Baton Rouge is just the latest deadly attack on police
NEW YORK -- At least three police officers were killed and three others wounded in Baton Rouge Sunday, in the latest attack on police in the U.S.
Experts told CBS News after the July 7 attack in Dallas that surprise ambushes of police are on the rise as tensions surrounding the criminal justice system have boiled over during the last few years, fueling widespread protests across the nation.
Officer deaths are down significantly from 2011, when 171 police died while on duty, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which tracks police violence stats. That figure dropped to 131 in 2012 and 109 in 2013, but began creeping back up in 2014, after protests across the country following the police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York City.
The attacks July 7 on Dallas police and Sunday in Baton Rouge, as well as a 2014 attack on New York police, were the deadliest ambushes police officers have faced in years.
Brooklyn
On Dec. 20, 2014, New York Police Department Officer Wenjian Liu was killed along with his partner, Officer Rafael Ramos, as they sat in their patrol car on a Brooklyn street.
Their shooter, Ismaaiyl Brins, had made references online to the killings of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers and had vowed to put "wings on pigs."
Dallas
On July 7, 2016, five officers were killed and nine more were injured, along with two civilians, when Micah Johnson opened fire, targeting police and ending an otherwise peaceful protest. It was the deadliest day in American policing since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack.
Baton Rouge
Tensions in Louisiana's capital city peaked Sunday when at least one suspect opened fire on police, killing three and wounding at least three more. A suspect was killed in the attack and police believe at least two may be at large. The shooting followed nearly two weeks of protest after police were filmed killing Alton Sterling during a July 5 incident.
