Gun-related police officer fatalities in the first half of 2016 were up significantly compared to the same period in 2015, according to data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
The fatal shootings of three officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Sunday brought the number of officers killed by guns this year to 31, compared to 18 at this point in 2015, an increase of 72 percent.
The overall number of officers deaths is roughly the same — 60 in the first half of 2016, compared to 62 in the first half of 2015 — but this year, gun-related fatalities accounted for more than half of officers deaths, while accounting for less than a third of officer deaths in 2015.
Three police officers were killed, and three more wounded, in Baton Rouge on Sunday. The gunman, identified as Gavin E. Long, was killed in a shootout with police. The shooter had expressed outrage on social media over the death of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man who was shot and killed earlier this month by Baton Rouge police after being pinned down.
The cop shootings in Baton Rouge came less than two weeks after a similar incident in Dallas, Texas, where five officers were killed when gunman Micah Xavier Johnson opened fire during a protest against police violence. Johnson was ultimately killed by a robot bomb.
