officers place themselves in harm's way
for us every day and I think we owe them
respect welcome to today's active
self-protection lesson I'm your host
John Kariya active cell protection
exists to help good people like you
better protect yourself and your family
today's video is an officer-involved
incident out of Kalamazoo Michigan it
shows on badge cams officers dealing
with a man who is not interested in
talking today's video is brought to you
thanks to magtec ammunition the official
ammunition supplier for all range
activities of active self-protection
this is our perp walking around on the
top right here waving a gun around
shoots it in the air and tells the woman
there on the right to call the cops
because he wants to interact with him go
read the news stories there's a whole
bunch in the description about this guy
he's gonna wait here for the cops
clearly he wants to have a gunfight with
them that's why he has the gun out and
this guy had spent a little bit of time
in volunteer EMS and a couple other
things but clearly it had some troubles
there's audio from here so let's listen
in then we'll learn some lessons
the district attorney actually synched
both angles here and he's going to walk
through a little bit of what happened
with that and I think that's an
important thing for us to look at as
well so let's listen in on how this goes
down when we sync both angles the badge
cam and the surveillance video then
we'll learn lessons from there
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hard stuff to watch but I think several
significant lessons here if you
appreciate the lessons that you get
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of today's video I want to think about
having the emotional fitness especially
that happens when you get hurt I want to
think about the importance of
marksmanship in a deadly force encounter
and I want to think about using cover
and concealment effectively and not
giving up your position of advantage
first thing I want to talk about is from
the perspective he just shot in the air
and that woman's kind of standing there
and there's somebody else notice the one
woman got the heck out of there and the
other one went back towards the back but
they are still hanging out and he tells
her hey call the cops boy I can't tell
you enough get the heck out of the
danger zone as fast as you can if at all
possible he has a phone on him he can
call the cops get the heck out of there
run out that front door as fast and as
hard as you can do not stay there at all
if at all possible and certainly I'd
recommend she have her own firearm on
her as well so when we see officers
Westrick and Weston come in here's an
incredibly dangerous situation and they
know it a couple things here want to
watch firearms handling now it's it's
difficult for us to see we're not seeing
the actual angle of the gun but it
reminds us here I don't know that she
was pointing a gun at her partner and I
don't think she did at any point here
but it's very tight real-life gun
handling is not going to give you these
huge wide swaths of safety margins so
you have to always be aware of your
muzzle those are there was rules of
firearm safety exist all the time always
keep your firearm pointed in a safe
direction that is an inviolable rule of
firearm safety notice right there she
dipped her muzzle when he moved to her
right you got to be you know able to do
those things and that takes practice it
takes a lot of practice with blue guns
and a lot of force on force evolutions
make sure to get to your training now
notice as they keep going here she's
gonna bail out but notice that what
we're gonna see here
officer Westrick is in a kneeling
position putting shots on this guy from
a very fine angle he's just peaked
around that corner ducked back the other
way and then is putting shots on the guy
from a two legged kneeling position have
you practiced firing from a non standing
non square range position have you
focused and tried to get some shots on
target from the kneeling position from
seated from various odd positions think
it's something that you should be very
much able to do particularly law
enforcement but those of us were not
sworn as well now notice he went down
there so she has to take over now he's
gonna see here she pops out she knows
there's a threat there she knows that
he's shooting a guy so she jumps out
there and has risked her safety to do so
and then put some shots in this guy okay
great get some shots on him and
marksmanship matters but then she jumps
back behind her cover and this is a
significant mistake I'm gonna put a link
in the description to an episode of
active self-protection extra where we
talk about using cover effectively using
concealment effectively and once you've
paid the price to have that angle you
keep that angle and that's why
marksmanship is so important you've got
to hit what you're aiming at when you
get out there because you cannot jump
back here without endangering yourself
highly that's gonna give him more
opportunities now once again notice she
pops in and out several times finally
put significant shots in the guy after
about shot 10 and now she has to start
reloading her gun she's out right here
and I can't tell you enough for law
enforcement officers I almost never see
reloads in civilian encounters almost
never see an emergency reload affect a
non-sworn gunfight in fact I've only
seen a couple times where it could have
affected a non-sworn gunfight but for
law enforcement officers all the time
and this reload is gonna take her about
seven seconds and this time is ticking
tick tick tick now thankfully she
already put the guy down but if she
hadn't done that and she was out of ammo
with that last one that seven seconds
could have been the last seven seconds
of her life and so I for all of my law
enforcement friends this is something
that you get out of competition that you
really learned how to reload your
firearm quickly and efficiently and get
that gun back on target and I get it she
might have had that in you know a duty
pouch with a flap on it and those kind
of things but seven seconds is a huge
ton you should you're gonna work on
reloading your firearm all the time in
training so you may as well do it
quickly
you may as well do it efficiently in
seven seconds is an awful long time for
your gun to be out of the fight now she
finally does put a couple more
on him and then she's gonna lean out
there and finally take this angle where
she's going okay I think the guy has
done and then she's gonna finally get
out there now as we sync up I want to
see what happens with the first officer
officer Westrick you see him come out
and then he's he gets scared of the guy
now you should have known that guy was
there and and been recognized but now
he's gonna try to head back towards his
concealment which I totally get you want
to be in a safe space but notice that
gives that guy the jump he is waiting
for you so you better get some shots on
target in a hurry actually think it's
great that Officer Westrick took a knee
there changed levels but notice that the
shot that hit the officer actually went
through the sheetrock you do want to
know the difference between cover and
concealment now in a civilian context
concealment can work just as well as
cover for the most part but recognize
that a non-sworn would have just gone
out the door and gotten the heck out of
there but the officer has to pursue so
understanding what's concealment in
what's covered incredibly important and
why marksmanship is so important because
the officer did get a bunch of shots off
but none of them hit the guy you got to
get accurate fire you cannot miss fast
enough to win a gunfight
now when the other officer comes around
the corner notice he's moved a little
bit and giving her a different angle now
of course they don't show when she
actually hit him here but because he's
moving every time you go back behind the
cover and come back he's gonna be in a
different spot so that's why once you've
paid the price to see that angle you put
shots on-target on that angle if there's
a target there and only then if you put
him down or if he moves do you move on
that angle a couple more things I do
want to focus on here again I'm just so
grateful that Officer Westrick had his
vest on him notice as well that he is
putting shots down there and he has that
vest yeah facing forward and thank God
he did have his vest on so all my
officer friends please wear your
equipment every day that vest saved his
life he took two shots in that vest and
you can see those right there right
through the the sheetrock there and
those would have killed him dead and
thank God they didn't because he was
wearing his protective equipment to
everyone please wear your personal
protective equipment on every shift and
never go on shift without it because
you're the ones who are going to respond
to this kind of stuff and this is why I
respect cops so much they just went to
this scene to see what was going on to
protect everybody in that building and
he sure didn't expect to get hurt that
day now a couple other last bits here as
we get going notice here that as he
moved she finally got
shot going and got it in in but no we
kind of get that gun up quickly from a
low ready position and get shots on the
target incredibly important so let's
think about significant lessons here
covering concealment knowing how to use
it knowing how to use it from
compromised positions knowing how to
practice the rules of firearm safety
knowing how to get your gun reloaded and
in the fight knowing how to put shots on
target under stress very very quickly
and at a high level incredibly important
here as we think about covering our ass
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