Breakdown of U.S. citizens killed by police in 2016

In the U.S. a total of 509 citizens have been killed this year alone by police. The body count for the previous year stands at a grand total of 990 people shot dead, according to the Washington Post. As the below infographic shows, most of those killed by police are male and white. 123 of those shot were Black Americans. This is a relatively high share, keeping in mind that close to 13 percent of Americans belong to that ethnic group.

What’s also disturbing is that according to the data compiled by the Washington Post a big proportion of those killed obviously showed signs of mental illness. Of the 509 killed this year at least 124 were thought to be suffering from such conditions. Many of those killed carried guns according to police records. In at least 22 cases officers mistook toy guns for the real thing.