Grim Trend Continues: Ambushes of Police Officers

Such attacks account for at least two dozen fatalities so far this year
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 16, 2022 9:45 AM CDT
Grim Trend Continues: Ambushes of Police Officers
Police officers from towns across Connecticut stand at the scene where two police officers were killed this week in Bristol, Conn.   (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

The shooting deaths of two Connecticut officers and wounding of a third punctuated an especially violent week for police across the US and fit into a grim pattern: Even as more officers left their jobs in the past two years, the number targeted and killed rose. According to organizations that track violence against police, 56 officers have been killed by gunfire this year—14% more than this time last year and about 45% ahead of 2020's pace, per the AP. The country is on track for the deadliest year since 67 officers were killed in 2016.

While the figures include a few officers killed by accidental gunfire, the number of ambushes in which police were injured or killed in surprise attacks with little chance to defend themselves has soared since 2020 and accounts for nearly half the officers killed this year. Such an attack apparently struck Wednesday in Bristol, Connecticut, where the state police said Bristol Police Sgt. Dustin Demonte and Officer Alex Hamzy were killed and Officer Alec Iurato was wounded when they responded to a 911 call that appears to have been “a deliberate act to lure law enforcement to the scene.”

In all, at least 11 police officers were shot around the country this week, including one fatally in Greenville, Mississippi, and another in Las Vegas. The Fraternal Order of Police reported that through Sept. 30 of this year, there had been 63 ambush-style attacks in which officers were wounded, with 93 officers shot, 24 fatally. That’s a lower number of such attacks than the first nine months of 2021, when there were 75 ambushes of officers, with 93 shot and 21 killed. The total number of ambushes in which police were hurt last year more than doubled from 2020.

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“Those are really scary numbers for law enforcement, not just for individual officers, but for the organizations they work for, which have to be taking this into account as they’re hiring, retaining and training officers,” said Bill Alexander, executive director of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, which tracks officer deaths in the line of duty. The increase in ambushes and killings of police comes at a time when many departments around the country face staffing shortages, with some agencies down hundreds of officers and struggling to fill vacancies.

(More police stories.)

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