The lead story this week is mind-blowing …especially to me as a current first responder medic and former deputy sheriff. Here, I go through the incident step by step to show just how fast the deputy had to react — and make a life-altering decision along the way.
There are Several Updates: Jump There
First, the story, from True’s 19 July 2020 issue:
Hold the Cream
When a shopper at Quality Dairy in Dimondale, Mich., was told by an employee he couldn’t be in the store without wearing a mask, the man stabbed a 77-year-old customer who wasn’t even part of the confrontation; the older man was hospitalized in serious condition. The assailant ran, and store employees were able to describe him and his vehicle to police. A few miles away, an Eaton County Sheriff’s deputy spotted the car and pulled him over. The suspect got out of his car, slowly walked toward the deputy, and then rushed her holding two knives in one hand, and a screwdriver in the other. The deputy backed away and ordered that he drop his weapons, but the man kept charging and she opened fire. He was still able to grab her gun, but she kept him from taking it. The deputy, who is a 22-year veteran, was able to rack the slide to get the weapon cleared, and opened fire again: it took 10 shots to stop the man — and he still wasn’t killed. Sean Ernest Ruis, 43, a state employee, died in surgery later. The deputy, who has not been named, barely escaped injury. The shooting was clearly recorded both by the deputy’s body camera, and a security camera at a house. “She had to use deadly force” to save her own life, said Sheriff Tom Reich. (RC/Lansing State Journal) …Let me guess: Ruis was brain damaged from having to think about breathing through a mask.
(Note: the first sentence was corrected after publication to make it clear which man was hospitalized.)
Breaking it Down
I’m not “really” satisfied with the tagline, but with a story that intense, I think the tagline ends up being irrelevant. Pretty much the same with the slug, but I thought I’d use an innocuous one for this to be sure I don’t signal what’s to come in any way.
Since the newsletter can include graphics (this being the 21st century and all), I illustrated it with the sequence shown here. But I wanted to go through this in more detail to point out a few things to show just how intense this situation was. This deputy had to make some extraordinarily quick decisions, and as far as I can see she did everything right.
First, a note: the source article I used for the story did say Ruis was “holding two knives in one hand and a screwdriver in the other when he went after the deputy.” That was later corrected to two screwdrivers and a knife. Presumably the knife was the same one used to stab the older man in the dairy store.
Since I made that sequence graphic, I’ve obtained larger images, so you can still click to see them even larger — on a computer and maybe a tablet, at least!
In the first:
…Ruis is still sauntering, but getting dangerously close. The car in the background is what he was driving, so clearly he has walked ever closer to the deputy even as she has ordered him to drop his weapons while she has him at gunpoint. This is taken from her body camera, so yes: those are her arms out in front of her with her pistol in a two-handed grip, just as she was trained. Ruis’s face was blurred in the video by the sheriff’s office.
Even in this still frame from a video stream, it’s quite apparent even without blowing it up that Ruis has weapons: a knife and what was later revealed to be a screwdriver in his right hand, and (as we’ll see in a moment) a Phillips head screwdriver in his left. But here’s a close-up anyway, still clickable to make it even larger.
Also notice she is behind her door: she got out and backed up very quickly.
Then, Ruis breaks into a run:
…while pulling his knife hand back, ready to thrust at the deputy. Remember, she already knew — even before she spotted him driving — that he had stabbed an innocent bystander at the market.
Two more things to notice with this one: the deputy has backed up even more, and the time stamp (upper right) shows this is 3 seconds after the first frame. This is about where she opens fire. If it were me, I would have started shooting before this, since it’s very common for a violent person to continue approaching slowly, as if they are no threat, yet still ignoring the orders to stop, drop their weapons, etc., and then lunge when closer. Often, by then, it’s a bit late to get the perpetrator stopped before they make contact, as we see here.
This next frame was harder to get: someone had to find the exact single frame that showed Ruis’s hand in contact with the deputy’s pistol, and then this was photographed off the screen:
It’s unclear for us outsiders to confirm if this actually caused her gun to jam, but in the real-time video, embedded below, you can see her very quickly clear her pistol, just as she was trained.
Again, notice that she has backed up even more …and it’s just 1 second after the frame above. Clearly, she wasn’t just taking a step back now and then: she was actively backing away from Ruis as he actively kept moving toward her. That’s amazing restraint on her part: she’s one tough cop.
The next frame is from the security camera on the house — the one that this happened in front of, and it’s just lucky (or maybe these days expected!) to get such a clear side view:
…he’s hit, but not yet down. But this shows just how much the deputy has backed up at this point — around 20ft (6m)!
