Cops shoot and kill 463 "suspects" so far in 2015

Police shot and killed more people in July than any other month so far this year

By Wesley Lowery August 3 Follow @WesleyLowery
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/08/03/police-shot-and-killed-more-people-in-july-than-any-other-month-so-far-this-year/



A frame grab from a body camera video released July 29 by the Office of the Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney shows University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing with his gun drawn as he approaches the vehicle containing the body of Samuel DuBose after shooting him during a traffic stop in Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 19. (Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney’s office via EPA)

More people were shot and killed by on-duty police officers in July than in any other month so far in 2015.

At least 103 people were shot and killed by police officers last month, according to a Washington Post database tracking all fatal on-duty police shootings this year. That is 13 more fatal police shootings than March, the second most deadly month, during which 90 people were shot and killed by police.

As of today, The Post has tracked 570 fatal police shootings. (Read more about the methodology here.)



July joins April as the only two months so far this year with at least one fatal police shooting every day, and there were 14 days in July with four or more shootings — including July 7, which had eight.

Of those killed in July, 87 of the 103 were armed, and in 17 shootings mental illness was a factor.

Of the 103 victims of fatal police shootings, only one was a woman — 44-year-old Tamala Satre, a white woman who was shot and killed July 23, 2015, in a house in Meadow Vista, Calif., after officers received a call about a suicidal person. After they arrived, police say, Satre pulled out a .38-caliber handgun and ignored orders to drop her weapon.

The number of fatal shootings by police so far this year tracked by The Post far exceeds the figures reported by the FBI for any single year since 1976. The federal data, which officials acknowledge is incomplete, has never recorded more than 460 fatal police shootings in an entire year, The Post identified 463 such shootings in just the first six months of 2015.
Related:

The Post’s database on police shootings

How The Post is tracking these shootings

Since 1976, the FBI hasn’t counted more than 460 fatal police shootings in a year. We’ve counted 463 already in 2015.

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Police officers shot and killed more people so far in July than during any other week this year
Wesley Lowery is a national reporter covering law enforcement and justice for the Washington Post. He previously covered Congress and national politics.