Fifty police officers in the U.S. were killed by guns this year, up from 32 last year, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund said today. In all, 126 federal, local, tribal and territorial officers were killed in the line of duty, the Associated Press reports. That’s a 24 percent jump from last year’s 102 line-of-duty deaths. Shootings were the leading cause. The second was traffic-related fatalities.
Of gun-related deaths 15 were ambush assaults, matching 2012 for the highest total since 1995. The states with the most officer deaths were California, at 14, Texas, at 11, and New York, at nine.