21 Oct 03

A success story from one of my students who is the training officer with a Midwest police department:

"Last night, one of my officers responded to a violent domestic, reported by a neighbor. When my officer arrived, he heard loud, female screams from inside the house. When he entered, he was immediately confronted by a large man who had a knife in his hand. The suspect slashed his own arm, then turned to my officer.

My officer, pistol (G22, with 165gr Gold Dot) in hand, ordered him to drop the knife several times. The suspect not only refused but moved aggressively toward my officer. My officer responded by retreating and repeating his command to drop the knife. The suspect was quickly overtaking my officer when my officer decided to fire. He fired a single shot, which struck the suspect in the center of his abdomen.

The effect was dramatic and immediate! The suspect fell backwards, landing on his backside. In the process, he dropped the knife and pleaded with the officer not to shoot him any more. Backup arrived shortly, and the suspect was arrested and transported to the local hospital. He is expected to survive. My officer was unhurt, and no one else in the house was hurt.

The single round fired by my officer penetrated the suspect's abdomen, ricocheted off of the pelvis, and then exited out his side. It then (fully expanded) reentered his right arm and finally came to rest just under the skin on the opposite side of the arm. It performed as advertised! I quickly went to the location myself and personally took the officer to the PD in order to get him away from the scene. The involved officer was, of course, suspended (with pay) pending the completion of the investigation, but none of us see any problem with it.

The important thing was that we have an enlightened policy here, so that this officer was not forced to make any statement in the immediate aftermath of the incident. He was taken home with his pistol and his patrol car and was not demeaned by having these two items taken from him in public.

I now understand how you feel when one of the students you have taught is victorious in a deadly encounter. As one of your students, I have passed on what I have learned to my guys. I can't tell you how good it feels to know that all my (and your) hard work has paid off last night."

Lesson: No deadly-force episode, no matter what the circumstances, will ever be exactly duplicated, before or since. And, no matter how restrained and righteous the officer's actions, someone will always point out where he could have done it better. Happily, the law doesn't require any of us to be saints. The law requires us to be reasonable.

An enlightened department will thoroughly, and with no bias, investigate all deadly-force incidents involving its officers. However, enlightened departments also don't reflexively treat their officers like criminals every time those officers are obligated to make difficult decisions quickly.

Good show, both of you!

/John