Police shootings against civilians in Portugal: Contextual, forensic medical and judicial characterization

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse the circumstances, the forensic assessment and the legal assessment of police shootings of civilians, according to the severity of the victim's injuries. Sixty-nine cases tried in Portuguese criminal courts were analysed. Of the 32 cases that resulted in death, 16 were on the public thoroughfare and 13 were in the victim's vehicle or in third-party vehicles. The majority of the lethal cases occurred when the region of the body hit was the thorax/abdomen. The firearm most frequently used was a semi-automatic 9 mm pistol. In cases resulting in death police officers involved were convicted whilst those involved in non-lethal cases were acquitted. The results of this study can be taken into account by Portuguese authorities for the implementation of policies that will allow the restriction of firearms use by police officers to situations of imminent danger of death or serious injury and that will make it possible to avoid shooting at fleeing civilians.

Trends in Officer‐involved Firearm Deaths in Oklahoma from 2000 to 2015

“…The age distribution of civilian decedents was significantly different from that of the entire Oklahoma population. Furthermore, while the state population is almost equal between males and females, civilian decedents in the study population were overwhelmingly males at almost 95%, which is similar to the proportion seen in past studies in which 90% or greater of civilian decedents were males .…”

“…The location of the shooting incident in the current study was most often a residential‐type location (46%), followed by a transportation‐type location (40%). A study conducted in Portugal found that the locations of officer‐involved firearm deaths were most commonly in a public thoroughfare (50%), followed by in a vehicle (41%) . Both of these location types used by the investigators in Portugal would fall under the present study's classification of a transportation‐type location, for a combined total of 91% of civilian deaths occurring in a transportation setting, which is greater than that seen in the current study.…”

“…Similar results were again seen in New York City, with the most gunshot wounds occurring in the torso (50%), followed by the extremities (38%), the head and neck (10%), and the remainder of unknown location . The study conducted in Portugal also found the thorax or abdomen to be the most severely injured body region (59%) . Other studies have not examined trends in average number of gunshot wounds per decedent over time; however, the current study found a significantly increasing trend.…”

“…Few scientific studies have been conducted to examine the data on decedents from officer-involved firearm deaths (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12). The literature that does exist often focuses on the phenomenon of suicide by cop (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22) or may not include all officerinvolved firearm deaths that occurred during the time period studied due to research constraints (7,9,10). For example, in Portugal, through consultation of court documents of criminal proceedings brought against police officers suspected of killing or injuring civilians with a firearm from 1991 to 2012, 32 firearm fatalities were identified.…”

“…This number is not indicative of the total number of civilian decedents as the investigators noted that such a number was impossible to determine in Portugal. For those included in the study, civilian decedents had a median age of 24 years, 50% of the shootings occurred in a public thoroughfare and 41% occurred in a vehicle, and in 59% of decedents, the thorax or abdomen was the most severely injured body region (7).…”