# Tragic historic milestone: Nearly 10,000 officers slain by gunfire



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

Dating back to the first law enforcement fatality recorded in 1792, there have been a total of 9,929 federal, state and local law enforcement officers killed by gunfire.
To put this figure in some perspective, the next highest cause of death among law enforcement officers is automobile crashes, which have accounted for 2,659 officer fatalities throughout history

*Tragic historic milestone: Nearly 10,000 officers slain by gunfire *

By Craig W. Floyd 
Reprinted with permission of the author and American Police Beat

Calvin W. Jenks told co-workers that he became a Tennessee State Trooper to follow in the footsteps of his step-grandfather, a retired lieutenant with the Tennessee Highway Patrol. By all accounts, he was an aggressive, hard-working trooper who loved his job and always had a smile on his face.

On the night of Jan. 6, 2007, Trooper Jenks pulled over two teenagers, ages 17 and 19, along a highway near Memphis. During the traffic stop he smelled marijuana from inside the vehicle. After some questioning, the driver reluctantly admitted that they were drugs inside the car. When Trooper Jenks asked the passenger if he had any drugs, the teen pulled out a handgun and shot the 24-year-old officer twice, including a fatal shot to the head. The two assailants drove off, running over Trooper Jenks as he lay dying on the roadway. The entire episode, which lasted approximately two minutes, was captured on Trooper Jenks' patrol car video camera. The two teenage killers were arrested 13 hours later, some 200 miles away in Nashville.

"We know that it can happen to any of us on any stop," commented Tennessee Highway Patrol Capt. Steve Harvey after the death of his colleague. "You try not to think about it that way because you have a job, and you have to do it."

Calvin Jenks was the first of 69 American law enforcement officers shot and killed during 2007, based on preliminary information received by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF). This represents a staggering 33 percent increase over the 52 officers killed by gunfire in 2006, and the second highest total over the last decade (there were 72 officers shot and killed in 2001).

Full Article: http://www.policeone.com/patrol-issues/articles/1658375/


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