Report: Police gun deaths up, still below average

WASHINGTON (AP) — A report says the number of law-enforcement officers killed by firearms jumped by 56 percent this year and included 15 ambush deaths. But gun-related police deaths still remain far below historic highs.

The annual report released today by the nonprofit National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund found that 50 officers were killed by guns this year. That's far more than 32 such killings last year but the same as 2012.

In 2011, 73 officers were killed in gunfire, the most in any year in the past decade.

Of gun-related deaths among officers this year, the report found that 15 were ambush assaults, matching 2012 for the highest total of ambushes since 1995.

In all this year, 126 federal, local, tribal and territorial officers were killed in the line of duty.