by Jack
The following question is posed to test your judgement and legal knowledge. Give it a “shot” and I’ll have the answer posted for you tomorrow.
A teenage boy, about 17, is walking through a crowded mall and firing off shots from his pump shotgun. Some of the pellets ricocheted and come close to hitting people. Within a minute you and several other police officers arrive on the scene and you close in on the shooter, you order him to drop his weapon. But he won’t stop, and he continues firing off shots indiscriminately.
Your weapons are at the ready. Now keep in mind, nobody has been seriously hurt yet, we don’t know the shooter’s intentions, you only know he is discharging a weapon recklessly in disregard to the safety of others, however you don’t believe he has seriously hurt anyone yet.
He’s once again been ordered to drop his weapon by one of your fellow officers, but he ignores that order and continues on his way shooting, threatening people, aiming at them and firing, he’s also blowing out shop windows and causing a panic. People are fleeing in fear of their lives, it’s chaos.
What would you do? Select the most correct answer from those below:
( A ) Do nothing, if you shoot and miss you might injure or kill an innocent person – your best bet is to keep people out of his way and wait for him to run out of ammo.
( B ) He is a juvenile, so you try to shoot him in the leg or arm to disable him. Then capture him while keeping other people out of the line of fire.
( C ) You immediately estimate the best time to fire to minimize the risk to others and then you shoot to kill.
( D ) Since he’s a juvenile and he’s not really hurt anyone, you have no right to use lethal force. At the moment this is only a property crime. So, you try to keep others out of harms way and use whatever non-lethal methods you may have, such as mace, tear gas or a stun gun.
( E ) Your first obligation is to save lives, so you evacuate the mall and then you contain the shooter until he can be taken safely into custody with minimal risk to you and him.
I like E and A, in that order.
My money is on C but I have a feeling you are going to say E, I am sticking with C.
I could never qualify as a good cop, but C) is my answer.
My first inclination was B, the point would be to stop him in his tracks, to end his shooting spree, and prevent him from harming or killing others. I assume if you’re close enough to order him to drop the weapon you are also close enough to rush him when he goes down. Then I read through it again.
C.
Don’t be absurd. The little weasel is firing off live rounds in a mall? … he gets took out just as soon as similarly armed (but socially sanctioned) weasels come upon him.
Actually, none of the listed answers is correct. The cops have already failed the test by giving the warning to “drop your weapon,” and they failed twice. In a situation like that, where a dangerous person is discharging a lethal weapon at people at close range and posing such an immediate danger, there is no need to shout “Police,” “drop your weapon,” “freeze,” or any of that TV nonsense. You just shoot immediately and accurately for center mass, and you continue to shoot until the subject is no longer a threat.
My first inclination was B, not because the shooter is a juvinile but because I thought if you could wound him it would end the shooting and give officers a chance to subdue him…then I read through it again and decided that C was the only sure way to end the danger to innocent bystanders.
C is my answer
Oh, Jesus H. Christ! I agree with Libby!
Damn you people:)
Here’s a good one, we’ve all heard it, but I’ll indulge myself:
Jesus was walking through the market one morning when he came upon a huge crowd, about to stone a whore to death. He said, “Let he or she among you, who is without sin, cast the first stone.” The crowd parts, and a little old lady come wobbling up with an enormous rock, which she pitches upon the whore, who is squashed dead.
Jesus turns to the old lady and says, “Mom, sometimes you really piss me off… you could break your back doing that!” The next day he took her out and bought her a .44, a neat little job with a pink handle. She’s been seen at the range, and she’s not doing too bad…
A 39-year-old man was arrested Sunday morning after a standoff with police in Waterloo that lasted several hours.
Police Chief Tim Donahue said Rodney Schindler went to his ex-mother-in-law’s apartment on Cedar Drive intending to harm his former wife, who was not at the apartment. She is out of state and has a protection order against him. Valley Police Officer Tadd Vosberg and Valley Police Officer Roy Napora were honored with medals soon after the incident. Vosberg was honored with a medal of Merit and Roy Napora was provided a distinguished Medal of Valor.
Schindler assaulted the mother and held her in the apartment. The mother was able to get a text message to her daughter who called police.
Police surrounded the apartment at 11:30 p.m. Saturday.
The mother soon escaped through a window to waiting officers. She was taken to the hospital and treated for a minor head injury and bumps and bruises sustained in the ordeal.
Schindler found a gun that was in the apartment and fired it. During the standoff, he reportedly tried to throw furniture down the stairs at officers.
Nebraska State Patrol hostage negotiators talked with Schindler and by 5 a.m. he surrendered without incident.
Schindler was charged with false imprisonment, making terroristic threats, violation of a protection order and felony destruction of property.
all yhou guys did a great job. Tim Donahue Chief of Police Waterloo, Tim Pittman Waterloo, Roy Naporapolice office Valley Tadd Vosberg from Valley Police
Thanks gentlemen, we appreciate your input. For what its worth, the author of the article is a retired police homicide investigator from one of the nations most violent cities. He has been in countless armed confrontations and has been a certified range master and conducted many shoot – don’t shoot situations. He has also been a tactics instructor for the Army and Air Force first response teams that are similar to civilian SWAT teams.
Stay safe out there – that’s an order!