By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON — A Pittsburgh FBI agent was among 41 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in 2008 during arrests, tactical situations, surveillance, ambushes or domestic violence, according to an FBI report released Monday.
The number of deaths marked a significant decline from 2007 when 58 officers were killed in what the FBI terms “feloniously killed”. Of those killed in 2008, 37 were men and four were women.
Among those killed was Sam Hicks, an FBI agent in the Pittsburgh field office, who was serving an arrest warrant in Indiana Township, Pa. on Nov. 19, 2008. The FBI says a woman in the house who was under the influence of drugs fired a single shot and struck Hicks in the chest just above his bullet proof vest.
Here’s some details as listed in an FBI press release:
*Line-of-duty deaths occurred in 19 states;
*The average age of officers feloniously killed was 39 years; the average length of service was 10 years;
*35 were killed with firearms; 29 of them, including Special Agent Hicks, were wearing body armor when they were fatally shot;
*The average age of the alleged offenders was 32;
*36 of the 42 alleged offenders had prior criminal arrests.
Additionally, the report details assaults on officers and the circumstances of accidental deaths on the job each year, the press release said. Here’s a glance at the data:
*58,792 officers were assaulted in the line of duty; 26.1 percent of them sustained injuries;
*32 percent of assaults occurred responding to domestic disturbance calls; 15 percent were during arrests;
*Accidental deaths claimed 68 officers in 25 states; 39 died as a result of auto accidents.
