Virginia had the second-highest number of police officers killed in the line of duty in the country this year, including two Fairfax County law enforcement officers who were gunned down by a teenager outside their station, according to a report by National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund in Washington.
California had the most police fatalities with 17, followed by Virginia with 10. New York and Texas each lost nine, and Florida and Illinois lost eight each.
Fairfax County Police Department Detective Vicky Armel and officer Mike Garbarino were the first two officers in the county killed in the line of duty.
The officers were changing shifts on May 8 when Michael W. Kennedy, 18, opened fire with an assault rifle in the parking lot of the Sully District police station in Chantilly.
“The deaths of Armel and Garbarino were an absolute tragedy and highlight the fact that every time a law enforcement officer leaves his or her home, it could be the last day that they do so,” memorial fund spokesman Bruce Mendelsohn said .
Nationwide, there were 151 federal, state and local law enforcement officers killed, with traffic-related deaths jumping 16 percent over last year.
In Virginia, six of the officers were killed by gunfire and three in traffic, and one had a heart attack during a training exercise.
In the District, Metropolitan police officer Gerald Walter Burke Jr. died of a heart attack while on duty.
In Maryland, two state corrections officers were killed by inmates, two police officers were killed in traffic accidents and one died from a job-related illness.
For the ninth consecutive year, traffic-related incidents claimed the lives of more officers than shootings did.
The 73 killed in traffic-related incidents represented a nearly 16 percent increase over last year.
The number of officers killed in shootings declined by nearly 9 percent.
Eighteen were killed by job-related illnesses, three in aircraft crashes, one by beating, one by stabbing and one in a terrorist attack.
