A New York Daily News investigation found that at least 179 people were killed by on-duty NYPD officers over the past 15 years. Just three of the deaths have led to an indictment in state court. In another case, a judge threw out the indictment on technical grounds and it was not reinstated. Only one officer who killed someone while on duty has been convicted, but he was not sentenced to jail time.
The cases begin with the 1999 slaying of unarmed Amadou Diallo in a hail of bullets and end with last month's shooting death of Akai Gurley, another unarmed man who police say was hit by a ricocheting bullet fired by a rookie cop in a darkened housing project stairwell in Brooklyn. The News said 27 percent of people killed by cops since 1999 were unarmed and, in cases where race was known, 86 percent were black or Hispanic. Twenty-one people were killed by cops in 2012, the highest total during the 15-year span.