Killer Cop

A Killer Cop, or Killer Fed, is an officer of the law who commits an unjustifiable homicide.

Examples[]

The reasons and circumstances under which a law enforcer may commit murder can vary greatly:

• Police brutality: The assumption that any rough treatment of civilians and suspects during police work is justified, up to and including murder, wether it's legally approved or not. On-duty officer Michael Slager shot Walter Scott eight times in the back, while he was unarmed and running away.
• Vigilantism: The belief that murdering criminals or other offenders is morally justified despite not being approved by law. This is more planned than mere police brutality, and thus less likely to be committed while on duty. The Brazilian Esquadrão da Morte killed criminals they considered a threat to society, at least before they started selling their services to local businessmen.
• Hired murders and Assassinations: Carried on behalf of a political figure or organized crime, done outside of the law but using their identity as law enforcers to gain access, disarm, and/or abduct their victims. The real purpose of the Counterinsurgence Unit 10 ("Vlakplaas") was to kill anti-Apartheid activists on behalf of the South African government, but this wasn't publicly acknowledge as it was illegal.
• Incidental: Sex murders, revenge murders, felony murders, or any other kind of murder committed by a law enforcement officer, wether active, off duty or retired. In these cases, the fact that the murderer is employed as a law enforcer is unrelated to the motive of the murder, but the offender's police training may influence the modus operandi and attempts to cover up the murder or its evidence. Gerard Schaefer was a serial rapist and killer who was employed as a Sheriff's Deputy, and targeted at least some of his victims (hitchhikers and prostitutes) while he was on duty.

Not Examples[]

A Killer Cop is not to be confused with:

• Justifiable homicide: An officer who kills in self-defense, or under any other circumstance considered legally justifiable, such as neutralizing an offender who is an immediate threat to other person's life. Evan Spencer Ebel was killed in a shootout with Sheriff's deputies after critically injuring at least one of them.
• Cop Killer: A murderer who kills at least one person working in the local police force or law enforcement agency, but who does not work in law enforcement. Lee Harvey Oswald murdered patrolman J.D. Tippit in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination.
• Security guards: A private security guard committing murder, since security guards are not part of law enforcement, do not have the same legal requirements, and do not have the same legal authority as law enforcers, even though there may be some overlap and similarities between the two, and people employed as law enforcers may later become security guards or vice versa. Omar Mateen was employed as a security guard after failing to graduate as a Correctional Officer.
• Officer impersonation: A civilian impersonating law enforcement (itself a crime) as part of a plan to commit murder. Ted Bundy sometimes pretended to be an undercover police officer to make his victims trust him.

On Criminal Minds[]

Killer Cops on the show

• Season One
  • Tim Vogel ("Extreme Aggressor") - A corrections officer and serial killer who murdered four women, with the help of his accomplice Richard Slessman, who helped him in exchange for protection from the inmates of the prison Vogel worked at.
  • Vincent Shyer ("Broken Mirror") - An FBI agent whose obsession with the Davenport sisters led to him murdering Patricia's boyfriend Jordan and abducting her.
  • Bruno Hawks ("Secrets and Lies") - A CIA deputy director who killed two of his own agents, both of whom were investigating a deal he had made with Hassan Nadir, a Saudi diplomat who raised funds for terrorist organizations.
• Season Three
  • Jason Clark Battle ("Lucky" and "Penelope") - A sheriff's deputy who used his position to shoot and kill innocent victims, then attempt to 'save' them and make their murders appear to have been committed by another perpetrator.
• Season Five
  • Ronald Boyd ("A Rite of Passage") - A sheriff's deputy who murdered dozens of illegal Hispanic immigrants and killed Eva Ruiz after he feared she would catch on to his murders.
• Season Eight
  • John Curtis ("The Replicator") - A former FBI agent who blamed both Erin Strauss and Alex Blake for ruining his FBI career, and concocted a revenge plot against them and the FBI.
• Season Nine
  • Wayne Gulino ("The Return") - A former police officer and U.S. Air Force sergeant who, alongside George Scotman, were fired from their job after Mark Reyes filed a report to the Chicago Police Department reporting their brutal and illegal interrogation methods. This led to him concocting a revenge plot against Reyes and the CPD, using his tortures to turn teenagers into "soldiers" to aid him.
  • The Rogue Deputies ("Angels" and "Demons") - A corrupt group of sheriff's deputies who killed their sheriff and prostitutes to cover up their criminal activities.
• Season Ten
  • Dale Shavers ("Lockdown") - A correctional officer who led a group of corrupt corrections officers who ran a prison fight club for their entertainment.
• Season Twelve
  • Calvin Shaw ("Alpha Male", "Assistance Is Futile", "In the Dark", "Hell's Kitchen", "True North'", and "Green Light") - A former FBI agent who killed an informant he had an affair with in an attempt to cover his trail.
• Season Fourteen
  • Jeremy Grant ("Luke") - A former DEA sniper who became a serial killer after murdering Eduardo Ramos (the hitman who killed his family) and later people associated with Ramos' arrest (including Phil Brooks).

Real World[]

• Gerard Schaefer (Sheriff's Deputy)
• Christopher Dorner (discharged Police Officer)
• Charles Whitman (Traffic Supervisor)
• Serhiy Tkach (Criminal Investigator)
• Antoinette Frank (Police Officer)
• Derek Chauvin (Police Officer)
• J Alexander Kueng (Police Officer)
• Thomas Lane (Police Officer)
• Tou Thao (Police Officer)