Escalating Brutality: Cop Slayings on the Rise

With shootings up 54 percent, experts see a "hunter" mentality among criminals.

ByABC News
February 18, 2009, 11:59 AM

October 15, 2007 — -- ODESSA, Texas — The bodies of two local police officers -- both shot in the head -- had just been removed from the backyard. A third lay mortally wounded at a hospital with a shotgun blast to the neck, when accused killer Larry Neil White calmly emerged from his weathered frame house and offered a chilling explanation for the early evening slaughter.

"You got these guys coming to your door," White told authorities, who originally went to his home on a domestic disturbance call. "What would you do?"

Never in the 73-year history of the Odessa Police Department had an officer been fatally shot in the line of duty. Nearly as striking, says Texas Ranger Capt. Barry Caver, was the "matter-of-fact" manner of the 59-year-old suspect who, before he was carted to jail, demanded that officers retrieve his glasses.

"I told him he didn't need any glasses where he was going," Caver says.

The shootings of Cpls. Arlie Jones, 48, Abel Marquez, 32, and Scott Gardner, 30, on Sept. 8 plunged this West Texas town into a state of grief that, more than a month later, continues to temper the giddiness of a new oil boom.

Their deaths are part of a rising number of fatal police shootings across the nation that have led police officials and law enforcement analysts to suggest that an increasing number of suspects are adopting a troubling disregard for cops. Miami Police Chief John Timoney describes the phenomenon as an emerging "hunter" mentality among criminals.

As of Tuesday, 60 officers had been fatally shot this year, up 54% from the same period last year, according to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund in Washington, D.C., which tracks officer fatalities. There already have been more fatal shootings of officers this year than in all of 2006, when there were 52 such slayings, a decline from 59 in 2005. The rate of police slayings began to accelerate in late 2006, and the trend has continued this year.

Police officials from departments across the country say they are confronting more combative suspects in situations ranging from robberies to routine traffic stops.

"There is a basic lack of respect for authority," says Caver, who is overseeing the Odessa investigation and has noticed a significant shift in attitudes in other Texas cities. "Lately, it seems like there is a brutality and a willingness to cross a line, to take a life, even if it is a police officer. The capacity is growing, and it is disturbing."

•Since March, five police agencies — in New York City; Bastrop, La.; Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C.; Monck's Corner, S.C.; and Henderson County, Texas — each have lost two officers in brutal attacks.

"To actively kill multiple cops is another animal altogether," says Craig Floyd, chairman of the memorial fund. "I can tell you that a lot of police chiefs are very concerned."

•At least one-third of the 60 victims this year were shot in the neck or head, including Clay City (Ky.) Police Chief Randy Lacy, who was killed June 13 by a drunken-driving suspect. The location of the wounds, some police officials say, could suggest the suspects had lethal intent because many officers wear body armor that better protects their torsos.