Her Goal
The goal of a good cop in a situation like this is definitely not “to kill the assailant” (the occasional criminal cops aside). Again, that’s not the goal. What is? To stop the deadly assault. Since it is a deadly assault, deadly defensive force is fully justified. As you can see, there isn’t time to “try” a Taser or other “less lethal” defense.
Once that assault is stopped, training is to stop firing. Absolutely the downed assailant would still be “covered” by the officer — their gun pointed at directly at them — until they are sure the assailant is not going to spring back up or otherwise be a threat to the officer or any nearby civilians.
Then What?
Once the bad guy is down, her next task is clear: get the hell on the radio and advise dispatch what’s going on! Which she did: “Shots fired!” she said into her radio the very second Ruis finally went down, which speed is amazing. It’s then dispatch’s job to get medics rolling there — yes, without the deputy asking for them. With shots fired, the odds of injury (at the very least) are extremely high, so general protocol is to get them rolling immediately after making sure nearby officers are alerted to back her up. If an officer later says they aren’t needed, fine: the responding medics can be stood down.
But meanwhile, assuming it’s safe to do so, her next job is to move his weapons out of reach and provide first aid to the bad guy — to actually try to save his life. Usually this won’t happen until at least one backup unit arrives: this is still an extremely dangerous time, and she needs to take stock of whether there is anyone else around the scene who could be an additional threat, or witnesses. The video doesn’t go on long enough to determine if she did, but with the guy still conscious and verbally resisting, I wouldn’t have made direct contact immediately either.
The real “then what?” is the tough part: the deputy is relieved of duty while investigators probe every angle of what happened, second by second. She has to tell the story again and again and again so that if she remembers a tiny little detail she didn’t mention before, it can be documented while it’s all still fresh in her mind.
Investigators will try to determine where every single shot she fired landed. They’ll second-guess her as to whether she was aware of what was behind the assailant as she started shooting. And much, much more.
All This, for Low Pay!
It’s tough being a cop, and this is a great example of a professional officer doing a great job. It’s astounding, considering an armed man was actually able to make contact with her drawn weapon, that she was not injured. She gave the bad guy much more leeway than I would have! And that’s an issue too: I hope she didn’t have to waste brain cycles thinking whether some civilian (or, worse, “activist group”) would second-guess her decision — but that’s part of the job these days too.
I wasn’t a deputy for all that long. I was never full-time, and never had to draw my pistol defensively. But I am happy to say that when I went to the quarterly firing range “qualification” sessions, where every armed deputy had to prove we knew how to handle our weapons, I always out-shot the full-timers. A perfect score on our range was 210 points; if we didn’t get 180 or more, we had to go through the course again. Fail three times and we weren’t allowed to carry until completing remedial training and re-qualification.
I did fairly often see deputies have to go through the course a second time, but never saw one flunk out. Meanwhile, I commonly got 202 to 204 points, packed up, and headed home while some had to stay behind.
And that’s deputies who think a gun is their most important piece of equipment. Not in my opinion: their two-way radio is. It’s a rare deputy that formally trains with that every three months!
The Video
With that all said, here are the two videos intercut so you can see, both from the deputy’s viewpoint and the side view from the house’s (Ring doorbell?) camera, how it unfolded. Yes, it is intense, but there is no blood or even injuries to see:
I’ve added a timer in the lower left. After the initial run, I then break a few things down with slow/stop and captions.
The entire video is just 46 seconds, and he doesn’t even break into his run until the 27th second. Watch where she clears her pistol at about second 32. First, she whacks the magazine to ensure it is seated well, since that can cause a misfunction, then she racks the slide to clear it and then immediately gets back on target. Grisly, maybe, but this is what cops might have to do on any given day with only a couple of seconds’ notice.
Early on you can hear the sirens of the other officers coming to back her up — a sweet, sweet sound in such a situation!
Was Ruis stupid? Blind with rage? On drugs? Hopefully investigation, including an autopsy, will provide at least some answers.
The best part: that deputy got to go home that day with no physical injuries. May she recover quickly mentally, too, from what had to be the most stressful few seconds of her 22-1/2 year career.
The Aftermath
September 24, 2020
The man that was stabbed at Quality Dairy, John Duncan III, 77, of Lansing, didn’t recover from his injuries: he died August 8 without ever leaving the hospital. Apparently most or all of his stab wounds were to the neck.
