NCJ Number
105676
Journal
American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1986) Pages: 39-45
Date Published
1986
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This analysis of police killings of criminal suspects in metropolitan Dade County, Fla., from 1956 to 1982 focuses on victim demographics, Spanish surname, detection of alcohol or drugs in the victim at the autopsy, victim's prior criminal arrest record, reason for the shooting, and the police agencies involved.
Abstract
Over the past 27 years, 6,185 homicides were investigated by the Dade County Medical Examiner Department. Of these, 194 were police killings of criminal suspects. All the victims were males, and 83.5 percent were between the ages of 14 and 36 years old. Overall, Spanish-surnamed victims were a minority, but their representation has been increasing in recent years in correlation with the larger proportion of Spanish surnames in the general population. There is no indication that Hispanics are disproportionately killed by police. The majority of victims died from a single gunshot wound, but multiple gunshot wounds have tended to occur in recent years. In 87.6 percent of the cases, police were involved in regular crime control duties when the shootings occurred, usually in response to life-threatening attacks on police or to a crime being committed. The agencies involved were predominantly the Miami Police Department and the Dade County Sheriff's Department. Alcohol was detected in the victim about 40 percent of the time, and drugs were detected in 15.5 percent of the cases. 12 tables, appended medical examiner procedures for police shootings, and 4 references.