I finally saw the video of the shooting so I’m going to post the following in the interest of fairness to the officers.  There’s a lot of Monday morning quarter backing from people with no clue of the realities of this situation.  The fact is, as a whole, cops are not shooters and never have been.  There are shooters who are cops but, chances are, the guy who comes to your 911 call is NOT one of them.  SWAT and other door kickers are rarely among the first to arrive in an emergency.  All that said, when they are called upon to act, cops do the best they can with the tools and training given to them by their agency.  On their own dime; few will cough up the coin it takes to train to a level of technical proficiency that is even remotely close to that of the average competitive shooter.  But, gunfights are not shooting competitions.  People aren’t shooting back at you in a shooting competition and the thought of dying isn’t running through your brain the whole time. In the end, I think the two cops involved in this and the department at large are rightfully going to take some flak from the public and face a civil suit.  After all, innocent people were shot and/or injured by bullets and other debris resulting from the officers’ actions.  But those actions were dictated by the suspect and few people outside the law enforcement community will understand the concept that there was not going to be a “good” outcome in this specific situation.

Put yourself on that street.  The guy is turning toward you, gun in hand, level and ready to fire.  Too far to close the distance or use any non-lethal means to stop him from shooting, nowhere to run for cover and the reality is, you’re already out of time for all other options other than shooting him, right now!.  You’re liable for every shot and anything that bullet hits but, how do you pick a “safe” direction in which to shoot someone at 9am, Friday morning, on a crowded NYC sidewalk in this situation?  Shoot toward the street and at that moment, you’re lighting up a city bus (seen in the video) and probably a couple dozen other vehicles full of innocent bystanders.  You can’t run into the street to get an angle toward a wall.  Even if you could, you’re shooting into a store front and either of those options requires time you don’t have to get into position.  Oh by the way, this guy has already drawn a gun on you and is ready to fire…Did we cover that already? Wait just a split second longer for the situation to develop, and the bad guy could shoot one or more innocent bystanders anyway or shoot you, take your gun and now has at least two more guns with which to kill other people people.  I’ll say again, there’s not going to be a good outcome…Just bad and worse.  As one of our favorite listners, Kip said on the show today, “it’s a real life Kobayashi Maru” scenario.

I am not being an apologist for the cops here but, I’m not going to continue piling on them either.  These guys were dealt a bad hand and did what they could in a situation that many would be heroes and keyboard commandoes wouldn’t have survived. Why?  Because most of us have never considered situation in which there are no “right” answers.  Those in which no matter what we do, there’s not likely to be a good outcome. We all have a natural drive toward self-preservation but, few of us are willing to knowingly risk or take the lives of innocent bystanders to ensure our own survival in anything but the worst of panic states (i.e. drowning victims drowning would be rescuers).  From here, the only real question is, what’s going to happen with these officers.  Will their careers and lives be destroyed by a department that cuts them loose to distance itself from civil liability?  Or will the department and city step up, and extend qualified immunity to the officers and take the civil hit?  I’m not a lawyer and I don’t claim to be a tactical or police expert but, from what I’ve been taught and all the training I’ve had up to this point in my life, I think the video shows two officers reacting reasonably to a worst case scenario in which the least hazardous/dangerous of all possible actions was to immediately shoot the armed suspect to the ground. That’s what the officers did and I don’t think it’s reasonable to ask anything more of them given the circumstances.  That doesn’t mean I don’t think the department can’t be held civil liable and the innocent bystanders compensated for their injuries but, I for one will not be among those holding pitch forks, demanding the officers’ heads.

– Gary