Wesley Lowery / The Washington Post – 2015-09-21 23:41:50

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/09/17/on-duty-police-officers-have-shot-and-killed-more-than-700-people-this-year/

On-duty Police Officers Have Shot and Killed More Than 700 People this Year
Wesley Lowery / The Washington Post

(September 17, 2015) — The tally of people shot and killed by on-duty police officers passed 700 on Wednesday night — a fatal milestone that is almost double the highest number of police shootings ever reported by the FBI for an entire year — according to a Washington Post database tracking all shootings death at the hands of police this year.

The 700th fatal police shooting of the year occurred Tuesday afternoon when officers in Los Angeles shot and killed 32-year-old Florencio Chaidez, who they say was armed with a gun. Officers had gotten a call about someone disturbing the peace, and they say that when they arrived they discovered Chaidez, who matched the description of the man they were looking for.

Officers say the man then produced a gun, however they have released few details and have not released body camera footage.

As of Thursday morning, The Posthas tracked 703 fatal police shootings.

Of the 703 people who have been shot and killed by officers in 2015, the vast majority have been armed with either a gun or other potentially-deadly weapon. At least 65 of those shot and killed were unarmed.

Federal data on police shootings is notoriously inaccurate and incomplete — in large part because the data they collect is voluntarily reported, and most police departments do not participate. The FBI has never recorded more than 460 fatal police shootings in any year going back to at least 1976.

The Post, relying on public documents, local news coverage and original reporting had confirmed 463 such shootings in just the first six months of the year.

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