Law enforcement officers across the United States have killed 344 people so far in 2025. At least 42 of those killed between January and March were Latinos or people of Hispanic descent — that means an average of one every two days.
The figures were compiled by Mapping Police Violence, a research group that tracks fatal encounters with law enforcement nationwide. The group reports that police killings of Latinos have steadily increased over the past decade.
Records from Campaign Zero, an organization advocating against police violence, show there were 177 deaths of Latinos at the hands of police in 2013. By 2023 that number had risen to 246 — an increase of nearly 40% in just 10 years.
The report, highlighted by Mexican news outlet Milenio, notes that most of the deaths took place during responses to domestic disturbances, mental health crises, traffic stops and other nonviolent incidents. According to the data, only one in three police killings began with an alleged violent crime.
That was the case in the killing of Pedro Garcia, a 15-year-old who died after being shot 20 times on March 15 outside his home in Fullerton, California.
According to a version of events compiled by Mapping Police Violence, "A man called 911 saying his brother had stabbed their father with a knife. Officers arrived at the scene and found the man on the sidewalk outside the home. The officers gave him several orders, but he did not comply. At one point, the man abruptly lifted his shirt and pulled out a pellet gun. Police shot and killed him."
They also opened fire at the teenager.
"At that moment, I screamed loudly in both English and Spanish: 'Don't shoot! He's not carrying anything! Don't shoot!'" Gabriela Ordoñez, mother of the victim, told Milenio on the day of Pedro's funeral.
Ordoñez recalled shouting at the three officers at the scene, pleading with them to stop firing. She said they continued shooting even after her son's body was already lying on the sidewalk.
"Even an American man yelled at them, asking why they kept shooting if he was already on the ground," she said.
Campaign Zero says cases are underreported and the actual figure could be higher, noting that the lack of accuracy stems from law enforcement agencies using widely different methods to track victims, oftentimes not recording them at all.
According to Luis Carrillo, an immigration attorney and founder of the Carrillo Law Firm in California, cases like Pedro's are a result of President Donald Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric.
"The poison the current president spews against Latino migrants is spreading to the police forces, making them shoot wildly," Carrillo told Milenio. He noted that of the 34 cases his firm has handled in recent years, he has won 95% by proving excessive use of force and violence by authorities against Latinos.
Carrillo noted that, according to protocol, officers should have used a K-9 that was with them to control the suspect or even call a Mental Evaluation Unit to handle the potentially dangerous individual, a process that is done in other states.
"They're killers who act without thinking — if one shoots, they all shoot," Carrillo added.
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