In the final month of 2021, six police officers in Alabama, Illinois, Missouri, Maryland, and Texas were killed in the line of duty as a crime wave continues sweeping the United States.
Following the start of the “Defund the Police” movement in 2020, the last 12 months proved to be a deadly year for police officers across the U.S. As Breitbart News reported, from January 1, 2021 to November 30, 2021, 57 police officers were killed.
In the last month of 2021, an additional six police officers were killed in the line of duty. These officers include Madison “Skip” Nicholson, Antonio Antoine Valentine, Richard Houston II, Keona Holley, Sean Riley, and Marlene Rittmanic.
Holley, a mother of four children, died the day before Christmas Eve after she was ambushed by a shooter while she sat in her police car. Riley was shot and killed on December 29 after responding to a “motorist assist” call.
Rittmanic, 49-years-old, was killed on December 30 when she and her partner responded to a call about unattended dogs in a vehicle sitting in the parking lot of a motel. Two suspects are now in custody for her murder.
Nicholson was killed in gunfire in Wilcox County, Alabama, on December 1, while Houston was shot and killed in Mesquite, Texas on December 3. Valentine was killed on December 1 in St. Louis County, Missouri, in the midst of a vehicle pursuit.
In a year-end report, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) reveals that 314 police officers have been shot from January 1, 2021 to December 1, 2021. One hundred and nineteen of those shootings occurred in the midst of 95 separate ambush-style attacks on officers, resulting in 28 of the total gunfire deaths.
Ambush attacks on officers increased nearly 130 percent since 2020.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.