Cop's body cam captures moments before he was fatally shot

Cop's body cam captures moments before he was fatally shot
Link to Video (sorry, can't embed this one directly)

For those folks that argue over whether a police officers job means waiting to see a gun before reacting. This is the reason why they try to keep their distance and instruct people to do things from afar. This man being questioned was a suspect in a domestic violence case. He keeps his hands in his coat pockets the entire time. In this sad case, the officer made a number of fatal mistakes (I'm sure there are more):

• He did not tell the suspect to remove his hands from his pockets before approaching
  
• He approached too closely while the suspect still had his hands concealed
  
• He lost sight of the man's right arm (the hand of which was still concealed in his pocket)
  

Every time an officer needs to question a suspect, there is a very real and present danger to their lives. How many times has this same scenario played out over the years. I fear, however, if the body cams become standard issue, that suspects (like this guy) will learn quickly to remove the cam from the officer before leaving the scene. The cams need to be streaming the video to an offsite storage area (in the nearby officers vehicle perhaps) to ensure the evidence cannot be tampered or destroyed by anyone (including the officer).

I feel sorrow for the officers family and friends that video exists of his murder. At least the fact that he had his body cam running will definitely assist in the prosecution of the suspect.

As I reflect more on this sad incident, a haunting phrase keeps running though my mind, "Never let a crisis go to waste". Let me clarify a bit why I am more concerned now. I can see this incident being used as part of future police training, resulting in more shooting of suspects more quickly. When in fact, it should be teaching the mistakes and how to avoid falling into those traps. But, that takes someone of a higher IQ to appreciate and learn...and...as we have seen numerous times, the bar for intelligence keeps getting lower over the years in this profession.

I can only hope the lesson is the latter (learning from mistakes) and not the former (if the suspect moves...SHOOT to kill).



ETA: Four seconds is all it took from calmly speaking with the suspect and being shot. It took longer than four seconds for you to read this sentence here. It happened THAT fast. Internalize that for a moment. And some here wonder why a police officer makes deadly snap decisions so quickly? This is why...it is not Hollywood...there is no slow-mo or replay. You get one chance to make a life or death decision in only four seconds.

That's messed up. The officer was being very polite and civil with the guy too. He definitely didn't deserve to die over it. Such a senseless killing that didn't need to happen. I feel for the officers family and friends.

Was talking to an officer years ago, he mentioned that domestic violence calls were the scariest because of the unpredictability and the high levels of emotions.

a reply to: mtnshredder

I agree wholeheartedly. As I said, it took only four seconds from calm to shot. If you keep this fact in mind and review the recent events everyone is protesting, it seems each event was not much more time than that. And, if "all lives matter", what about this officer's life?

Doesn't his life matter too?
Where are the protesters over his killing?

A minor domestic Involving an immature young man.
Just had a handbags at dawn fight with his Girlfreind.

Pushing shoveing a few scratches.

Hurt feelings .anger .hurt pride...machismo.

L E responds to a minor incident no need for S W A T ..

ROUTINE.

All he knows about Is a dispute and some missing keys.
Arrives at the incident .
Some minor chit chat this and that.

..Can I pat you down ...

No

I get It having a bad day just had an alltriction with your imagined love of your life.
Some one has to pay for it feel your anger over a minor domestic.

So this brave man going routinely about his job is executed.

Empty s the chamber an then another for good measure.

This man Is a poster child for gun control.

You see not every one whom can aquire a gun has the control not to use it.

For no other reason than loss of mental control
ps

I know its because of unstable people like this you need lots of guns to defend your selfs.

Imagine your home Is over run with fleas.
You will get bites.

Europe ver run with rat .
The rats were the firearms .

Fleas were the bullets.

Lot of people died because of the huge amounts of rats an Fleas.

And the environment.

America has a similar problem with guns an bulllets.

And you will allow no Pied Piper to remove them from you.



Your afraid that if you give up your rights to display tattoos through bare arms.

You would have to soon pay the PIPER.

Sad thing Is being the U S A your right.

America doesn't just arm the terrorists to reduce ther numbers.
It does the same to its own citizens.

We live by the law of the Jungle.

For they the game wardens created the jungle for us exist In.

Some times they go safari to mingle with the wild game.

They prefer there ivory towers to observe there minions

a reply to: Krakatoa

Fatal mistakes, two very key words which determined his unfortunate outcome. I've personally seen footage of good guys that I've worked with get the living hell kicked out of them by suspects..simply because they've neglected to go through the mental checklist (search the suspect, watch their body language, never take your eyes off the suspect!)

a reply to: Krakatoa

Simple mistake cost this cop his life. Plus there should be two officers at EVERY incident no matter how trivial....just in case you get a idiot like this person who shoots cops for no reason.

a reply to: threeeyesopen

I agree...watching that video, there were many body language flags I saw that made me concerned...and I am not a trained LEO. I just have persona experience growing up in a place that forced you to have those "extra senses" to get that "uncomfortable feeling" when you know something bad is going to happen if I don't diffuse the situation in some manner. The big red flag for me was him keeping his right hand in his pockets during the entire confrontation. The majority of people are right handed. And if the man has a concealed weapon, the probability is high it will be in his right hand. Also, when the suspect was asked if he had a weapon on him, did the officer actually expect him to respond with, "why yes sir, and it is cocked and pointing at you right now".

Again, numerous fatal mistakes. Unfortunately, in life, you only get one chance to make a fatal mistake.

RIP sir....I feel for your family.

a reply to: Krakatoa

Wow... Speechless. The scumbag isn't worth the rope he ought to be hanging from. At least there's plenty of evidence, should be open and shut case at trial. The fact that he recovered the officer's duty pistol to "finish him off" is especially damning.

