Tulsa officer dies, line of duty deaths up 46 percent in 2020

One of two Tulsa police officers shot during a traffic stop has died while the other remains in critical condition, reports Fox News 23.

Sgt. Johnson and Officer Zarkeshan pulled over David Ware, 32, for an expired tag. According to Fox News 23, the officers asked Ware to leave the car, but Ware refused. When the officers attempted to remove him from the car, Ware allegedly produced a handgun and shot both officers multiple times.

Ware fled in another vehicle with an accomplice and led Tulsa police on a seven-hour manhunt that eventually ended in his arrest.

“David Ware, 32, was arrested Monday in the shooting and faces a first-degree murder charge and two other felony charges, shooting with intent to kill and possession of a firearm after former conviction of a felony, according to an online court record from the Oklahoma State Courts Network,” reported CNN.

Sgt. Johnson had a wife and two young sons.

So far this year, 114 police officers have died in the line of duty nationally, a rate that represents a 46 percent increase over last year when 148 officers died in the line of duty over a 12-month period, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.  

Statistics from the FBI say that in 2019, white officers were almost six times more likely to be killed than Black officers, and the majority of officers are killed while in vehicles.  

Although statistics are readily available to track the victims of crime — and even victims of crimes by police — few resources are devoted to tracking crimes against police.

“Generally … national data is not well or consistently collected regarding assaults on officers, particularly those that do not involve the use of a weapon that could have caused injuries or those that do not result in injuries to officers,” says the Police Data Initiative, a group that collects data on police assaults.  

In February of this year, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall struck back at those who just concentrate on over-crowded prisons and police-reform and ignore the victims of violence, including the police officers who suffer from assault.

“This is the most members of Alabama law enforcement ever murdered in less than a 13-month period. The wave of senseless deaths over the past year cannot be the wave of the future in this state,” Marshall said.

“We spend hours and hours … talking about overcrowded prisons and very little talking about victims … I submit to you, Alabama does not have an incarceration problem, we have a crime problem,” Marshall concluded.

The FBI attempts to collect data about crimes against police through the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) Program, but the data is poorly reported by police departments.

PHOTO: Mike Simons/Tulsa World, via Associated Press

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