Ambush shootings target police officers in record numbers in 2023

Sgt. Marc McIntyre was on a welfare check in Griffin, Georgia, last week when a loud blast rang out from the home he was approaching.

Prosecutors said Todd Harper fired a shotgun out his window on Dec. 29 and struck Sgt. McIntyre in the head. The uniformed officer with the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office died from injuries at the scene.

Sgt. McIntyre was one of the 20 officers killed in ambush-style shootings last year, according to an annual report published by the Fraternal Order of Police, which defines such a shooting as a gunman opening fire on an officer without warning, not in the course of an arrest.

The report said there were 115 such surprise attacks in 2023, resulting in 138 officers being wounded, both record-high numbers.

The 378 officers shot while on patrol in 2023 (a 14% increase from 2022, according to the FOP) was also a record high.

The nation’s largest police union said the record numbers result from officers having to face better-armed people with little regard for those who uphold the law.

“What’s happening today is … the increased firepower, and again, diminishing respect for the law enforcement profession and for the work that law enforcement officers do,” FOP Executive Director Jim Pasco told The Washington Times about the rise in shootings.

“It has become — I wouldn’t go so far as to say epidemic — but I would say a deadly serious trend that we are bound and determined to curb at whatever cost,” he said.

The final days of 2023 saw two other officers killed in different parts of the country.

Sgt. Philip Dale Nix with Greensboro police in North Carolina observed a group of people stealing from a convenience store on Dec. 30. Police said Sgt. Nix — who was off-duty, but had his gun and badge on him — walked over to the driver’s side of the suspect vehicle to approach the thieves after they returned to their getaway car.

That’s when, authorities say, 18-year-old Jamere Foster shot Sgt. Nix twice and killed him. The arrest warrant said the thieves were defending an $83 haul of stolen beer.

The Greensboro community grieved the loss of Sgt. Nix, with one relative saying they were “exhausted with love” after the outpouring.

“My prayer is that some of this [support] continues after the funeral because that’s when all this is done,” Sgt. Nix’s uncle, Skip, told local Fox affiliate WGHP on Tuesday. “We’re still missing a piece, and that’s going to be tough to deal with. But with life, we have to go on because we all have other people dependent on us.”

A day earlier and thousands of miles away in California, Oakland police officer Tuan Le was mortally wounded while responding to a burglary at a cannabis shop.

Authorities said Officer Le was working undercover in an unmarked car on Dec. 29 as police looked to corner the suspects.

One of the burglars shot into Officer Le’s cruiser while fleeing the scene. The officer died in the hospital a short time later.

Two suspects have been charged in the slaying — Mark Sanders, 27, and Allen Brown, 28.

“I assured them my office will do everything within the confines of our legal power to make sure the men — the man — we believe shot and killed Officer Le will serve the rest of his life in prison,” Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price said during a Wednesday evening press conference.

There was some good news out of the FOP’s report: the 46 officers killed in shootings overall last year was a noticeable decline from the 62 cops fatally shot on the job in 2022.

Mr. Pasco credited the drop in police killings to advancements in how hospitals treat traumatic gunshot injuries.

He said it’s a “perverse benefit” of doctors having so much experience patching up the wounds due to the deteriorating safety on American streets.

But the wounds never heal for the families who lose a loved one to gunfire.

Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer was killed in a September shooting while working for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff Robert Luna said at the time that Clinkunbroomer, 30, was ambushed at a red light by an assailant who quickly fired into the deputy’s police cruiser before driving off.

Authorities arrested 29-year-old Kevin Salazar during a tense barricade situation days later.

The suspect’s family told local media that Mr. Salazar suffers from schizophrenia. He pleaded not guilty to the charges by reason of insanity.

Clinkunbroomer came from a long line of sheriff’s deputies stretching back to his grandfather. Now that bond seems to be broken.

In November, the family filed a lawsuit against the county and the sheriff’s department for $20 million in damages. The family’s attorney said that if Clinkunbroomer hadn’t been fatigued from working so much-needed overtime, he would have been more alert the day he was killed.

“Money’s only part of it, a very small part of it to be quite frank with you,” Clinkunbroomer’s mother, Kim, said at the time. “I can’t see another family go through this.”

Clinkunbroomer was killed just four days after he got engaged to his fiancé.