LAPD shootings rose in 2021, despite fewer suspects with guns

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles police officers shot and killed more people in 2021 than the year before, while the number of involved suspects with a firearm decreased, Police Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday.

There were 37 shootings involving the Los Angeles Police Department in 2021, 18 of them fatal. In 2020, there were 27 police shootings and seven people were killed. In 2019, the LAPD reached a three-decade low with 26 police shootings.

"To see this resurgence, to see it come in with the increase in weapons other than firearms, is causing us to take a deep dive to identify what training and what other avenues we need to pursue," Moore told the Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday.

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Of the 37 shootings last year, about 40% of the suspects had a firearm. The remaining 22 suspects had objects classified as weapons by the department, including edged weapons, vehicles, and bike locks.

In 2020, 59% of the suspects in police shootings had firearms.

In December, an LAPD officer shot and killed an assault suspect armed with a bike lock at a Burlington in North Hollywood. In addition to killing the suspect, one of the bullets struck and killed 14-year-old Valentina Orellena Peralta, hiding in a dressing room. There are currently three separate investigations into that incident.

"In our initial analysis of this past year of shootings, we notice a significant increase in instances involving weapons other than firearms ... I'm well aware that this commission is also extremely interested in learning more about these circumstances and what actions the department is taking to counter this increase," Moore told the Police Commission.

Moore said the department is reviewing its dispatch protocols and policies for reports that involve non-firearm weapons.

He added that over the last five years the department has put several initiatives in place to reduce the number of police shootings, including restrictive policies, training and tools to give officers' alternatives to using their firearms.

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