Six hundred and seventy-four police officers have been killed in the line of duty in Georgia, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a nonprofit which maintains a nationwide list of such deaths dating back to 1791.
Det. Terence Avery Green, a 22-year veteran of the Fulton County Police Department, is the latest victim: He was killed early Wednesday in what officials described as an ambush-style attack. According to his Facebook, he was 48.
The suspected shooter, Amanuel Menghesha, was wounded by return fire from other officers and taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he was described as alert and conscious.
The most frequent cause of officer deaths in Georgia, according to the ODMP, is gunfire (390 victims) -- followed by automobile and motorcycle accidents (93 and 42, respectively), vehicle pursuits (34) and vehicular assaults (29).
Some of the state's most populous counties also see the most victims: 82 officers in the Atlanta Police Department have been killed, followed by 29 officers in the DeKalb County Department and 26 officers in Savannah Police Department. Twenty-six troopers in the Georgia State Patrol have been killed.
Since 2010, five metro Atlanta officers have been shot and killed in the line of duty.
Green's death echoes the December "assasination" of two New York City police officers who were shot and killed as they sat in their squad car -- a high-profile attack that struck at the heart of the NYC department and others across the country. "I want to go home to my wife and kids," one officer told the New York Post. "I am concerned about my safety."
Green's death is the first from intentional gunfire in 2015, nationwide, according to Steve Weiss, the ODMP's director of research. His is also the first death from intentional gunfire in 66 days, Weiss said -- an "unprecedented" gap. (A Mississippi Gaming Commission director was killed on Jan. 21 during a training exercise, when another agent's firearm accidentally discharged.)
According to author and journalist Radley Balko, policing is as safe as it's ever been, historically: "In terms of raw number of deaths, 2013 was the safest year for cops since World War II. If we look at the rate of deaths, 2013 was the safest year for police in well over a century," he wrote in the Washington Post in October, then projecting that 2014 would be "the second safest year for cops in terms of raw fatalities since 1959."
About the Author
