Hours after the nation's top law enforcement official pledged Tuesday to stem a surge in police killings across the country, an Athens-Clarke County officer was gunned down in the line of duty.
Coming when it did, the shooting death of senior police officer Elmer "Buddy" Christian seemed to punctuate the serious increase in police deaths that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder pointed to when he offered the full extent of the Justice Department's authority to help protect officers.
"It’s a tragic illustration of the point that the Attorney General was making," Sally Yates, U.S. Attorney for Georgia's Northern District told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wednesday. "It's a really chilling thing. Guns can be purchased almost as easily as gum, and our police officers are being shot at an alarming rate."
Christian was the first Georgia officer killed this year. Nationally, 28 officers have been killed in 2011, versus 20 by the same time last year -- a 40-percent increase.
The trend continues an upsurge that began last year. In 2010, 162 officers were killed, compared to 117 in 2009. That's an increase of 38 percent.
In Georgia, the spike was even more severe. Six officers were gunned down in 2010, a toll that surpassed the four who had been killed in the previous four years.
"These numbers concern me, as they should all Americans," Holder said of the national numbers. “Our law-enforcement officers put themselves in harm’s way every day to ensure the safety and security of the American people in cities and communities across the country, and we need to do everything we can to protect them."
The Justice Department is pushing new laws that will, among other things, give stiffer federal sentences to convicted felons like Christian's accused killer, Jamie Hood, who allegedly was involved in a car-jacking that led to his encounter Tuesday with police.
Holder's so-called Officer Safety Initiative calls on officers and prosecutors to work toward identifying the "worst of the worst" offenders, who cycle in and out of local and state prisons. Those individuals would be recommend for federal charges.
Hood, 33, was released from Macon State Prison in 2009 after serving 11 years for armed robbery, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
Roger Parker, executive director of Georgia C.O.P.S., a nonprofit agency that advocates for the families of slain police, said the efforts Holder is pushing are the same ones his organization supports.
"Police are doing a much better job of trying to protect their officers," Parker said. "More departments make it mandatory to wear their [bullet-proof] vests, and are offering better training."
Polled on Wednesday, police departments from Atlanta, Alpharetta, Gwinnett and Cobb counties and the Georgia State Patrol said they supply officers with the vests that run roughly $500 each, and require those on patrol to wear them.
Holder's plan offers grants for smaller police agencies that can't afford vests.
And training?
"A gunfight is a gunfight," Trooper Lt. Paul Cosper said. "You go back to your training. But you could do everything right, and still be killed."
Even though the number of police deaths increased steeply last year, a University of West Georgia criminologist drew a distinction between this phenomenon and the kind of organized criminal activity responsible for so many police deaths in Mexico.
"This is more of a series of unfortunate occurrences," criminologist David Jenks said. "What we have noticed is that these are repeat offenders that don’t fear reprisal and are trying to get away at all costs. They’ve made a conscious decision to go out and shoot an officer."
Yates said he's already begun doing the work Holder said should start nationwide in the next few months.
"Disturbingly, it seems to be getting easier for criminals to get and pull guns on our law-enforcement officers, with devastating results,” she said. "Gun violence is a serious issue we've got to attack from all angles."
Athens police were looking for Hood Tuesday in connection with a kidnapping and carjacking when they found him and his brother driving a stolen SUV. The driver cooperated with police, but Hood fled, shooting and injuring one officer before encountering Christian driving his patrol car. Hood fired on Christian, killing him.
On Wednesday, 150 police and federal and state officials from 20 agencies within the state continued to search for Hood. The injured officer, Tony Howard, is expected to recover from his wounds, police said.
But Christian's wife and two young children will suffer a permanent loss, one shared by Bill and Tonya LeCroy, whose son, Georgia State Trooper First Class Chad LeCroy, was shot and killed Dec. 27 while chasing Gregory Favors.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with your family through this difficult time," the LeCroys wrote on an online guest book for Christian.
About the Author
