The best security plan is one developed with good and relevant information.
The data on this page is only that associated with deadly force incidents and suspicious deaths at churches and ministries in the U.S.. The data is dynamic, but gathered from enough incidents that trends are stabilizing.
There is no agenda to prove anything other than the importance of intentional security and safety by every ministry – regardless of size. I record the data as I am able to confirm it, allowing others to reach conclusions on other statistics (such as church shootings, domestic violence in church, church homicides or other details related to developing a church security plan).
I am especially grateful to many who have written or met with me regarding their personal experience in some of the stories. Many have sent me stories that I missed along the way. I am grateful for every clarification, correction and revelation provided by all of you. Your information will help make ministries safer everywhere.
If you know of incidents not found, or have personal experiences with any of those stories found in the CHURCH CRIME HISTORY tab, please write me – the more we all know, the better prepared others will be.
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Deadly Force Incidents (DFI's) at Faith-Based Organizations in the United States (includes abductions, attacks, suspicious deaths, suicides and deadly force intervention / protection) |
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DATA CURRENT for time period 1/1/1999 through 5/3/12 |
NUM |
% |
|
TOTAL INCIDENTS |
548 |
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NUMBER OF DFI's WHERE THE "ATTACK RESULTED IN DEATH OF OTHERS" (ARDO) |
228 |
41.61% |
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NOTE: in 2009 alone, there were 6 significant attacks prevented by effective law enforcement actions, and 1 by alert and responsive congregants before they could become ARDO's (see CRIME HISTORY to review incidents on 1/11, 2/2, 5/18, 5/20, 6/8, 8/9 and 10/23/2009) |
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Total known attack triggers |
440 |
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Domestic Spillover (Domestic relationship violence that found it's way onto ministry property and resulted in a DFI) |
75 |
17.05% |
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Personal Conflict (disagreement between 2 or more un-domestic-related people that erupted into a deadly force incident) |
68 |
15.45% |
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Robbery |
93 |
21.14% |
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Gang related (Gang or potential gang related that included drugs are in drugs category) |
51 |
11.59% |
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Confirmed drug related |
9 |
2.05% |
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Confirmed mental illness |
34 |
7.73% |
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Religious Bias (against any form of religion, some previously considered as "Personal Conflict" moved into this category starting 2012) |
31 |
7.05% |
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Random and other (including rare triggers) |
79 |
17.95% |
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|
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Number of DFI's occurring based upon the TOP 3 known single issue triggers -- Domestic Violence, Personal conflict and robbery) |
236 |
53.64% |
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|
|
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Total incident weapons known (some attacks had more than one weapon) |
563 |
% |
|
Gun |
334 |
59.33% |
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Knife (or other stabbing weapon) |
95 |
16.87% |
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Auto |
14 |
2.49% |
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Explosives (includes Molotov Cocktails) |
33 |
5.86% |
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Other (poison, beating, hanging, fire, various objects) |
87 |
15.45% |
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Victim Statistics |
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|
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Total killed and injured |
698 |
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Killed |
300 |
42.98% |
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Injured |
398 |
57.02% |
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Male victims (killed) |
181 |
60.33% |
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Female victims (killed) |
119 |
39.67% |
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Affiliated (employee or volunteer) with ministry (killed) |
113 |
37.67% |
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Aggressor Statistics |
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|
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Total known (even if known only by description) aggressors |
540 |
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Male |
496 |
91.85% |
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Female |
44 |
8.15% |
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Affiliated (member, past member, employee, volunteer) with ministry |
135 |
25.00% |
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|
|
|
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Total aggressors (including those without even a description) and their status |
639 |
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Suicide |
61 |
9.55% |
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KIA |
20 |
3.13% |
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Arrested |
344 |
53.83% |
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Unknown or at-large |
214 |
33.49% |
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Incident Statistics |
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|
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Occurred inside the building |
183 |
33.89% |
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Occurred outside on ministry property or activity location |
357 |
66.11% |
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Occurred during event |
216 |
40.07% |
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Occurred in off hours |
323 |
59.93% |
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Single attacker |
315 |
72.08% |
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Multiple attackers |
122 |
27.92% |
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Total deadly force incident stats by year |
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Year |
Total deaths (Homicide, suicide, unsolved suspicious and aggressors killed in action) |
Total Incidents |
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1999 |
22 |
10 |
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2000 |
9 |
6 |
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2001 |
4 |
5 |
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2002 |
12 |
10 |
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2003 |
10 |
8 |
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2004 |
3 |
4 |
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2005 |
19 |
10 |
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2006 |
30 |
27 |
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2007 |
39 |
41 |
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2008 |
50 |
64 |
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2009 |
53 |
107 |
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2010 |
52 |
102 |
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2011 |
48 |
105 |
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2012 |
30 |
49 |
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TOTAL DEADLY FORCE DEATHS and INCIDENTS SINCE 1/01/1999 |
381 |
548 |
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Where attacks occurred by denomination |
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While there are many branches of "Baptist" (as 1 example), there has been no attempt to clarify specific branches of that or other major denominations. While the "Church of God" may be different from "COGIC", they are in the same category (as another example). I apologize for any offense some may have with such groupings; the intent is to track the frequency of deadly force incidents at faith-based ministries. |
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Denominational affiliation (some DFI's affected more than 1 site -- i.e. 7/2/2009, 10/29/2010) |
Number of incidents |
Percentage |
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Baptist |
118 |
21.1% |
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Non-denominational (includes those of uncertain or unknown affiliation) |
109 |
19.5% |
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Catholic |
84 |
15.1% |
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Methodist |
39 |
7.0% |
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Parachurch organizations |
26 |
4.7% |
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Lutheran |
22 |
3.9% |
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Church of Christ |
18 |
3.2% |
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Presbyterian |
17 |
3.0% |
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Episcopal |
17 |
3.0% |
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Mormon (LDS) |
16 |
2.9% |
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Church of God / COGIC |
15 |
2.7% |
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Jewish |
12 |
2.2% |
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Christian Church (the denomination) |
11 |
2.0% |
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Assembly of God |
9 |
1.6% |
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Pentecostal |
7 |
1.3% |
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Islamic |
6 |
1.1% |
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Christian Orthodox (Including Greek and others) |
6 |
1.1% |
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Foreign Ethnic houses of Worship in U.S. |
4 |
0.7% |
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Unitarian |
3 |
0.5% |
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Evangelical Free |
3 |
0.5% |
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Jehovah's Witness |
3 |
0.5% |
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Nazarene |
3 |
0.5% |
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7th Day Adventist |
2 |
0.4% |
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Scientology |
1 |
0.2% |
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Foursquare |
1 |
0.2% |
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Buddhist |
1 |
0.2% |
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Other |
2 |
0.4% |