Deadly Encounters
At least 1,050 civilians and law enforcement personnel died in police encounters between George Floyd’s murder and the conviction of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis Police Department officer who killed him.
Chauvin’s conviction is a statistical anomaly. In the 1,127 police killings recorded in 2020, only 16 cases—1.4 percent—resulted in a charge against the offending officer.
Even as jurors were deliberating in the Chauvin trial, a police officer shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio. She was seen charging at someone with a knife on police body cam footage.
Between Floyd’s death and Chauvin’s conviction, at least 979 people were killed in encounters with law enforcement personnel, according to data collected by the Mapping Police Violence website. At the same time, 181 Black people died in police encounters.
Black people are three times more likely to be killed by police than their white counterparts. Twenty-eight percent of people killed by police in 2020 were Black, despite making up only 13 percent of the population.
At least 71 law enforcement personnel have been killed in the line of duty this year, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, underlining the deadly risk police also face in these encounters.
Though only a small portion of all deaths, police are trained aggressively about threats, and a sense of constant vulnerability is instilled in new recruits.
Law professor Rosa Brooks wrote about training as a reserve police officer in Washington, D.C. “The chief lesson learned at the academy was this: Anyone can kill you at any time,” she wrote in Tangled up in Blue. “Dead cops were all heroes. But, it was quietly intimated, they were also failures. Mostly, we were told, they died because they weren’t prepared.”
Law Enforcement
Sergeant Jim Smith (51), Grundy Center, IA Deputy Sheriff Christopher Knight (30), Macon, GA Lieutenant James Kouski (58), Hometown, IL Police Officer William Evans (41), Washington, D.C. Trooper Chad Walker (38), Mexia, TX Trooper Joseph Gallagher (38), Brentwood, NY Corporal Kyle Davis (38), Bartlesville, OK Correctional Officer Robert McFarland (46), Anamosa, IA Police Officer Eric Talley (51), Boulder, CO Border Patrol Agent Alejandro Flores-Bañuelos (35), Salton City, CA Police Officer Gary Hibbs, Chicago Heights, IL Police Officer Jesse Madsen (45), Tampa, FL Police Officer Jose Anzora (31), Los Angeles, CA Captain Justin Bedwell (48), Brinson, GA Reserve Deputy Constable Martinus Mitchum (38), New Orleans, LA; Police Officer Nick Winum (48), Stanley, WV Lieutenant Eugene Lasco (57), Michigan City, IN Deputy Sheriff Michael Magli (30), Clearwater, FL Police Officer Mitchell Penton (27), Dallas, TX Patrolman Darian Jarrott (28), Deming, NM Special Agent Laura Schwartzenberger (43), Sunrise, FL; Special Agent Daniel Alfin (36), Sunrise, FL Lieutenant Michael Boutte, Necaise, MS Deputy Sheriff Adam Gibson (31), Sacramento, CA; Police Officer Brandon Stalker (24), Toledo, OH Corporal Christine Peters (49), Greenbelt, MD Police Officer Melton Gore (57), Myrtle Beach, SC Master Corporal Brian LaVigne (54), Brandon, FL; Agent Luis Marrero-Díaz (43), Carolina, PR; Agent Luis Salamán-Conde, Carolina, PR; Agent Eliezer Hernández-Cartagena, Carolina, PR 01/02/2021 Sergeant Daniel Mobley (44), Atlanta, GA Jason Shuping (25), Charlotte, NC Police Officer Tyler Herndon (25), Belmont, NC Patrolman Cassie Johnson (28), Charleston, WV Sergeant Herschel Turner, St. Louis, MO Police Officer Travis Wallace (41), West Helena, AR Sergeant Sean Rios (47), Houston, TX Police Officer Marshall Waters (49), Mangham, LA Sergeant Conley Jumper (52), Greenville, SC; Sergeant Harold Preston (65), Houston, TX Detective Curt Holland (37), Denver, CO; Investigator Lemuel Bruce (44), Houston, TX Detective Kevin Collins (35), Pine Bluff, AR Police Officer Jacob Hancher (23), Myrtle Beach, SC Sergeant Alvin Sugrañes-Lebrón (37), Guayama, PR Deputy Sheriff Ryan Hendrix (35), Mountain Home, TN Investigator Mario Herrera (50), Lincoln, NE Captain Stan Elrod (49), Danielsville, GA; Detective James Skernivitz (53), Cleveland, OH Corporal Bryant Searcy (50), Detroit, MI Police Officer Tamarris Bohannon (29), St. Louis, MO Police Officer Bryan Brown (57), Why, AZ Sergeant Ricardo Perez-Ortiz (52), San Juan, PR Police Officer Sheena Yarbrough-Powell (37), Beaumont, TX Trooper Caleb Starr (33), Boston Township, MI Deputy Sheriff Dylan Pickle (24), Hamilton, MS Deputy Sheriff Bill Garner (53), Carnesville, GA Police Officer Edelmiro Garza (35), McAllen, Police Officer Anthony Dia (26), Toledo, OH Sergeant Craig Johnson (45), Tulsa, OK Police Officer Destin Legieza (30), Brentwood, TN Wildlife Officer Julian Keen (30), Port La Belle, FL Police Officer Dale Provins (50), Pittsburgh, PA Deputy Sheriff James Blair (77), Mendenhall, MS Sergeant Damon Gutzwiller (38), Ben Lomond, CA; Animal Control Officer Darrian Young (24), Monroe, MI Lieutenant Stephen Williams (50), Moody, AL Police Officer Nate Lyday (24), Ogden, UT 05/27/2020 Police Officer Cody Holte (29), Grand Forks, ND.
