“Shocking, heartbreaking, and eye-opening, the up-close-and-personal accounts in Shots Fired will make you reconsider all you thought you knew about police work.”
– Catherine Pelonero, New York Times bestselling author of Kitty Genovese
ABOUT SHOTS FIRED
Dedicated to the Memory of New York City Police Officer Brian Moore, Shield 469. Killed in the line of duty May 4, 2015. His compassion, kindness, and bravery live on.
Today’s media is filled with discussions about officer-involved shootings. Too often missing from that discussion are the police officers’ voices and the reality of what happens in actual shooting incidents. Through interviews with involved officers, this book addresses common myths and misunderstandings about these shootings.
Shots Fired: The Misunderstandings, Misconceptions, and Myths about Police Shootings is a journey “behind the shield” which highlights the experiences of the real human beings in the line of fire. It explores true events through the participants’ own eyes and takes readers inside the minds of officers during the actual event. The officers detail the roller coaster of emotions and severe trauma experienced during and after a shooting event.
Along with the intimate, in-depth explorations of the incidents themselves, the book touches the aftermath of police-involved shootings—the debriefings, internal and external investigations, and psychological evaluations. It challenges many commonly held assumptions created by the media such as the meaning of “unarmed” and why the police can’t just “shoot him in the leg,” creating an understanding that reaches beyond slogans such as “hands up, don’t shoot.”
The book, written by Joseph K. Loughlin and Kate Clark Flora, is valuable reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of police shootings—officers and police departments, reporters and politicians, and the public who rely on the police to keep them safe
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
JOSEPH K. LOUGHLIN is a former assistant chief of police for the City of Portland, Maine, and also served as the commander of the Special Reaction Team and was a team member for more than twenty years. Joseph graduated with a B.A. from St. Joseph’s College in Maine and earned a master’s degree from the University of Southern Maine. He is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy Command training program in Quantico, Virginia. He currently consults for 3SI International Security Systems and functions as a regional coordinator of police trainings and special projects. He currently lives in Fernandina Beach, Florida.
KATE CLARK FLORA writes true crime and police procedurals. A Good Man with a Dog is a memoir she cowrote with a retired Maine game warden. Her fascination with people’s bad behavior began in the Maine attorney general’s office, where she chased deadbeat dads and protected battered children. Flora lives in Concord, Massachusetts. Visit her website.
Joe and Kate previoiusly collaborated on the book: Finding Amy: A True Story of Murder in Maine.
FINDING AMY
A True Story of Murder in Maine
Combining the drama of a true crime story with the detail of a police procedural, Finding Amy chronicles the investigation into one of the most shocking murders in recent Maine history. Twenty-five-year-old Amy St. Laurent was attractive, intelligent, and responsible. One October evening, she went out to show a friend from Florida the exciting nightlife of Portland’s Old Port section. She played pool. She danced. And then she disappeared.
“This is one of the best true crime stories to be published in recent years…This book should reaffirm the public’s faith in the police, prosecutors, and Maine’s judicial system.”–Brunswick Times Record
“Few true crime books get behind the scenes and explain how homicide detectives do their jobs the way Finding Amy does.”–Bangor Daily News
NEWS
Law Enforcement Talk: True Crime and Trauma Stories
Missing Woman Murdered, Investigation And Arrest.
The Suffering Podcast
Kevin Donaldson, retired NJ police officer, talks with officers involved in shootings and how ‘Shots Fired’ helped them.
207: Deadly force through the eyes of an officer
When an officer-involved shooting happens, we hear a lot about the victim, but what happens to the officer who pulled the trigger?
Psychic Investigators: Finding Amy
An episode of the popular TV series focuses on the case of Amy St. Laurent.
The New American
Joseph Loughlin, a retired police chief, talks with The New American about the common misconceptions that revolve around police shootings.
Maine Magazine
An interview with Joseph Loughlin and Kate Clark Flor, co-authors of Shots Fired.
