The sniper-style ambush killings of five police officers Thursday evening in Dallas is the deadliest mass shooting of law enforcement in 84 years.
The massacre brought the number of on-duty officers who have been shot and killed this year to 25 — up from 16 at this point last year. Ten of this year’s slain officers died in ambush attacks, concealed or unexpected assaults designed to catch law enforcement off guard.
The killings in Dallas have a particular resonance within the Harford County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland. It has been five months since two deputies there were unexpectedly shot and killed after they responded to a call about a dangerous man seen at a shopping mall.
“To hear that this many officers have lost their lives and others are still fighting for their life, it’s a horrible thing,” Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said. “It’s a new normal, and I think we figure out minute by minute how to adjust to it.”
Since 2005, according to FBI data, about 20 percent of fatal shootings of police have been ambushes. Fatal shootings of police are up over last year, but the FBI data shows that the rate this year is in line with previous years over the past decade, which have averaged 53 killings a year.
The slain officers identified in Thursday’s killings are Dallas Police Officers Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Michael Smith and Lorne Ahrens, and Dallas Area Rapid Transit Officer Brent Thompson. Seven other officers were wounded.
“These officers were killed because of the uniform they wear, because of the job they do,” said Craig Floyd, president and CEO of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. “They are the most visible and vulnerable symbol of government and authority. And they are being targeted by weak-minded individuals who are easily influenced by a lot of anti-cop, anti-government rhetoric we have been hearing.”
The gunman, Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, of Mesquite, Texas, was killed by police with a bomb robot. Before he died, Johnson told police he was acting alone and wanted to kill “white people,” especially police, in the wake of two recent shootings by police of black men in Minnesota and Louisiana.
Other officers who were fatally shot this year:
Thomas Cottrell, 34, an officer in Danville, Ohio, was shot and killed on Jan. 17 in an ambush attack behind the police station where he worked. Police dispatchers received a tip from a female caller telling them that Danville officers “were in danger” because her ex-boyfriend had “left with weapons and was looking to kill an officer.” Cottrell’s body was found 27 minutes after that 911 call.
Ashley Guindon, 28, a Prince William County police officer, died Feb. 27 while responding to a domestic disturbance call. The gunman, an Army sergeant, first shot and killed his wife and then turned his gun on Guindon. She had been sworn in the previous day and was working her first shift as an officer.
The last mass shooting of police took place Nov. 29, 2009, when four officers in Lakewood, Wash., died after a lone gunman entered a coffee shop and opened fire on them as they worked on their laptop computers, preparing for their shifts. That same year, on March 21, four police officers in Oakland, Calif., were shot and killed by another lone gunman.
The Dallas shooting is the worst single mass shooting of police since Jan. 2, 1932, when six Missouri law enforcement officers died in a shootout after they attempted to apprehend two murder suspects in what became known as the Young Brothers Massacre.
Family members of officers killed in earlier shootings said Thursday’s incident — and the renewed protests and outrage this week over police use of force — have opened up old wounds.
