“‘Risk’ is nothing more than the interaction between probability and consequence”
Rendering medical aid:
Last night, we had an OIS (Officer-Involved Shooting) on the CSU Campus here in Ft Collins, CO.
A CSU Campus patrolman fired his pistol at a single suspect. Suspect was struck and is currently hospitalized. No officers, nor bystanders, were injured. Few additional details, so far.
However, one detail that was reported-on by local media is that the officer who did the shooting “immediately approached the wounded suspect and rendered first aid.” I don’t know if in so doing this officer was acting on his own volition, or was adhering to his department’s policy with regard to such matters, or this part of story is just “manufactured-for-public-consumption-BS”!
The subject of rendering aid (in the short term) to wounded felons is highly-combustible, and it invariably pits “officer-safety” against “humanitarian aid.”
Officers are often criticized, even sanctioned, for refusing to immediately break cover, approach wounded felons, and render first aid. Some department’s policies indeed require officers to render first aid in these circumstances, “so long as it can be done safely,” an absurd contradiction!
There is no “safe way” to approach violent felons, be they wounded or not!
For the (non-LEO) self-defender, this question comes down to a conversation between you and your own conscience, and it is a conversation that you to need to have long before you’re actually confronted by such a circumstance.
With the vast majority of gunshot wounds (particularly those involving pistol calibers), even when ultimately fatal, the person struck remains fully conscious for the better part of a minute, longer in most cases. Often, wounded suspects never lose consciousness at all. Over a period of several minutes, wounded suspects may pass in and out of consciousness, groggy one second, fully alert the next!
When a wounded suspect’s gun ends-up on the pavement next to him, you may see it. You may not. He may subsequently reach for it. He may be concealing other gun(s), blade(s), additional deadly weapons.
Thus, my advice is not to approach wounded suspects. Indeed, my advice is to remain behind hard cover (when that is where you are), or withdraw at once, putting distance between you and him. Immediately approaching wounded suspects is too dangerous to attempt, in my opinion. There is just no way it can be done with a reasonable degree of personal safety! His wound(s) will have to remain untreated until the scene can be stabilized.
To reiterate, “risk” is inherent to all human activity. Accordingly, a “risk-free life” is not in-store for any of us! Yet, an integral part of growing-up is learning to distinguish “normal risk” from “extreme risk” and most of all from, “unnecessary risk.”
Let’s all die of old age!
“A bend in the road is not the end of the road… unless you fail to make the turn!”
Helen Keller
/John