Just goes to show that there's no such thing as a "routine call/traffic stop." While tragic, the officer did make several mistakes, unfortunately leading to his demise. Hands should be visible at all times during ANY interactions with a suspect. He failed to maintain control of the situation, and as noted, keep distance.



I feel the officer was too relaxed and non-vigilant in regards to situational awareness during this exchange. I hope this leads to better training for LEO's, mainly involving the wisdom of the Tueller Drill.

Revisiting the "21-Foot Rule"

The 21-foot rule was developed by Lt. John Tueller, a firearms instructor with the Salt Lake City Police Department. Back in 1983, Tueller set up a drill where he placed a "suspect" armed with an edged weapon 20 or so feet away from an officer with a holstered sidearm. He then directed the armed suspect to run toward the officer in attack mode. The training objective was to determine whether the officer could draw and accurately fire upon the assailant before the suspect stabbed him.

After repeating the drill numerous times, Tueller—who is now retired—wrote an article saying it was entirely possible for a suspect armed with an edged weapon to fatally engage an officer armed with a handgun within a distance of 21 feet. The so-called "21-Foot Rule" was born and soon spread throughout the law enforcement community.

As a non-LEO student of self-defense tactics and scenarios, this came as quite a revelation to me. Intuitively, you would think that being armed with a pistol against an assailant with a knife would give you an automatic edge. Not so.

Psychophysiology–This is the study of how the brain influences and affects physiological function. Science tells us that humans possess both a forebrain and a midbrain. The forebrain is where cognitive processing and decision-making take place. The midbrain plays a role in situational awareness, sleep, arousal, alertness, and trained and subconscious memories.

When an officer experiences a threat, it takes on average .58 seconds to experience the threat and determine if it is real. It then takes on average .56 to 1.0 seconds to make a response decision. Humans have five possible responses to threat: defend (fight), disengage (retreat), posture (yell, point a finger, act aggressive), become hypervigilant (panic, confusion, freezing, using force excessively), and submit (surrender).
[...]
Accuracy of fire at close distances—The average officer in static firearms qualifications (non-timed, standing, and shooting without moving) can hit the 9 and 10 rings far more often than not from the five-yard line. However, research of actual OIS incidents has shown that officers can only accurately hit their moving assailants 14% of the time in life-or-death situations from distances of only two to 10 feet. On the other hand, assailants were able to successfully engage and hit officers 68% of the time within those same distances.

Perception lag—Once the average officer gets on target, it takes him or her .56 seconds to make a decision to commence shooting. However, it then takes that same officer .25 to .31/100ths of a second per trigger pull to fire. As the deadly force scenario rapidly evolves, it takes that same officer on average .5 to .6 seconds to realize that the threat has passed and to stop shooting. This is because of a psychophysiological dynamic referred to as "perception action-reaction lag time."

originally posted by: mtnshredder
That's messed up. The officer was being very polite and civil with the guy too. He definitely didn't deserve to die over it. Such a senseless killing that didn't need to happen. I feel for the officers family and friends.

Was talking to an officer years ago, he mentioned that domestic violence calls were the scariest because of the unpredictability and the high levels of emotions.

Very true. Heard the same from a buddy's dad who was retired LEO. Just last weekend while at work, around 11 pm I noticed an incident that seemed to be escalating quickly, and called dispatch to request officers on scene to defuse it and maintain peace.

My work is located near a parking lot thats well-known for teenagers to hang out at on the weekends. Mostly harmless fun, the worst I usually see is burnouts and donuts. Kids'll be kids, whatever.

While outside, I spotted a young man walking towards our property, in an intense verbal altercation with 2 females in chase, agitating the situation further. Tensions were high between them, with many expletives and yelling being thrown around.

Next thing I know, the male retrieves wooden baseball from a vehicle, walks back towards the parking lot, and made the verbal threat of "Oh great, now I gotta go rape two [female dogs]"

At this point i took the situation very seriously as rape is NOT a joking matter, rushed inside, made the call, and gave dispatch all details I could. 4-6 Officers (Highway Patrol, Sherriff Deputies, and local City PD) were on scene within one minute, all very visibly on high alert, and immediately took control of the situation via verbal commands and blocking of all outlet roads. Thankfully, no one was hurt, I gave my statement as to what I witnessed, and the "frequent flyer" (known trouble-maker) earned a night in the county Crossbar Hotel with a complimentary set of shiny bracelets.

A sad, needless death. This video should be shown in every police acadamy in the world to show what can happen in a heartbeat and how this officer would have been alive had he treated the situation differently.

The death of this officer should'nt go to waste.

He could save the lives of thousands of leos.

This encapsulates the problems American police have when trying to work in a country awash with guns. While I find it difficult to understand, one can see why the police are often guilty of shooting first and / or acting in an overly heavy handed manner.

Regards

a reply to: Krakatoa

How many times? You can look up the statistics of cops being shot by perpetrators. I believe people have already noted the disparity between the statistics of cops killing people vs. cops being killed.

I'm not here to take a side. But there is an increase in the rhetoric for the dangers of being a police officer. This rhetoric serves to drive a wedge between people that have a dog in the fight.

There are a lot of people in the USA that NEED things to be true. One of those things is that "all cops are good" and "how dare you speak ugly of police." But this sort of thing blind need exists for other hot button topics.

It's a shame he got shot. But it's an unfortunate part of the job that they sign up for. Yet, we continue with the hero and warrior worship mentality because that's what we are fed.