Ruis had been an employee of the Michigan Department of Transportation since 2008, and in the past two years had two “discipline” entries on his work record. The subjects of the transgressions were not released, but involved a suspension and an order to go to special training.
Despite the obvious conclusions that can be made just by watching the video once, the sheriff’s office and prosecuting attorney did a thorough investigation, and didn’t release their findings until September 21, 2020. The conclusion was that Deputy Theresa Vandorpe was justified in using deadly force to stop Ruis’s attack on her, and there were quite a few details included.
Investigation found she fired five shots before Ruis made contact with her pistol, causing the jam discussed above. As she continued to back away, Ruis dropped the two screwdrivers and the knife, and bent down to grab the knife and continued his advance on Dep. Vandorpe. By then she had cleared the jam, and fired five more shots. Backup (state troopers) arrived just over a minute later and secured the scene. Medics arrived shortly after that.
Investigators checked all homes within view of the incident and were able to get four different security camera videos that showed at least some portion of the incident.
The Autopsy
One of the questions readers had after reading this page was, did the deputy fire so many shots because she wasn’t hitting Ruis? No: she continued to fire because that was the only way to stop the deadly assault. The medical examiner, Patrick Hansma, MD, reported eight bullet wounds on Ruis, including to his forehead, both shoulders, torso, abdomen, groin, and left knee.
The body shots damaged Ruis’ heart, right lung, liver, and right kidney — yet as shown in the video, he was still conscious after he hit the ground. “At least three” of the first five shots struck Ruis, which is obvious since she fired ten shots total, hitting him eight times.
There was no mention of alcohol or drugs in his system. A toxicology panel is standard in such an autopsy.
The Investigation
Investigators found Dep. Vandorpe had probable cause to stop Ruis, and once that has been done an officer “may use the force that is necessary” to effectuate an arrest, “including deadly force, if they have sufficient evidence to believe that a suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm to the officer or others.”
“Further,” the investigative report continued, “a police officer has the same rights as a private citizen to use the force that is reasonably necessary to defend herself or others. In Michigan, any person may use deadly force to defend themselves or others under certain circumstances.”
“To determine whether a person acted in lawful self-defense, their actions must be judged according to how the circumstances appeared to them at the time they acted. Deadly force in self-defense is appropriate if a person has an honest and reasonable belief that she was in immediate danger of being killed or seriously injured.”
Also, “Under the law, a person may use as much force as she believes is needed at the time to protect herself. Ultimately, the actor does not have to prove that she acted in self-defense, instead it is the Prosecution’s responsibility to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the actor did not act in self-defense.”
“At the time, Deputy Vandorpe was aware that Ruis had just stabbed an individual, and his actions in exiting the vehicle with a knife in his hand would cause any reasonable person to conclude that Ruis posed a great risk of death or serious injury to them,” the report notes.
Why such a thorough investigation when the circumstances were so obvious?
“As your elected Prosecutor,” commented Douglas R. Lloyd, “it is my responsibility to thoroughly review incidents involving the use of deadly force by law enforcement officers in Eaton County. That review, is no less thorough simply because the incident is captured on video, as this incident was. I have a firm belief that no officer starts their shift with a desire to use deadly force, but an individual who had already stabbed John Duncan placed Deputy Vandorpe in grave danger of death or serious injury. Therefore, I have concluded that her use of deadly force was lawful.”
Prior Incident
My research finds that Dep. Vandorpe was also involved in a previous shooting, in 2015.
Deputy Tad Schwartz fired on Matthew Lundy, 32, when Lundy raised a gun and pointed it at Dep. Chris Cunningham. Schwartz fired nine shots.
In the days before the incident, Lundy, a convicted felon, had said he was considering suicide, maybe “suicide by cop,” and sent a text message saying his life was over and would die before going back to jail. It’s unclear in the report I read if the two deputies knew of this beforehand.
So where does Dep. Vandorpe come in? It’s also unclear whether she was present during the shooting, but she was there minutes later. Lundy wasn’t dead — and wasn’t cooperating with the deputies. She was covering the two deputies, apparently with a patrol rifle, when they all heard a click that sounded to them like the trigger being pulled on a gun. Dep. Vandorpe fired two shots with her rifle, killing Lundy.
Prosecuting Attorney Lloyd also investigated that case, considering it as two separate shooting incidents; the two shootings were about eight minutes apart. Lloyd not only cleared all three officers, attorney Jamie White, who represented Lundy’s estate, announced that he and the Lundy family were “satisfied” that the investigation was complete, and apparently agreed with its findings. “At this time,” White announced, “the Lundy Estate will not be seeking any further action of any sort against the officers involved in this incident.”
