School is out, see you at Graduation December 16th!!

After a long and mysterious absence, the Balding Avenger has returned from distant places unknown.

The Avenger seems battered, and staggers a bit as he appears over the horizon.  His absence has been the result of crazy and difficult times, but make no mistake, he is back.

Beware the Glare

  Quote

Passengers recall tense moments before gunfire - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com 

Ok, I know I am not being very timely on this post, but I set this aside to write about when I had time because it reminded me of an incident I was involved in some years ago.  In the story above a man is shot by Air Marshals as he reached into a bag he was carrying.  He had been saying that he had a bomb.  It turns out that this man was mentally ill, and was not carrying anything dangerous. 

Now, if you read the story above, you might be thinking: "Why did they have to shoot that poor guy?"   After all, he was claiming to have a bomb, but never showed one; couldn't they have waited to see what was in his hand?  I can understand why a person might wonder that, because you have to hate the fact that the person was killed for what appears to be no reason. 

It was several years back that I was working as a Police Officer on the morning shift.  We received a call that a man was threatening someone with a gun at a local hotel.  A few of us hurried to the scene, and found that he had left.  We spoke with the victim, and he identified the gunman as one of my favorite dopers.  I say he was one of my favorites because in the pervious year I had managed to arrest this guy several times on all manner of drug charges.  I have to admit, because he was one of my favorite dopers, I was very eager to hook him up again, especially if he had moved on to gun crimes.  I thought it may be nice to put him away for a while, because arresting him over and over again resulted in doing LOTS of paper work. 

Everyone on my shift knew where Mr. Doper lived.  As soon as we were told that he was the gunman I headed for his apartment building.  One officer was tied up at the scene with the victim, and the others were busy, so I was on my own for the moment.  I was thankful that as I neared the apartments doper lived in, one of our Firemarshalls pulled in behind me.  He was not a cop, but was a great guy and now and then would watch our backs.

As I pulled into the parking lot there was Mr. Doper, walking toward a pick-up truck.  I called in quickly as I pulled up that I was out with the suspect.  I put my car between me and him, and I as got out of the vehicle I yelled at him to stop where he was.  As Mr. Doper realized what was happening he immediately moved behind the truck and stuck his hand down as though he was pulling something from his waist-band, but I could not see for certain because the truck was in the way.  Even before he had moved to the truck I had drawn my weapon and had it pointed at him.  The reason I was there was that someone had said he threatened them with a gun, and now I had mine pointed at him as he shoved his hand in his pants and took cover behind a truck.  At this point my finger was on the trigger starting to pull and I was yelling at him to show me his hands.  At the same time Mrs. Doper appeared from the apartment and started toward me yelling and screaming.  Luckily the Firemarshall was with me and intercepted her, pulled her away, and was on the radio telling dispatch that I was about to shoot this guy. 

All of this happened in a matter of seconds, and now I found myself quickly making a terrible split second decision.  He still had his hand behind the truck and seemed to be pulling something from his pants.  I yelled another order to show me his hands and started squeezing the trigger.  I didn't want to do it, but I was going to have to shoot him.  I was very eager to go home that night, and he might have a gun.  The trigger was just to that very last point of no return when he stepped sideways from the truck with his hands open in front of him. 

I had never credited this man with being very smart, but sliding out sideways and keeping his hands waist level was an act of genius.  I am certain that if he had done what I was telling him and put his hands up where I could see them, I would have plugged away at him the moment those arms moved.  As he cleared the truck and I saw his hands were empty, I kept him covered and ordered him to the ground.  I may have even gone over and helped him get there.  Other officers arrived very quickly (you have got to LOVE the sound of sirens at a time like that) and we got him cuffed and stuffed.  We could not find a gun anywhere, but when we searched the area in front of the truck we found what he had risked his life for.  He was nearly shot so that he could dump his bag of meth that he had been hiding in his pants.  I was right not to credit him with being too awfully smart.

I did get my wish, the bag of meth was huge, and he was finally going to get some good time, but it turns out that he was a victim of circumstance.  You see, we found out later that he was never at that hotel with a gun.  His brother had been there, and we later picked him up for the incident.  That means that Mr. Doper never had a gun.  So it seems like that all worked out well, right?  After all, he never had a gun, never was a threat, and I managed not to shoot him for no good reason.  Well, wrong.  Looking back, I made a bad mistake.  I should have fired the moment his hands went to his waist.  You see, a person cannot react as fast as another person can act.  That means that even with my weapon at the ready, I could not fire as fast as he could draw and fire if he initiates the action.  To ensure that I go home that night, I should act first.  Based on what I knew about the situation, I took an incredible risk not shooting, and I am lucky to be here.

It is truly amazing to see this concept demonstrated.  In a training class I received later I had a chance to try it out.  In the exercise an officer would have a training "dummy"  weapon out and ready.  The person playing the suspect was sitting as though he was in a car.  Then, the suspect would draw a hidden weapon and fire, and the officer would fire back.  The officer knew this was going to happen, yet over and over he could not fire first, despite the fact that his gun was already out and pointed at the bad guy.

So back to the Air Marshals.  This man said he had a bomb.  Imagine if he did, and they waited to see what was in his hand before they shot.  It would be physically impossible for them to shoot before he pressed the "blow 'em up" button.  Then the country would be in an uproar because they failed to stop him.  It is terrible that a mentally ill man died for no real reason, but the Marshals had no choice, and acted the only way they could. Been there, almost done that.  I am glad I didn't, but I was lucky, not good.