Tuesday, May 29, 2012

It's not good to get caught in a gunfight

Thoughts on training for the unexpected by a Police Officer who found himself - with his family - in one.  Food for thought.

9 comments:

Stephen said...

I feel for the poor guy...a child died. That, I'm sure, took a lot of of 'getting over.'

Mozart said...

Good article.

And posted

Glenn B said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Glenn B said...

That story has to be at least a few, if not several, years old by now. In that time, it has been beaten to death as to "what ifs" even by the officer himself.

Yep, too bad he never realistically trained for such a situation (my agency covered that at least during one of each years quarterly training sessions) but no matter what the officer did, if someone had died, he would probably still be blaming himself. Why - because he was helpless to have prevented it and he was not the cause of it, it is a mental trauma thing to believe you caused it in such a situation. If he did this way or that, the child still could have been killed or worse may have happened and other innocents may have died.

It is also too bad he made some of the statements he did apparently before going through a complete and successful course of treatment for PTSD. For him to believe that anything he did caused that little girls death is a shame. It happened and he was, in my opinion, no way the cause of it. Remember, I said there have been a lot of "what ifs", well I just would just ask you to consider what iffing this along these lines. What if he let the guy go and the guy walked into another place and killed three kids, and four adults during the course of another robbery? Or, what if he let the guy go and the guy grabbed one of the cops kids as a shield and later killed the officer's own child? Who would be at fault in either of those situations? Would it have been the officer? You can bet, that after the fact, the officer would have thought so, just as he thought he was at fault after the death of the little girl. The officer, by what iffing it, is trying to put the blame onto himself out of grief and remorse over an innocent child being killed in something in which he was involved; it is a natural response to mental trauma after such an event. He also is trying to tell himself and the world that if only he had done it another way everything would have been just coming up roses. Truth be told - he cannot know that, he just wants to believe it because of his own feelings of guilt and remorse as a way to chatise himself - a way to repent so to speak. The officer, amd others, can second guess himself forever if he wants or he can come to terms with what happened as awful as it was and realize he did what he did and that was not the cause of the child being killed. The truth is he did not kill nor cause her death just as the parets of the girl (who may have given her money for McDonalds or who may have taken her there for a Happy Meal) were not the cause of her death (but you can bet they wonder what they could have done to have prevented it or that they blame the officer as a way to avert guilt from themselves). There was only one person at fault. The bad guy was the cause, no one else, and it was at the moment that he decided he was going to go out to rob that McDonald's that he started to make things go wrong.

All the best,
Glenn B

Old NFO said...

This is probably pretty close to what a CCW person may face, and even though WE are trained to the four rules, the bad guys don't care... hence the dead child.

Dave H said...

I'd ask that cop to think a minute about how many times he's carried a gun off duty and nobody died. He wasn't the cause of that event. He didn't choose to commit armed robbery.

That's easier to say than believe, I'm sure. But the crook was the one who started the dominoes falling.

kx59 said...

very sobering.

Dirk said...

Definitely some good tips in the comment by "Dave", even for those who aren't armed.

Goober said...

I can't even imagine how that guy felt when the smoke cleared. How freaking awful. If he ever manages to fogive himself for that, he is a better man than I.

You know, over the years, I've taken a lot of crap from a lot of people because I am constantly posting about how violent action with a gun is a last resort, and that it isn't worth dying or killing someone over a TV set or your wallet. Guys all over the internets tell me that I'm a coward, and that my policy is just reinforcing to the crooks that they can get away with it, and so forth. Seems that a lot of folks out there are just itching to carve a notch in their stock.

THIS, folks, THIS is exactly what I've been talking about all those years. The guy didn't use his gun on the manager. he was coming out with the loot in tow. I hate to armchair quarterback, because I wasn't there, but it seems to me like even the officer involved in the shooting is willing to admit that if he'd just stood back and let the guy go, that 9 year old girl would still be alive today.

Stopping him from stealing a couple hundred bucks worth of money from a multi-billion dollar corporation isn't worth that little girl's life.

I think this officer sadly understands that now, and i think he wishes to hell that he'd just let the guy go.

That being said, it is hard to tell when mili-seconds count whether the bad guy is going to shoot or not, so you have to go with your gut and do what you think is right - it is just that I think having the proper mindset about all of this is vitally important. I'm willing to get into a gunfight and risk other people's lives under one circumstance and one circumstance only - the lives of others, or myself, are ALREADY at risk. That's it. Guy wants the TV in my living room? he can have it. Wants my wallet? here it is.

Wants my life? Only if you get it before I get yours.