Dep. Vandorpe (whose name was spelled as VanDorpe in reports of the 2015 shootings), by the time of the Ruis incident, was obviously well acquainted with the investigative procedure after an officer-involved shooting incident. Not to minimize the emotional impact on her in any way in the Lundy shooting, but it seems to me that the Ruis shooting probably had much more impact on her, stress-wise, due to her being alone and Ruis not only advancing on her, but making enough contact to jam her gun.
Now What?
As is standard procedure in a police shooting, Dep. Vandorpe was placed on paid administrative leave in both cases. I have not been able to find if she has returned to duty yet after the Ruis shooting.
Source for most of this update: the Prosecuting Attorney’s press release dated September 21, 2020, which you can download:
Sept. 2021 Update
On 3 September 2021, the Police Officers Association of Michigan presented Dep. Teresa VanDorpe its Police Officer of the Year award for her “bravery and exceptional police work.”
Thanks to alert Premium reader David in Maryland for the heads up on this.
Other Sources
- “Police: Mask Confrontation Leads to Stabbing, Suspect Fatally Shot by Eaton County Deputy”, Lansing State Journal, Updated Jul. 17, 2020.
- Facebook post by Quality Dairy, August 10, 2020.
- “Man Stabbed in Quality Dairy Face Mask Dispute That Led to Police Shooting Has Died”, Mlive.com, August 11, 2020.
- “Deputy Justified in Use of Deadly Force in July 14, 2020, Shooting”, Eaton County (Pa.) “Civic Alert”, September 21, 2020.
- “Michigan Sheriff’s Deputy Won’t Be Charged in Shooting after Mask Dispute Stabbing”, Detroit News, September 22, 2020.
- “Prosecutor: Deputies Were Justified in February Fatal Shooting”, Lansing State Journal, May 12, 2015.
- Photos and raw video: Eaton County Sheriff Dept.
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It’s good to be reminded that there ARE appropriate police shootings.
Holy. Mother. Of. God! That video is amazing. I counted 14 shots.
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…said my wife, the retired deputy coroner! I’m not sure if the investigators have said in public yet, but I got the 10 shots figure from experts who slowed the video down, etc. With the echoes, it’s hard to count without doing that. -rc
I have always had my doubts about the relative stopping power of the commonly used 9mm round most police officers carry these days. I understand why a switch was made from revolvers to pistols, but increasing the stopping power of a firearm should be of equal importance.
The older standard was a .38 Special loaded with a 158 grain hollow point. It is a relatively light round for experienced shooters, and one cop told me of shooting a fleeing felon 3 times with one, and the guy walked out of the hospital in 3 days.
When they upgraded to pistols, a larger or more powerful caliber should have been chosen, but people with smaller hands or body frames might have a problem. There is no reason somebody should be able to sustain so many shots, and still remain a threat.
Kudos to the officer. She did her duty and got home that night, safe and sound, but I expect her to improve her aim.
I am also glad you do well on the range. I was a competitive target shooter and I admire accuracy. The last time I was at the range, I brought out a regular 1911 as well as my .45 Gold Cup. Some guy suggested I was not loading my pistols correctly and that target shooting is not the same as actual use. “I know,” I said, then picked up my Gold Cup and off-hand, removed the x-ring on my target in 5 seconds. His remark to me; “I guess you practice a lot.”
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Yeah, it’s pretty dumb for someone to lecture you on your abilities when they have no idea who you are or what do you, and haven’t seen you at work. The rest of this reply gets into technical detail: you’ve been warned! 🙂
As I know Lenny knows, .38 caliber and 9mm are nearly the same diameter (9mm is .002″ smaller). The 9mm casing is 3/8″ shorter, but operates at double the pressure: .38 standard loads max out 17,000 psi, +P at around 20,000 psi, to typically push a 110-158 grain bullet. Unlike the .38, which was introduced at the end of the black powder cartridge era in the late 1890s, the 9mm has a smaller casing because it was introduced at the start of the smokeless powder era, and can handle up to 35,000 psi (standard load) or 38,500 psi for +P.
