There were 61 “active shooter” incidents in the United States last year, an increase of more than 50% from 2020 and nearly twice as many as five years ago, the FBI reported. 

The shootings left 103 people dead and 140 wounded, excluding the gunmen, the FBI said in an annual report released Monday.

The FBI defines an active shooter as “one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.” 

The report comes nine days after a gunman killed 10 people and wounded three others at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York. 

The FBI is investigating the shooting as a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism. 

The FBI said its active shooter data for the past five years show an “upward trend,” with the number of incidents rising from 40 in 2020 and 30 in 2017. 

The number of casualties recorded last year — 243 — was the third highest over the five-year period, with fatalities posting their highest level since 2017. 

The alarming increase in active shooter incidents has prompted many American schools and other institutions to incorporate drills into their safety preparedness. 

The two active shooter incidents with the highest number of casualties took place at a FedEx operations center in Indianapolis, Indiana, and at a Kroger supermarket in Collierville, Tennessee. 

In the first incident, on April 15, 2022, the gunman killed eight people and wounded seven others before committing suicide. 

In the Kroger supermarket shooting, on Sept. 23, 2021, the gunman shot and killed one person and injured 14 others before turning the gun on himself. 

Among other high-casualty incidents were shootings at a high school in Oxford, Michigan, and a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. 

 
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