21 May 99
This from a police officer friend in Maryland:
Quoting from a Baltimore Newspaper, dated 8 May 99:
“A City police officer shot a woman yesterday after she stabbed him in the back in an apparently unprovoked attack. The injured officer was in uniform, but he and the attacker had never met.
Officer Jay Harris was working, in uniform, as a security guard at a local West Baltimore grocery store. He was leaning on a closed checkout terminal, doing paperwork. The woman calmly walked up behind him and stabbed him three times with a ten-inch knife. The knife point entered the officer’s back just above his ballistic vest.
Harris turned around, stepped back, and fired at the woman two times with his 9mm Glock pistol. She was struck in the right leg and abdomen. She dropped the knife and collapsed on the spot.
Officer Harris’ injuries are not life threatening, and he is expected to be released from the hospital in a few days. The woman, thus far unidentified, is listed in serious condition but is expected to survive.”
The officer was shooting WW 147gr SXTs out of his Glock 19. No word on expansion, but neither bullet exited. Judging from the fact that she precipitously collapsed from non-fatal wounds, it is likely that the woman was suicidal and fully expected to be shot. The officer was very lucky.
The officer obviously jerked his shots low and left. He as his attacker were only a few feet apart, and he still nearly missed altogether.
Lessons:
>There is a lot of vital body area not normally protected by soft body armor. Coverage isn’t, and never will be, complete.
>Alertness is an acquired skill and must be practiced constantly. If you are routinely preoccupied, absent-minded, and nonchalant for extended periods, people are going to walk right up to you, and you’ll never see them until it’s too late. If you carry a gun, alertness goes with the territory.
> Correct sight alignment and a careful trigger press are critical, even at close range. Unsighted trigger jerking is for losers.
/John