So what does this mean? (And I’m not really speaking to Lenny here, but rather those who don’t know this stuff already.) It’s all about knock-down power BUT at the expense of controllability (from the recoil) and (for me!) how freaking loud it is. I tried a .40 caliber, but it was so loud with earmuffs on I knew I’d hesitate to shoot it without muffs, so I went with a 9mm instead. I did once fire a 9mm without hearing protection (to scare off a wild animal that was encroaching on us), which was fine. Anyway, knockdown power is based on mass × velocity. A .38 special +P (“plus powder”) with a 125 grain jacketed hollow point bullet gives a muzzle velocity of 950 ft/sec for 251 ft-lbs of muzzle energy. The same bullet in a 9mm cartridge rips out of the muzzle at 1250 ft/sec for 434 ft-lbs (data from Cor-Bon).
So yes, a 9mm has much more knock-down power, but obviously less than a .40 cal. A buddy who is a retired undersheriff from an urban area tells me that “a 9mm is plenty” for a cop …if they land the shot. He was standing near a guy who got shot by one of his officers with a 9mm — again, a guy with a knife who went after the cop. IIRC, it took one shot to stop the attack. That was in the 70s or 80s, and ballistic research has progressed a lot since. In his opinion and mine, beyond hitting the target, once you get equal or greater than the ballistics of a .38/9mm, the bullet design is the next-most-important factor when it comes to stopping an attack. Go much beyond that and control takes much more training and practice. So for me, I’d rather have more rounds (9mm being smaller can pack more rounds in than a .40 or .45) than bigger/heavier bullets. -rc
Good on her for her quick, cool action.
I completely agree with your comments. I *heartily* applaud all law enforcement officers! I *know* I could never do their job. We don’t pay them nearly enough for what they may have to go through (i.e. situations like this). I certainly hope she sees that she really had *NO* choice but to use deadly force. Even if she had time to try a taser, it probably wouldn’t have stopped him given that even after being shot several times he didn’t go down. Her restraint in waiting *that* long before shooting him, is amazing. He *had* to be on something to keep going after her initial shots hit him.
“Even if she had time to try a taser, it probably wouldn’t have stopped him given that even after being shot several times he didn’t go down”
It probably would have done, given its almost instant incapacitating effect on the nervous system whereas a bullet only really affects the part of the body that’s hit (unless it’s heart or brain). But if it didn’t work she would probably have been in a much worse position as she would then have had to unholster and aim her pistol when he was already close to her.
Toxicology report will be interesting. I’m not convinced he was on something.
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It’ll be interesting to find out. I’ll be keeping an eye out. -rc
Your “All This, for Low Pay!” heading got me curious, so I looked up the actual pay rate. If I’m reading the Eaton County web site correctly, it appears that a deputy with 5 or more years experience is paid $54,500 in salary, plus $26 per hour for overtime. (In some places, officers work a *lot* of overtime; I have no way of knowing if this is one of them.)
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Assuming $54.5K is correct (and it’d be plus benefits), I’m unclear whether you consider that low, appropriate, or high. -rc
I’m not sure how best to evaluate it, especially since the cost of living there is a third of what it is where I live. Is it fair to triple that — $163.5k — and think of it in my local terms? Then I’d say it’s probably appropriate for someone with 5 years, but I’d think it was low for someone with over 20. As far as I can tell from their web site, though, everyone with 5 or more gets the same. Which makes me skeptical that I’m reading it correctly.
Speaking less numerically, though, you couldn’t pay me enough to be willing (or able) to do that job….
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Yeah, I wouldn’t want to do it for $55K. The sad part is, the more they’re hassled, the less anyone with brains and qualifications will want to. -rc
Sunnyvale’s officers get paid a lot more than that. But it’s not an apples-to-oranges comparison since Sunnyvale has an integrated public safety department and its officers all do police, fire, and medical response. They’re awesome.
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That’s a ton of training! Sunnyvale, being in the “Silicon Valley”, is an expensive place to live — and there aren’t cheap bedroom communities in easy driving distance. So yeah, they’re going to be paid a lot more. -rc
@rc “the more they’re hassled”?
I’m not going to put words in your mouth or on your keyboard. What do you mean by that?
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What do you mean what do I mean?! Do you watch or read the news?
Would you want this as an increasing part of your $55K job? Or would you just decide to leave the profession altogether? -rc
Randy — Your last comment is what I’ve been saying for several years now. As a retired high school teacher and coach of a number of LEOs, I don’t see why anyone would want to be one nowadays. The same is true for teachers. I loved working with teenagers for 50 years (only stopped for unrelated health reasons), but it became extremely difficult in the last five years. You really have to love it to endure!
