A memorial for four police officers killed in a targeted shooting inside a coffee shop in Lakewood, Washington.
A Cop Killer is, as the title suggests, a person who kills at least one person working in the local police force or law enforcement agency. Usually, when a cop or agent is murdered, the rest of the police force/agency makes hunting the perpetrator down a top priority, as the officers intend for their colleague's death to not go unpunished. In the course of history, the term 'Cop Killer' has become applicable for anyone who works in some sort of law enforcement field, such as a security guard.
This is not to be confused with a Killer Cop, which is an officer of the law who commits an unjustifiable homicide.
On Criminal Minds[]
Note: Usually, when a policeman or agent is killed on the show it is incidental and not premeditated. One example of the contrary is Animal. Some notable cop killers on the show are:
- Will Sykes ("A Real Rain")
- Jason Clark Battle ("Lucky" and "Penelope")
- New York Terrorist Cell ("Lo-Fi" and "Mayhem")
- Chloe Kelcher ("The Angel Maker")
- George Foyet ("Omnivore", "...And Back", "Nameless, Faceless", and "100")
- Billy Flynn ("Our Darkest Hour" and "The Longest Night")
- The Face Cards ("Hit" and "Run")
- John Curtis ("The Silencer", "The Apprenticeship", "Magnificent Light", "Perennials", "Zugzwang", "Broken", "Carbon Copy", "Brothers Hotchner" and "The Replicator")
- Wallace Hines ("The Inspiration" and "The Inspired")
- Owen McGregor ("Angels" and "Demons")
- Lindsey Vaughn ("3rd Life", Unforgettable", "Green Light", and "Red Light")
- Peter Lewis ("Mr. Scratch", "The Storm", "The Crimson King", "Mirror Image", "Red Light" and "Wheels Up")
- Everett Lynch ("Under the Skin", "Awakenings" and "And in the End...")
- Elias Voit ("Dead End")
- Damien Booth ("Gold Star", "Kingdom of the Blind", "Conspiracy vs. Theory" and "North Star")
- Jade Waters ("Kingdom of the Blind", "Conspiracy vs. Theory", "North Star", "Stars & Stripes and "Save the Children")
Real World[]
- Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, bank robbers, killed 13 people, including nine police officers during a robbery spree lasting from 1932 to 1934.
- Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin who also murdered Texas Patrolman J.D. Tippit
- Charles Whitman, murderer of Officer Billy Speed during the University of Texas sniper attacks
- Joseph DeAngelo murdered Brian Maggiore, a Military Police sergeant
- Bobby Davis and Jack Twinning, perpetrators of the Newhall massacre
- Mark Essex, killed nine people, including five police officers, in a murder spree that spanned eight days
- Baldemar Villarreal, Reynaldo Villarreal, Jesus Cortez Zambrano, murderers of Darrell Lunsford in Garrison, Texas
- Andrew Howard Brannan, murderer of Kyle Dinkheller in Laurens County, Georgia
- Timothy McVeigh, convicted of murdering eight federal agents in the Oklahoma City bombing
- Eric Rudolph, murderer of Robert Sanderson in an abortion clinic bombing
- Larry Phillips, Jr. and Emil Mătăsăreanu, murderers of bank guard Herman Dwight Cook
- Russell Eugene Weston Jr, murderer of Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson in the 1998 United States Capitol shooting
- David Bieber, murderer of PC Ian Broadhurst and attempted murders of PCs Neil Roper and James Banks in Leeds, West Yorkshire
- Jeff Weise, murdered his grandfather (who was a cop) and his grandfather's girlfriend before his massacre at his Red Lake High School
- The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs, murderers of night guard Elena Shram
- Lovelle Mixon, perpetrator of the Oakland shootings
- Richard Poplawski, perpetrator of the Pittsburgh police shootings
- Maurice Clemmons, perpetrator of the Lakewood police officer shooting
- Jerry and Joseph Kane, murderers of Bill Evans and Brandon Paudert in West Memphis, Arkansas
- Christopher Dorner, killed four people, including two police officers and a Sheriff's Deputy
- Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, murderers of MIT police officer Sean Collier and BPD Officer Dennis Oliver Simmonds, Jr.
- Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley, murderer of Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in the 2014 killings of NYPD officers
- Micah Xavier Johnson, perpetrator of the 2016 Dallas shootings
- David Lee Huber, murderer of Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger in Sunrise, Florida