Report: Gun deaths of officers jump 56 percent

12/30/2014

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new report finds that the number of law-enforcement officers killed by firearms jumped by 56 percent in 2014.

The annual report released Tuesday by the nonprofit National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund found that 50 officers were killed by guns this year, compared to 32 in 2013.

In all, the report says 126 federal, local, tribal and territorial officers were killed in the line of duty. That's a 24 percent jump from last year's 102 line-of-duty deaths. Shootings were the leading cause. The second was traffic-related fatalities.

Of gun-related deaths among officers, the report found that 15 were ambush assaults, matching 2012 for the highest total since 1995.

The states that saw the most officer deaths were California, at 14, Texas, at 11, and New York, at nine.

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