table 35
• Table 36
• Table 37
• Table 38
• Table 39
• Table 40
• Table 41
• Table 42
• Table 43
• Table 44
• Table 45

Release Date: October 2006