The number of people killed by the law enforcement agencies in the United States has reached 1000 on Sunday, according to a much-talked-about database by The Guardian.
A man shot in Oakland, California became the 1,000th database entry in The Counted, an ongoing investigation by the Guardian to record every fatality caused by police and other law enforcement officers in 2015, to monitor the demographics of the people who died and detail how and why they were killed.
Authorities said several officers opened fire on the man on Sunday evening when he walked toward them with a replica gun as they towed away cars that had been used to perform some stunts in east Oakland.
“Officers working ‘sideshow’ (the stunt’s name) approached by subject who pointed firearm in their direction,” the Oakland police department said on Twitter. “Officers fatally shot subject.”
A spokeswoman said the department would investigate the shooting itself. Oakland police didn’t release the ill-fated man’s name.
Sunday’s incident was the 883rd fatal shooting by a law enforcement officer so far in 2015, according to the Guardian’s records. Another 47 people died after being shocked with taser guns, 33 died after being ran down by law enforcement officer’s vehicle, and 36 were killed in custody. Another received deadly blow to the head during a fight with an officer.
The US government publishes no comprehensive record of people killed by law enforcement, even after a series of controversial deaths unleashed a national protest movement and demands from activists and lawmakers alike for better data on the subject.
However, US attorney general, Loretta Lynch on October 5 announced launching of a new open-source system to count killings by police around the country, by procuring open-sourced records, such as media reports of officer-involved deaths, and then move towards verifying facts about the incident by surveying local police departments, medical examiner’s offices and investigative offices. The Department of Justice’s programme is identical to The Guardian’s along with the Washington Post’s police shootings count.
The Guardian reported that an analysis of the statistics collected so far found the rate of deaths currently stands at 3.1 per day. This rate has remained relatively steady throughout the year, peaking through the month of March to a daily rate of almost four and dipping to an average of 2.6 through June.