2 Oct 98
From a friend on the West Coast:
A… we had a shooting yesterday morning which might finally bring the training issue to the front burner, as it represented a pretty close call in terms of bystander injury. Goofy goes into a bank and announces that he has a bomb. When he subsequently reaches for something in his waistband, our officer draws, shoots immediately, and hits him twice in the chest, from about ten feet. Our officer was using Starfire 40&W ammo, which seemed to have no immediate, discernable effect. After a short delay, our officer fires twice more, and Gooey goes down for the count. Nobody was hurt who shouldn’t be, but Goofy (now dead) has four holes in him, and there are six expended casings recovered from the floor. Everyone at the scene swears only four shots were fired!
Lessons:
You have to keep firing, using whatever number of shots are necessary, until the suspect is unquestionably neutralized. When you stop firing at a suspect who is still posing a deadly threat, you invariably lose critical momentum and thus prolong the fight.
The tachy-psyche effect is alive and well! Guessing at the umber of shots you fired is always imprudent.
/John
