Database documents fatal police shootings in U.S., testifying to cops' abuse of force, lack of training

A database recording fatal police shootings happening across the United States shows that at least 462 people were shot dead by police in the first half of the year, and excessive use of force by cops and their lack of training were blamed for a substantial proportion of the deaths therein.

The database appeared in tandem with an investigative report entitled "Distraught People, Deadly Result" available at the website of the Washington Post, a U.S. daily. The investigative report said in the past six months, one-quarter of the people killed by the police were mentally ill or emotionally distraught, and in most cases, police officers were not responding to reports of a crime.

"More than half the killings involved police agencies that have not provided their officers with state-of-the-art training to deal with the mentally ill," said the investigative report, adding that many officers responded with tactics that quickly made a volatile situation even more dangerous.

Also, police allegedly often used excessive force when dealing with people with a less lethal weapon than a firearm, said the investigative report, which cited data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation by saying only three officers have been killed with an edged weapon in the past ten years.

The effort came at a time when protests over police brutality have kept erupting across the country. Previous study, however, shows that only 54 officers had been charged among the thousands of fatal shootings at the hands of police since 2005. Endite