..ever had a revolver pulled and pointed at your face? Have you had a round go off near your head..barrel pointed in your direction? All while knowing that you could die very shortly.
Yes (a Glock not a revolver); yes; and the thought didn't enter my conscious mind until many seconds later.
..injecting the sarcasm..Instead you take a slap at those of us who thought he did well and then proclaim his actions as poor.
I'm sorry you feel that way, however, I suspect you are projecting ego & emotion onto my comment, giving it meaning that is not there.
Nobody is (or was in the other thread) asserting the incident could have been totally avoided. Intoxicated individuals who are prepared to shoot police are inherently unpredictable and dangerous. Going into the situation, the probability of occurrence could have been reduced by a better approach to the vehicle and driver (that which is commonly trained), while the severity of hazard would have remained the same, reducing the overall risk. That said, Jessop's shooting was quite good, putting every round he fired into the vehicle and striking Davis at least once
[edit: exactly once, fatally]. One of the more interesting facets of Jessop's account immediately following was he thought he had fired 7-8 shots, when in reality he nearly emptied the magazine. The perception of time and events by a mind under stress is a fascinating line of study.
Which brings up an interesting point of discussion, which is more important for police work: gun handling and shooting skills, or all the other police tradecraft that is employed every day when interacting with the public? Where should the training time and dollars be spent to yield the greatest benefit, both for the Officers and the taxpayer?
Perhaps you misunderstood my parlance. "Brilliant" was being used in the sense of spectacular, fantastic, superb. Not Isaac Newton.
Finally, personal safety is a personal responsibility. It is the underlying reason the majority of civilians who carry do so, taking control of their own security and not relying on external factors to fall into place. However hard I try, I simply don't find value in comments such as "it's a small town, things like this don't happen there very often." Complacency is just that, it doesn't matter where you are. Things big and small go wrong in my life from time to time, as they likely do in most people's lives, and when they do I always think back asking myself, "what could I have done differently to effect a more favorable outcome?" To answer that question requires absolutely no ego to get in the way, no personal bias, no preconceived notions about the situation or people involved. In the end, I can only control my actions, not those of other people.
Hopefully this incident will be a wake-up call for the other eight Officers to stay sharp every time they approach a vehicle, even in Hamilton.
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