Gun owners are going to get blasted away now. I haven't wanted to follow this thing at all, but this got posted to HK-L, along with other items in the story. The following, courtesy of Bart Kincaid:
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Last fall I had the chance to talk with an officer, considered an expert on the use of lethal force, who had talked with the defense team and the officers involved in the case. He didn't become a part of the defense team in part because he was opposed to the type of defense strategy (which we've all read now) that was going to be used. I asked about the circumstances that caused 4 trained officers to pump 41 rounds at an unarmed man standing in his doorway... here's what he told me happened... and it sounds reasonable to me...
The officers were responding to a call about a suspicious person at the complex. There had been previous, recent attacks in the area by someone who was both violent and vicious. When they arrived, they saw a man matching the description given standing near the dim light of a door. They ordered the man to freeze. The victim is a person who comes from another country and even though his English was decent, in his native country when confronted by the authorities, the proper response is to immediately show them your papers. The victim reached into his right rear pocket and grabbed a thick black leather wallet. While there's no proof what his intentions were, his actions were consistent with someone taking out their wallet and getting their driver's license or ID. Unfortunately, that's not what the officers saw... They saw someone reach to their strong side and bring around an object that in the dim light looked like the top of a smaller Glock pistol. (Think about it... we demonstrated to ourselves using a G30 and _my_ wallet that from a distance it's hard to tell which one the person has until it would be too late for you if you were an officer.) One officer yells "gun" and dives to the left removing his pistol and firing on the victim. His partner moves to the right removing his pistol and firing as well... For some reason the officer moving to the right _switched_ his pistol to his left hand and continued to move to the right for cover. As if this isn't bad enough so far, the first officer and the two newly arriving officers see this officer switch hands and assume that it is because he is hit and they are under fire. To compound things, the FMJ rounds are ricocheting wildly by now and one of the officers _is_ hit with a ricochet... When the dust has settled, the first two officers have each emptied 16 rounds (32 of the 41 shots) toward the victim. (their pistols held one in the chamber and had 15 round mags) One of the other officers fired 3 rounds before being struck by some fragments and a ricochet in his shooting arm, the last officer fired the final 6 rounds thinking that his partner had just been shot by the victim and seeing the victim still standing.
When the victim was down, the shooting stopped, and the officers approached to find NO weapon, just the victim clutching his wallet, the "Oh Sh!t" factor was very high.
I'm not saying they were right, just that I can see the circumstances degrading the way it was explained to me... It was unfortunate any way you look at it, but it wasn't the fault of the firearms used.
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Last fall I had the chance to talk with an officer, considered an expert on the use of lethal force, who had talked with the defense team and the officers involved in the case. He didn't become a part of the defense team in part because he was opposed to the type of defense strategy (which we've all read now) that was going to be used. I asked about the circumstances that caused 4 trained officers to pump 41 rounds at an unarmed man standing in his doorway... here's what he told me happened... and it sounds reasonable to me...
The officers were responding to a call about a suspicious person at the complex. There had been previous, recent attacks in the area by someone who was both violent and vicious. When they arrived, they saw a man matching the description given standing near the dim light of a door. They ordered the man to freeze. The victim is a person who comes from another country and even though his English was decent, in his native country when confronted by the authorities, the proper response is to immediately show them your papers. The victim reached into his right rear pocket and grabbed a thick black leather wallet. While there's no proof what his intentions were, his actions were consistent with someone taking out their wallet and getting their driver's license or ID. Unfortunately, that's not what the officers saw... They saw someone reach to their strong side and bring around an object that in the dim light looked like the top of a smaller Glock pistol. (Think about it... we demonstrated to ourselves using a G30 and _my_ wallet that from a distance it's hard to tell which one the person has until it would be too late for you if you were an officer.) One officer yells "gun" and dives to the left removing his pistol and firing on the victim. His partner moves to the right removing his pistol and firing as well... For some reason the officer moving to the right _switched_ his pistol to his left hand and continued to move to the right for cover. As if this isn't bad enough so far, the first officer and the two newly arriving officers see this officer switch hands and assume that it is because he is hit and they are under fire. To compound things, the FMJ rounds are ricocheting wildly by now and one of the officers _is_ hit with a ricochet... When the dust has settled, the first two officers have each emptied 16 rounds (32 of the 41 shots) toward the victim. (their pistols held one in the chamber and had 15 round mags) One of the other officers fired 3 rounds before being struck by some fragments and a ricochet in his shooting arm, the last officer fired the final 6 rounds thinking that his partner had just been shot by the victim and seeing the victim still standing.
When the victim was down, the shooting stopped, and the officers approached to find NO weapon, just the victim clutching his wallet, the "Oh Sh!t" factor was very high.
I'm not saying they were right, just that I can see the circumstances degrading the way it was explained to me... It was unfortunate any way you look at it, but it wasn't the fault of the firearms used.
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