Suspects shot by San Diego County law enforcement officers over a 20-year period were mostly young, white males who suffered from mental illness, were under the influence of drugs or both, a county report released Thursday shows.
The study from the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office found 367 suspects were shot by law enforcement officers in the county from 1993 to 2012. Of those shot, 195 died from their injuries. The San Diego Police Department had the most officer-involved shootings with 194 incidents.
The report breaks down publicly available data into categories, such as the timing of the shootings or the age and race of suspects, but it doesn’t identify any trends or highlight areas of concern.
“Analyzing officer-involved shooting cases allows for a more thorough examination of any trends and/or patterns. The data may be useful in ways to enhance officer safety practices and/or officer awareness,” the report said.
According to the report, 123 suspects had a documented mental health illness, were “exhibiting unstable behavior” or both.
“One-third of the subjects had both mental health issues and under the influence of one or more drugs,” the study said.
The most common substance was meth, followed by alcohol and then marijuana.
The report identified at least 67 incidents as suicide-by-cop, “meaning it appeared the subject wanted police to shoot him or her.”
In 80 percent of the shootings, officers did not try to use lesser methods of force, such as a Taser or police dog, and 45 percent occurred less than one minute after the officer arrived at the scene. One surprising detail the report found was the type of call that resulted in a shooting:
Family/domestic disturbance calls have long been among the most dangerous to law enforcement. Similarly, these calls are also one of the most frequent incident types that officers responded to just prior to an officer-involved shooting. However, the most common event preceding an OIS is traffic-related. Traffic-related includes traffic stops and other vehicle-related calls like drunk driving.
Most suspects had a firearm at the time of the shooting, and only 29 suspects were unarmed. Almost half of the suspects were on parole or probation at the time of the incident, and more than a third of the cases involved a foot or vehicle pursuit prior to the shooting.
Additionally, the report shows at least 41 percent of the cases involved a white officer firing on a non-white suspect. In total, 37 percent of suspects were white, 36 percent were Hispanic, 19 percent were black, 14 percent were Asian/Filipino, 1 percent were Pacific Islander and 4 percent were other/unknown.
On average, firing officers were 35 years old and had 10 years of experience. A majority arrived to the incident by responding to a radio call, which puts patrol officers “most at-risk for becoming involved in a shooting,” the report said.
The report also breaks down the location and time of the lethal force encounters.
Most occurred outdoors in an alley or the street and after 6 p.m. More than a third of the shootings happened on a Friday or Saturday.