Suspect gets the drop on a Deputy

[Pick187]

Video underscores dangers for deputies
Suspect turned gun on deputy, then himself

Updated: Tuesday, 26 Jan 2010, 6:49 PM EST
Published : Tuesday, 26 Jan 2010, 6:42 PM EST

By Tony Tagliavia
It took just more than two minutes for an early Monday morning traffic stop by a Calhoun County sheriff's deputy to escalate, with the driver putting the deputy's life -- as well as his own -- in jeopardy.

Video released to 24 Hour News 8 on Tuesday gives a rare look at the danger law enforcement officers can face in the line of duty. The deputy survived after the driver turned the gun on himself and took his own life, despite the deputy's attempts to convince him not to.

The dashboard recording shows the 23-year-old driver pulling a gun from his waist after the sheriff's deputy asked the driver to get out of his car -- about 30 seconds before he told the deputy he did not have a weapon.

"No, I'm good, officer," he had told the deputy. "I'm coming home from work. I'm just trying to go home."

As soon as the driver pulled a weapon, the deputy is heard saying "don't. Do not. Do not." The deputy trips and the driver tells him to put his hands on his head.

The driver had admitted his driver's license was suspended. And he said he had some marijuana in his car that he threw out of it earlier. The man is heard telling the officer, "I'm sorry about this. I don't want to go to jail."

That's when the driver brings up the idea of killing himself.

"No, I don't want you to do that," the deputy said. And he continued to try to talk the driver down. "We need to talk because I don't want you to kill yourself," the deputy said.

The driver did put a gun to his head several times, and the deputy continued to try to convince him otherwise. Less than five minutes after the traffic stop began, the driver took his own life.

Calhoun County Sheriff's Captain Matt Saxton credits the deputy for remaining remarkably calm. The deputy followed procedure, Saxton said in an interview Tuesday, and the firearm and tactics training deputies receive.

"We'll watch the video and use it for future training," he said. "It's fortunate he went home to his wife and kids yesterday."

Law enforcement officers are trained "to try and talk as much as you can," Saxton said, "and personalize it."

That includes the deputy's references to his family heard in the recording.

The driver's father, who asked not to be identified, said the family is "sorry for the officer. [We] hope that he doesn't have anything in his life stress him out because of this situation."

He said his son was driving home from work -- something the driver said himself in the video, after he told the deputy he did not have a weapon.

The driver's decision to take his own life may have been out of desperation, his father said. "He didn't have no other choice in his mind. We wish it would have went differently."

The 23-year-old was a good man who had just recently gotten into trouble with guns, his father said. Though he stresses his son is not a murderer and not a thug, the father said he has a warning for those who get caught up with guns.

"If you need a gun to go around the people that you need to go around with, your friends, then those are not the people you should be with," he said. "And please, don't ever do this to your parents ... because it literally rips your heart out."

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/kalamazoo_and_battle_creek/Video-underscores-dangers-for-deputies

[Pick187]

First thing I notice is Deputy has his weapon hand preoccupied with his flashlight. What a common mistake, I catch myself doing even though I know better.

Dosen't appear that the Deputy has an escape plan thought out so his movement to get away turns into a cluster, but once he figures out the suspect has the drop on him he does a great job of talking.

The Deputy first puts his hands on top of his head then it appears to click that isn't the best idea and starts adjusting.

[Pick187]

Its hard to tell, but does the suspect put his gun into his waistband? If so I can't understand why the Deputy dosen't do something at this time. :mad:

[justken2u]

I see things like this ALL THE TIME during scenarios ... this is SO tragically common that it drives me nuts that I have empty seats in RBT instructor schools. Reading the comments on PoliceOne and on the various boards discussing this officer it is clear to me that most of the Monday morning quarterbacks question this officer's ability to become aggressive or decisive. My take on this is that he has no experience dealing with a situation like this. Following the simplicity of Boyd's Cycle, if he has no experience he can't Orient. If he can't Orient, he can't Decide. If he can't Decide, he can't Act.

If this were a scenario, I'd be pressing the "pause button" after the suspect puts the gun away in his waistband and ask the officer "what are you thinking right now?" It is obvious from the officers comments during the incident that the fact the subject has put away the gun has NOT EVEN REGISTERED!!!

The pause button breaks this loop and get you thinking about more effective and decisive action. It will be at that point, and ONLY that point, that we will be able to figure out if the officer has the capacity for aggressive action. If so, and following a thorough debrief and remediation, the officer then has ACTUAL experience in dealing with a situation like this. This is now available to him in his psychological Rolodex.

Experience is King during critical incidents. You can't think your way into a new way of behaving ... you have to behave your way into a new way of thinking. Law enforcement is a pretty simple job (simple, but not easy ... don't get confused about the differences between simple and easy ...) The tasks are: Talk, Fight, Shoot, or Leave. Where I observe most officers in training and in the real world get bent up is that they are talking when they should be fighting, fighting when they should be leaving, shooting when they should be talking, etc. It all comes down to the experiential factors of the encounter. And not simply whether or not they have experience with a particular situation or not, but also their experience or meta-experience with what will happen to them should they choose one or another course of action. Time and again we see officers in situations where it seems they would rather take a bullet than to face the consequences of shooting first. It isn't simply about physically winning ... there are also the dynamics of psychological survival, professional survival, legal survival, social survival, financial survival and spiritual survival. If an officer's mind is spinning around wondering what his society, boss or God is going to do to him in the aftermath of a trigger press, then that officer is NOT game ready.

Videos such as this motivate me to keep working on my Seven Survivals book. More to follow.

Glad it turned out physically OK for this officer .. my guess is, that psychologically, professionally and socially he is going to have some work to do.

[Mully]

This profession makes it so hard not to MMQB, but well put Ken in your first and second paragraph. We as trainers need to look at our programs and make sure were giving our officers the best RBT we can give them. Maybe the MMQB'ing should be aimed towards the trainers and how they failed to train their officers instead of the officers themselves. Our training used to be the "doom and gloom" style and you came back with not learning anything and less confident in your ability. Thank's Ken for interventions, preparation, safety, and remedial's they have helped out greatly. What still shocks me is that after several years of the "new paradigm" of RBT, we still get officers looking for the ninja's that are suppose to jump out of the ceiling and bring impending doom.