Title: Shielded by the law
Headings: 
By the numbers
How many people killed by police do you think possessed a weapon?
How many do you think were teenagers?
How many fatal encounters do you think happened during the afternoon?
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Snohomish County shooting
‘Most egregious’
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Content: By the numbers
Just how often police kill citizens in the line of duty and under what circumstances is difficult to determine. While the FBI collects data nationally on justifiable homicides by police, law-enforcement agencies are not required to submit the incidents. According to studies, the FBI totals each year are significant undercounts and unreliable. To authoritatively examine the issue in Washington, The Times used public-records requests, death certificates, interviews and other research to collect, measure and analyze a decade of killings by police in the state’s 39 counties. The numbers of people killed by police from 2005 to 2009 averaged 16 deaths per year. From 2010 to 2014, it averaged 27 per year. With these questions, explore the data behind the 213 deaths: How many people killed by police do you think possessed a weapon? 34%
52%
74%
84%
Half of the 213 people killed by police had a firearm in their possession. Another 10 had fake guns that could have been mistaken for actual firearms.