Number of Fatal Shootings by NYPD Officers Increased in 2012, New Report Says

A new police report shows that New York City police officers shot and killed 16 people in 2012, which was a significant jump from the previous year. The number coincides with the highest number of officers wounded by gunfire while on duty since the late 1990s. 

According to a NYPD report released Tuesday, more people died from police gunfire in the last year than during any previous year of the Bloomberg administration, The New York Times confirms. There was only  slight increase in the number of people hit by police gunfire, however; 30 were hit last year, compared with 28 in 2011. 

Last year's shootings included some of the most high profile fatal shootings in recent years, including that of Ramarley Graham, an unarmed 18-year-old who was killed by an officer inside a home in the Bronx. Another incident included the killing of two armed suspects in separate confrontations with the police last summer in Midtown Manhattan. 

One of the Midtown shootings, which occurred in front of the Empire State Building, resulted in nine bystanders being hit by police bullets and fragments. The report lists 10 bystanders struck by police bullets fired at suspects and another four people struck, one fatally, when an officer's gun was fired by accident. 

No officers were killed during confrontations with suspects. 

The 74-page report is an annual report that reports each instance in which NYPD officers discharged their weapons, no matter what the reason, Complex reports.  

A total of 105 incidents were included in the report, and 54 were done in what is described as "adversarial contact" with a suspect. Such instances are scrutinized heavily by the department in the report, which describes the legal context for the use of deadly force. 

The report found that in most instances, the suspects were armed and the officers were within their rights to open fire. A total of 331 rounds were fired in 2012, which is an increase over 311 the previous year. Yet, the report documents that the number is inflated due to a long shootout in which 84 shots were fired by officers at a suspect after a murder in Washington Heights. 

It was found that for the third year in a row, uniformed officers were more likely to be involved in the shootings than individuals in plainclothes. 

There were 13 officers shot in 2012, but not all incidents involved the police returning fire. The last time the number of officers shot exceeded 13 was in 1997 when 27 officers were shot, with four shot fatally.