Shoot-out lessons

Nice job by the cop, good job by passers-by, and fair work by CNN.

This video on CNN shows a shoot-out that occurred in Altamonte Springs, FL, where police officer Mike Lavoie (a patrol officer who is on the SWAT team) pulled over vehicle matching the description of a suspect leaving a motel. CNN drops the ball by not mentioning what he was suspected of, but I'll let that go-- it's not the lead nor really pertinent.

As Officer Lavoie approached the driver's side door of the red Ford Focus hatchback, the passenger, one Franklin Ortiz Castro, made a damned fool decision that could easily have cost him and his partner their lives-- he began shooting at the patrol officer with his single-action revolver.

No word on the caliber or make, but the nickel or chrome-plated revolver was showed from a couple of angles in grainy shots, and clearly was a single-action, which required the operator to thumb cock it before each shot, as compared to, say, a double action revolver (which self-cocks with each trigger pull) or a semi-auto pistol (which almost always self-cock after each shot, for a fast, light trigger pull).

Officer Lavoie does a nice job-- he doesn't shoot the driver who is between him and the active threat, and he does make hits on Castro. Though not fatal, the hits do end the gun fight.

One of the truly superb parts of the story is that a bystander, Mike Solitro, and his unnamed adult son, tackled the fleeing driver and held him for responding police.

No word on how this started, or where it will end, but lessons learned are:

--The threat may be the next guy over; never assume that the one nearest you is the only or most dangerous person in the area.

--Decide ahead of time, before the balloon goes up, what your criteria are to take action. Mr. Solitro and his son were not expected to tackle the driver, but they did so. Would you have done so? What's your line in the sand? Consider situations in your head. What could you live with?

--Always be sure of where your bullets will end up. Officer Lavoie did a superb job of putting them (through glass and open door) on the threat while avoiding perforation of a driver that looked a LOT like a collaborator, but who wasn't yet really a person one could rightfully shoot (and indeed turned out to be, in all probability, a hostage). This takes us finally to:

--Keep your head.

Heck, I'm going to upgrade Lavoie's response from "workman-like" to "Excellent."



(Did I beat Xavier to the punch?)