Local News in Brief : Shootings by Deputies Up
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Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shot 43 people in 1987, eight more than in 1986 and more than in any previous year. Sheriff Sherman Block said that each shooting incident in 1987 was later ruled justified by department investigators.
Fatal shootings accounted for the increase. Eighteen people were killed by deputies in 1987, up from 10 in 1986. Twenty-five people were wounded in 1987, the same number as in 1986.
“This may seem a little callous, but we don’t evaluate on the basis of fatal or non-fatal, but on whether it was warranted,” Block said. “We have not had an incident (in 1987) deemed to be an unwarranted shooting.”
Meanwhile, fatal shootings involving Los Angeles police officers held steady in 1987 at 22. The number of people wounded, however, increased from 31 in 1986 to 38 last year.
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