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Yep, if we drive away the good ones — cops, teachers, firefighters, whatever — what will we be left with? The prospect is pretty scary, but so few think about it. -rc
How much is your life worth? Would you risk your life for $54.5k a year?
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I think the harassment is a bigger factor in job stress than fatalities: police officer actually isn’t close to the #1 riskiest job. Fishing work is, with 100.0 deaths per 100K workers* for a median wage of $28K/year*. Then loggers (87.3, $39K), pilots/flight engineers (41.3, $112K), roofers (45.2, $39K), trash/recycling workers (34.9, $36K), iron/steel workers (33.3, $53K), truck drivers (26.9, $38K), farmers/ranchers/agricultural managers (24.0, $70K), landscapers/groundskeepers (21.0, $47K), and power line workers (18.6, $49K) round out the Top 10.
Police officers came in at #18, with 12.9 deaths/100K for $61K/year, and firefighters were #24, with 8.9 deaths/100K for $49K. Other surprising professions in the Top 25 were painters, taxi drivers/chauffeurs, and athletes/coaches/umpires(!) -rc
* These are 2018 figures, published in 2019 by Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual National Census Of Fatal Occupational Injuries report. (Source: USA Today)
That $54,500 comes to $26.20/hr (which come to $54,496/yr), so I’m wondering if the county misprinted their overtime rate. I think it should have been $39.30/hr ($26.20 at time and a half (which is normally the overtime scale) + $13.10.)
Bottom line for me though is, is that amount worth one’s life? Thankfully, there are men and women who think it is.
Thank God for the rest of us that MOST Leo’s do the job out of a desire to be helpful, and to protect their communities! I doubt seriously that pay has much to do with that decision. We pay egotistical, self important “game players” millions of dollars a year to chase a stupid ball down a field, and yet the most important workers (teachers, cops, medical workers) struggle just to survive. So sad!
For putting your life on the line and putting up with the abuse, that is low pay.
My guess is “meth” which would (a) make him aggressive and (b) hard to put down and (c) uncooperative. The only good thing to come out of this: he won’t attack anyone else.
Apparently not: the autopsy didn’t mention any drugs (see update).
I agree 100% that it was absolutely a justified shooting. My only concern was the number of shots it took to drop him. Were they misses? Or was he like some people on drugs who become “superhuman”? And if they were misses, what’s your take having been in law enforcement?
Thanks for the great story. We need reminders, now more than ever, that there are justifiable use of force incidents.
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I would expect that there were some misses, but hard to say for sure. When there’s a fairly buff man feet away, that’s an awfully big target, so there “shouldn’t” be “a lot” of misses. It’ll be fascinating to learn the details from the autopsy, which will catalog the wounds …and detail what drugs, if any, were in his system. -rc
I also use to armchair critique how could they miss…till I started to research the physiological changes that the body goes through during high stress events (increase in heart rate, increase in blood pressure, adrenaline rush, etc.) which affect your ability to aim. Sometimes amazes me that they are able to function at all. Training, lots of training helps.
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She sure demonstrated that training when she cleared the misfire. I don’t think anyone could have done that faster on a range, let alone during a firefight. -rc
We’ve had some recent shooting incidents in our local PD. They did release the bodycam footage (within 24 hours, generally) and it was very clear that the only choices they had were to shoot, or get back in the car and let the guy with the knife go stab someone else. Not much of a choice.
The often release it quickly where there is clear and convincing evidence it was justified. When it is less clear, they often stall releasing the images.
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With the caution that “less clear” doesn’t necessarily mean “not justified.” -rc
Thank you for a balanced and well done review of this incident. This view from the officer’s side, via the training that you are specifically aware of, is invaluable for the lay person to understand what happens in a situation like this. I never understand how armchair obliviots can have their loud opinions without having a clue of what they are talking about. Too bad that the people who need to see this the most are the last ones who would ever attempt to educate themselves. Well done! Further confirmation of why I subscribe to your publication!
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As I know you to be a professional trainer yourself (even if in a wildly different field), I appreciate your informed feedback. -rc
I was an airport police officer for 2 years in the early 2000’s. I went through the same state required training course as every other municipal cop who worked for a city that didn’t have its own police academy. I still remember the firearms training and the discussions on the dangers of a suspect with an edged weapon. Once the suspect was within 21 feet, if you didn’t have your weapon already drawn, you were going to get stabbed. Great job by this deputy!
