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Number of officers killed by gunfire this year up 64 percent

A flag and a plant are left outside Tacoma police headquarters after an officer was fatally shot Wednesday night while responding to a domestic dispute.

In the wake of the fatal shooting of a Tacoma police officer Wednesday, KIRO 7 is looking at statistics on officers killed on the job.

The officer who was fatally shot during a domestic violence call was a 44-year-old, 17-year veteran of the department.  Read more here.

According to a national Officer Memorial Database, there have been 132 officers killed in the line of duty this year.

>>Read breaking news coverage of the Tacoma officer's shooting.

So far, that's up 12 percent from 2015.

But going deeper into the numbers, we found the number of officers killed by gunfire has seen a huge spike.

Gun violence has killed 64 percent more officers this year than in 2015.

And the month of November has been the deadliest month of the year for law enforcement nationwide, with 20 officers killed last month.

Sadly, that number will increase by one after the death of the Tacoma officer on Nov. 30.