WASHINGTON — More people across the country have been shot and killed by police this year than at this point last year, despite an increase in officers wearing body cameras.
Through the first half of the year, a Washington Post analysis found that 491 people were killed, a 6 percent increase over last year.
The paper also found the number of officers killed in the line of duty is up compared with last year, and more officers are facing prosecution in police-involved shootings.
There have been seven fatal shootings involving police in the D.C. metro area.
Two shootings happened in Prince George’s County, Maryland — one in which an undercover cop was mistaken for a suspect. In another, Greenbelt police say a man was shooting at police from a balcony.
Three shootings happened in D.C., including one last week after a man shot at police near the Deanwood Metro station.
Last month, a man had a gun, refused to drop it and pointed it at officers; earlier in the year, a man dropped a BB gun that looked like a semi-automatic rifle when he tripped and tried to scramble for it.
In Virginia, a man shot and killed his neighbor in Culpeper County, then brandished his gun at responding deputies. And in March, a man drove away from a traffic stop in Fredericksburg and dragged the officer with his car.
There have been seven fatal police shootings in Maryland and 13 in Virginia, most of those happening in the Hampton Roads area.
More of these incidents across the country are being captured on body cameras, but experts say while they have improved low pressure situations, an officer’s instinctual response to danger likely won’t be tampered by the use of the cameras.
