Page:Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted 1997.pdf/8

 not reported for 1 suspect. Thirty-five of the suspects were white and 29 were black. Forty-two of the 71 alleged assailants were under the age of 31. (See Table 20.)

Fifty-four of the suspects identified had previous arrests and 51 had prior convictions. The records showed that 26 suspects had previous arrests for weapons violations, 23 for crimes of violence, and 13 for assaulting an officer or resisting arrest. (See Table 20.)

Of the 70 persons identified, 50 have been arrested by law enforcement agencies. Eleven committed suicide subsequent to slaying the officers, 8 were justifiably killed (2 by victim officers), and 1 is a fugitive. No suspects have been identified in connection with 1 slaying.

Dispositions of 967 persons identified in connection with officers’ murders during the decade 1986-1995 were reviewed. Of the 967 persons identified, 775 were arrested and charged; 118 were justifiably killed; 1 was murdered in an unrelated incident; 62 committed suicide; and 11 remain fugitives. Eighteen cases from that same timeframe are still pending. (See Table 21.)

Among those persons charged for whom final disposition is known, 70 percent were found guilty of murder; 9 percent were found guilty of a lesser offense related to murder; and 6 percent were found guilty of some crime other than murder. Nine percent of the suspects were acquitted or had charges against them dismissed, 2 percent were committed to psychiatric institutions, and 2 percent of the cases remain pending or the disposition is unknown. One percent of the persons charged with the officers’ murders died in custody before final disposition was determined. Less than 1 percent of the persons charged either received probation or their sentences are indeterminate.

Available data revealed that 113 of the 539 offenders found guilty of murder were sentenced to death, 248 received life imprisonment, and 173 were given prison terms ranging from 2 to 396 years. One was placed on probation, and 4 were given indeterminate sentences.

Weapons

Firearms claimed the lives of 92 percent of the 688 officers killed in the line of duty from 1988 through 1997. Seventy-two percent of the murders were committed by the use of handguns, 15 percent by rifles, 5 percent by shotguns, and 8 percent by other weapons. (See Table 3.)

Sixty-two officers were slain with their own weapons during the 10-year period. In the same timeframe, 168 officers fired their service weapons, and the weapons of 113 officers were stolen.

More than half of the officers killed by gunshot wounds during this 10-year period were within 5 feet of their assailants at the time of the attack. (See Table 5.) Forty-eight percent of the firearm fatalities were caused by wounds to the head, 45 percent by upper torso wounds, and 6 percent by wounds below the waist. (See Table 6.)

During 1997, firearms were used in 62 of the 65 slayings. Handguns were the murder weapons in 44 of the killings, rifles in 12, and shotguns in 6. Three officers were shot with their own service weapons. (See Table 4.)

The most common handgun cartridge types used against officers in 1997 were the .38 caliber and 9 millimeter. These two weapons jointly accounted for 43 percent of the handgun deaths. (See Table 4.)