Fatal Police Shootings Down Since George Floyd’s Death

In the first five months of 2020, police officers in the United States shot dead an average of about 20 people each week.

Since George Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, that number has dropped to about 15 people per week.

There have been 17 or fewer fatal police shootings per week each of the last five weeks. This occurred only three times during the first 22 weeks of 2020.

While George Floyd was not shot by police officers, his death did spark widespread protests for racial reform, police accountability, and overall calls to defund the police.

Previous Years Statistics

From 2015 to 2019, there were a total of 4,931 people fatally shot by police officers, an average of 986 each year. Of these 4,931, 45.8% were white, 23.9%, were black, and 16.7% were hispanic; White, black, and hispanic people make up 60.1%, 12.5%, and 18.5% of the population respectively.

(This data comes from The Washington Post’s “Fatal Force” database.)