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The same lesson was taught in my academy in California in the early 80s. -rc
Wow, I’m impressed. That’s some really quick thinking and great reflexes. Reading your break-down of the incident made me feel I was prepared for the video, but watching how quickly everything went down… that was something else.
I’m sure critics will find something or the other that she did wrong, all’s easy sitting in the comfort of your home and analysing the situation, slowing down the video and replaying it multiple times. She had just one chance and her only warning was that he’d stabbed an innocent bystander. His actions, once she stopped his car, could have gone in a hundred different directions. And she needed to react correctly for whatever direction he took. Not an easy task to do and I must say that she definitely had some luck on her side.
I’m really glad things didn’t go bad for her (physically at least) and I hope that this incident does not leave her mentally scarred.
This is one reason why I appreciate True, and will happily remain a Premium subscriber as long as I am able. You offer praise when appropriate, criticism when appropriate, and always in a thoughtful, logical manner. I sometimes disagree, but I can never say that you have not provided a rational case for your views. I don’t know if you consider yourself a part of the “media” or not, but for my money you are one of the best news commentators around. Cheers!
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I’ve always categorized the books as News Commentary, so it’s fair to call me a news commentator. Thanks for your kind comments, Nick. -rc
What a brave officer! Thank you for sharing in so much depth.
I am glad the Officer is OK except for the mental anguish of having to shoot someone, this also shows just how stupid all the 10 round magazine laws are.
Remarkable story, nicely written.
Why did it sound like there were two officers yelling “Drop the weapon” (et sim.) early on?
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That’s the suspect, repeating what she is saying. -rc
The way Ruis walks and moves makes me think of a shark: notice the way he crosses towards the sidewalk, trying to get the cruiser between him and the deputy while gaining ground, before crossing back and charging? He’s done it before — and I’ll bet the screwdriver connected with the gun, too! [He really thought he was invulnerable. Did he think he had disabled it?]
I hope the deputy thanks her guardian angel, as I do. It will always be with her — but so will the knowledge that she did her job well, and probably saved more lives than anyone will ever know. Stay Safe and Well!!!
Thank you for posting this, gruesome as it is. It gives a great perspective from the side of the police officer. She performed incredibly well, with the exception of letting him get too close before using deadly force. Particularly since she was responding to the call of a stabbing.
It is nice to get some balance in today’s news. The comments section where the discussion was ballistics, knock down ability, and aim control was a great explanation for me of why most officers do not carry larger caliber weapons.
In full disclosure, I am a politically liberal gun owner, a hunter. As such I get a lot of flak from folks, including some close friends and relations, on both the extreme ends of our society. Folks who are not willing to really look at varying sides of any issue, think for themselves, and respect that others may have experiences and opinions different from their own. I do not own a handgun as I do not feel I currently have a personal need for one. Some of the comments published here have reminded me that I would probably never be confident enough or be able to practice enough to use one effectively.
All of the peace officers I personally know are of the highest moral caliber and I am happy to entrust my life to them. That said, as in any profession, there are officers on the street who should not be allowed to be police officers. I have even had in my long life, two personal run-ins with officers who did not do their jobs properly and had I not been staying calm and collected would have likely been in a much worse situation. Fortunately, I believe I know and practice how not to respond to a police officer. Unfortunately, not everyone knows or follows those concepts.
I do firmly believe and hope that bad officers, by whatever metric is used, are a small minority in my community. However, I acknowledge that the percentage is not so small in other places. I do wish that departments everywhere would do a much better job of ridding themselves and us as a society of those individuals who should have no business being officers of the law with the power of life or death over the citizens they have sworn to protect. This in my view is why we have the growing backlash towards the police currently ongoing and growing in our country. This public criticism of the police is not at all new. It is however being seen in a new intense light.
Lastly, I strongly encourage all who read this post, to get to know about your community’s public safety professionals. Not just the police, but also EMS, fire, public health, etc. Attend public meetings that they host. Go on a ride-a-long if they are offered in your community. Educate yourself on all sides of these issues, not only the side you agree with. Finally, when you meet these mostly good, dedicated, and compassionate folks, sincerely thank them for their service to you and your community.
I’d ask why she waited so long, and let him get so close before she shot. This allowed him to get so close he was able to make a gun grab and briefly disable her pistol. The outcome would have been terrible if he succeeded in disarming her, or got his blades into the fray.
As to shooting him multiple times, it is necessary to stop the attack. This is not TV or movies, and a 9mm HP does not send someone flying off his feet. Nor is a single solid hit guaranteed to stop the attack, especially if the attacker is drugged, highly motivated, crazy, or wearing body armor. There have been incidents where criminals absorbed three dozen 9mm rounds before being stopped with 12-gauge 00 buck!
