The deadly shooting of unarmed Black people by police officers in the U.S. has increasingly garnered worldwide attention over the last few years. Since 2015, police officers have fatally shot at least 135 unarmed Black people nationwide, an NPR investigation has found (article and audio report available here).
The majority of officers were white and for at least 15 of them, the shootings were not their first or last, NPR found. They have been involved in two--sometimes three or more--shootings, often deadly and without consequences.
Among NPR's other findings:
- At least six officers had troubled pasts before being hired onto police departments, including drug use and domestic violence. One officer had been fired from another law enforcement agency and at least two others were forced out.
- Several officers were convicted of crimes while on the force, such as battery, and resisting and obstructing, but kept their jobs. In one instance, officials in a tiny Louisiana parish repeatedly fired and rehired a deputy who got into trouble with the law: three times over 30 years, records show.
- More than two dozen officers have racked up citizen complaints or use of force incidents. A Fort Lauderdale police officer had 82 reviews for use of force incidents but was never found in violation; a Vineland, New Jersey officer had more than three dozen use of force incidents over a five-year period.
- Several officers have violated their department policies and been cited for ethics violations, including a Hollywood, Florida officer accused of trying to steer business to his company, and an Arizona state trooper accused of misuse of state property.
Nineteen of the officers involved in deadly shootings were rookies, with less than a year on the force. One was on the job for four hours; another for four days. More than a quarter of the killings occurred during traffic stops, and 24 of the dead --18 percent--suffered from mental illness. The youngest person shot was a 15-year-old Balch Springs, Texas high-school freshman who played on the football team. The oldest was a 62-year-old man killed in his Los Angeles County home. Nearly 60 percent of the shootings occurred in the South, with more than a quarter in Texas, Georgia and Louisiana, NPR found.
The killings have led to at least 30 judgments and settlements totaling more than $142 million, records show. Dozens of lawsuits and claims are pending.
Not every law enforcement agency releases detailed information about police shootings. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the Kansas City Police Department, for example, refused to release specifics such as officer names or their race, citing open investigations.