I posted this in another forum, during a discussion about ASP batons...I hope it's useful for this thread. Some of you who have taken my classes have probably heard this story.
The closest I ever came to a line of duty shooting involved an event where I was attacked by an unarmed subject I could not physically control. This happened in May of 1995.
I was working overtime at a stop-and-rob in a neighborhood most people avoid. The subject parked his car on the curb, blocking access to the gas pumps (a common problem) and I asked him to move it.
He responded with a string of obssceneties and racial ephitets. I then gave him the option of a) leaving or b) being arrested. He got into the car and attempted to run me over. Fortunately, I was able to jump out of the way, and got the plate number. I went inside to call a supervisor and start my report so we could get an arrest warrant.
As I was writing up my notes in the backroom, the store manager told me that the guy was back in the store (he must have wanted that bottle of OE 800 pretty bad). I went out to arrest him, and he resisted, so I gave him a shot of OC Pepper Foam (issued at the time - the problem with this product is that when sprayed, the subject instinctively wipes it off, and then when you go hands on, you get contaminated). He charged me and we began to grapple. At this point the nozzle broke off my OC, rendering it useless.
By that time, we were in the lot just outside the front door. I was able to get one arm into a hammerlock and was about to cuff him when another subject (we never identified or caught this guy) stepped out of nowhere and grabbed my holstered gun. I immediately let go of the first subject to retain my gun and spun away from the gun grabber's grip.
As the grabber ran away from me, I pivoted back towards my original subject just in time to see his fist collide with my left eye, breaking my glasses, closing the eye, and fracturing my orbital bone. I saw an explosion of stars, just like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
Viewing the security camera footage later, I saw myself spin about 180 degrees then bounce back, draw my pistol, and command him to the ground. He fled across the street and I put out a Signal 13 (HELP) call.
The situation now became a roller coaster up and down the force continuum (this is a good example of why continuum-based force training is being replaced). He stopped and confronted me with empty hands, so I reholstered my gun and tried to subdue him with my ASP, which collapsed the first time I hit him (which is why I don't like the ASP). He then moved to his car and tried to get something from it by reaching in the window, which led me to draw my gun again. When he came out with empty hands, I went back to the baton, which really didn't seem to be doing much good. I could keep him off me, but not subdue him.
He would not comply with any commands and kept dropping into a boxing stance. We later found out he was a Golden Gloves boxer (and, BTW, had done time for 2nd degree murder as a juvenille).
Finally, he ran across the street and up an alley. At that point, I figured, "I have his car, we'll get a warrant." Then all of the sudden he came charging back towards me. I tried to increase my reactionary gap by moving behind a car parked in the driveway of a nearby house, but that backfired because now I was trapped between the retaining wall of the driveway, the garage, and the suspect.
He kept coming at me, and I rapidly evaluated my situation. I was blind in one eye, bloody, contaminated with the OC, and feeling dizzy. If he incapacitated me, I could very easily be disarmed and shot. I made my decision to shoot, drew my gun, and issued a final challenge. We were about 15' apart.
What saved his life was the arrival of the two biggest cops in the department, responding to my help call. They bulldogged him from behind and got him cuffed.
If you think that would have been the end of it, you need to spend more time in the 'hood. "Concerned citizens" were stopping in the middle of the street, jumping out of their cars, and forming a mob of about a hundred people, yelling anti-police and other threats. We started making additional arrests and kept the backup cars coming. The mob dispersed when we deployed a party ball on them.
Once the dust settled, I made a point of telling the backup officers the subject might need medical attention for my baton work. They responded by asking if I was okay, and that's when my adrenaline dropped and I realized the extent of my injuries. I went to the hospital in an ambulance.
This incident is still relevant to me today. I learned a lot from it, the hard way, but I also am happy to have survived.
Stuff I learned:
- I should have recognized the potential for violence from our initial contact. Frankly, I moved on him without calling for backup because I was pissed off. It was a bad decision and a hard lesson learned.
- Just because someone is not armed does not mean they are not dangerous.
- The ASP is easy to carry but the trade-off is it's less effective. I had recently transitioned from the straight baton to the ASP with no real training (at that time, the assumption was that the ASP was used just like any other baton). When I later moved on to another agency and got some proper training on the ASP techniques I realized I was using it incorrectly in this encounter.
- Officers need to be trained in breaking down subjects they cannot control, holding their ground, and taking hits. To this day, I am convinced that my will to survive and the fact this was not the first time I went hands-on with a bad guy strongly contributed to my survival.
- You have to keep your head on a swivel and be aware of bystanders. The good samaratan who grabbed my gun, as far as we could tell, had no connection to the subject; nonetheless he felt compelled to participate in his crime at the spur of the moment.
The subject pled guilty to assault and battery. While awaiting sentencing, he committed a carjacking and rape and landed an additional sentence. I think he wound up with around ten years, which is not a lot considering he was still on parole for the murder.
I got six weeks light duty, a fractured orbit, broken glasses and ten stitches. To this day I periodically have problems with my left eye.
An interesting sidebar to this: this incident contributed to my switching to 9mm as my caliber of choice. At the time, I carried a Smith & Wesson 645 on duty and a .38 Bodyguard off duty/backup. While awaiting trial, the subject put a hit out on me and the City Attorney declined to charge him for it because it was a "third party" threat. My 645 was tough to conceal and my Bodyguard seemed like not enough gun for a credible threat, so I bought myself a 3914 for off-duty. I discovered I shot the 9mm better than the .45, and I carried that gun until 2008, when I retired it and started carrying the M&P9L and 9c.
This post turned out longer than I had originally intended. I hope that my sharing this experience is useful to everyone.
A summary, in response to the ASP question:
The ASP (IMHO) is better designed for carrying than actual use. The fine people at ASP have developed specific techniques with their product which are different than those you would employ with a straight baton.
Using the ASP requires additional, specific training.
ASPs tend to collapse when used (I have seen this happen many times in incidents other than mine; ask any cop who's used one on a subject).
