Detroit Police PD Gunfight

Hey Ferfal, 

Here is a video of the attack on a Detroit Police PD.

I dont know if you have seen it yet.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/26654757/index.html

 

 

Eddy

 

Hi Eddy, several good things to learn from this video ( in spite of it being a horrifc attack on police officers by a mad man) As always this is done to understand how shootings develope and point out a few things.

 

The men here did as well as they could given the surprise attack. They are well trained and did lots of things right.

1)      Go for cover. If this had been a rifle such as an AK, simply shooting through the bench would have killed the officers. In general, a desk is just concealment, not cover, but at the time it’s the only thing they had. For a shotgun shot though, other than the unlikely event of the bad guy using slugs, the desk at that angle will make ok cover. 

2)      Body armor saves lives. This video proves it yet again. If you have your gun, a good flashlight, body armor should be next in your list. I constantly get emails of people that bought armor because of my recommendations, couldn’t be happier about that. If you have a couple extra seconds during an attack or home invasion, spend them getting your armor on. 

3)      Notice the need to shoot repeatedly. The handgun is a poor stopper compared to rifles, and you must fully expect to keep shooting until the bad guy goes down. You don’t just shoot with a handgun, you start shooting, quickly pump as many rounds into your attacker as possible. 

4)      Commander Brian Davis executes a perfect single handed shooting technique while  moving backwards. Sometimes you see this while moving diagonally backwards as well. Diagonal backwards movement is usually better because it creates more distance, at the same time it requires horizontal realignment and you are less likely to get hit than moving straight backwards. What he did here is exactly what you train to do in shooting training. He clearly fell back to his training during this fight and that saved his life. It would have been even better if he had moved diagonally to that low door behind the counter where one of the first cops escpaed through. Seems that it would have been a better place to retreat to rather than get cornered. At least that’s what it seems based on the little information provided by this clip regarding the floor plan. Basically, when moving make sure you’re not cornering yourself in a dead end. 

5)      Notice the canted angle in his single hand shooting stance. Straight out of a textbook. This reduces the area available to shoot and also somewhat protects the center of mass area where your heart is. Better to catch a shotgun blast in your side in the ribs or shoulder than getting shot in the heart, right?

6)      Commander Davis gets shot in the hand. What would he have done folks if the fight continued? That’s right ladies and gentlemen, he would have shot with his other hand, as trained. This is why you must learn how to shoot, reload and load a round into the chamber single handedly with both hands. Not easy, but not training it doesn’t make it any easier.Notice: You need square rear sights  to make tihs operation easer. Some of those melted things may look cool and aerodinamic, but you dont want that when performing  single handed reloading techniques. 

 

7)      Throwing the trashcan. Even if its just a distraction throwing a cup, paperweight, keyboard or whatever it is you have may buy you a precious second or two. Heck, you might be lucky and hit him in the face causing some damage or buying even more time. This works within a context, the context in this case being a gunfight. Throwing your keys or dropping the wallet may get you that extra second you need to draw your gun.

 Please don’t follow stupid suggestions such as throwing stuff at an armed robber when your are unarmed and kept at gunpoint. You’ll just get shot.  Its just a distraction, and achieves nothing unless its part of a better plan. 

8)      Suppressive fire with a pistol. So much for all that one shot one kill BS. Leave that to snipers. Where was Commander Davis and partner shooting those first shots to? The general direction. The other cop just puts the gun over the desk and shoots a bunch of rounds. The only shots that count are hits ? Well no, if the shots are giving the bad guy something to think about, they are getting the job done too. If the bad guy isn’t an insane freak like in this case, a likely outcome would have been to run away after the failed attack when he sees the officers shooting in his direction. Suppressive fire buys you time, gives the bad guy things to think about (like oh, I just might get shot) It turns the tide to your favor in a way and may avoid the bad guy rushing in. In this case it didn’t work very well, again dealing with an insane man here, but it was worth a shot and I’m sure it bought them some time none the less.

9)      Between the suppress rounds fired and the amount of shots needed to stop this mad man, a lone attacker!, how would you feel having just 6 or 7 shots instead o 16 or more?

Take care folks.

FerFAL