She did good.
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Yeah, I meant to point out that people don’t fly backwards when hit by a bullet (total eye-roller). It doesn’t happen with 9mm, it doesn’t happen with a .45 cal (sorry, original Magnum P.I.!) Hell, it doesn’t happen with a .50 cal Desert Eagle, and anyone who has been properly taught Newton’s Laws understands why not! -rc
KE = 0.5mv^2.
F=ma
KE is the kinetic energy available to transfer. Force has a lot to do with how much of that force is absorbed by the target. m is mass, v is velocity, and a is acceleration (including deceleration). A shot that goes through the body means all its energy isn’t transferred to the body. A hollow point slows it down a lot faster and makes it more likely that it isn’t a thru and thru. Higher velocity increases the available energy, as it’s squared, unlike the mass that is constant in both.
But in both cases, the mass of the bullet is a tiny fraction of the mass of the body, almost never enough force to knock someone down on its own.
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There you go: someone “who has been properly taught Newton’s Laws”! 🙂 -rc
Not to mention that… if a firearm had enough force to blow the receiver off his feet, it would have enough force to blow the shooter off his feet (remember that bit about every action has an _equal_ and _opposite_ reaction!).
To all wondering why 10 shots didn’t stop this person immediately:
This isn’t TV. The only way to instantly “turn off” a human body with any common pistol round is a Central Nervous System (the brain) shot or a heart shot that drops blood pressure quickly. Someone who is enraged, or has adrenaline or drugs coursing through their veins is hard to put down. People often die from pistol rounds but it usually takes time due to blood loss. In many cases one or two non-fatal shots stop an attack because people don’t like being shot and they want the shooting to stop.
Sometimes even a heart shot doesn’t instantly stop the threat. Sgt Timothy Gramins shot a suspect 14 times with a .45, including the heart, lungs, liver and kidney. It wasn’t until he hit the suspect in the head that the threat was neutralized.
I’m no expert in firearms, but I have has a major encounter with someone who broke into my house so I know the stress response.
Still I wonder why the intent to stop an attacker like this is to hit the torso. That doesn’t seem as effective as putting slugs into the legs where all the motor force of the attack is. And it should be non-lethal as well. And it isn’t likely to have body armor.
If you’re aiming at the torso already, then it seems like a quick dip down without distracting aim to hit the thighs and cause a lot of pain with any hit.
Just wondering.
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Simply years of statistical data show that is the quickest way to stop a deadly attack, in part because it’s much easier to hit “center of mass” than a leg (especially considering the stress response!), and if a body shot doesn’t take them down, a leg shot probably won’t either. -rc
I’m the son of a cop who was shot on duty (he lived, no sweat.)
Background: The perp was on parole for one murder, on bond for another, and had just killed a third when he shot the old man. The old man was a 22 year force veteran, and had drawn his weapon one time prior to this on the job (no shooting was involved), not including the 1967 riot in Detroit.
Perp fired a .357 magnum three times, hitting the old man with the second round. The old man returned fire with a .38 with issued ammunition, also firing three times and hitting the perp with his second round. The distance was about 25 feet, no more than 30.
The old man took a flesh wound to the left shoulder (per the MD, if the round had hit him less than 1/2 inch lower it would have hit bone, and probably would have killed him), the wound was a through-and-through.
The perp also had a flesh wound, to his throat, just below the Adam’s Apple.
The old man was able to walk up to the perp, who was laying on a porch screaming, “Don’t let me die!” and the old man told me that he could have pulled his round from the man’s skin. It had not penetrated enough to do any more damage than a flesh wound.
People who go off on the cops usually have no idea what they are talking about. The effective range of a .38 pistol is about 21 feet (7 yards) with many variables. Personally, on a 25 foot qualification range in the Army, with the issued M1911 .45 pistol, I missed more than I hit (much, MUCH better with a rifle!) A moving target is one of the variables, they are damned hard to hit. The usual civilian question of “why don’t you aim for the legs and only injure the perp?” is one I usually laugh at. Smaller target and they are moving, and if I can’t hit a target at 25 feet (I missed the entire target more than I hit it) how on earth does someone expect a cop, who is under stress (being threatened with either rounds being fired or by knives, bats, etc.) be expected to hit a smaller mass?
The other thing is the fact that the old .38 that PD’s mostly used to carry were loaded with a 158 gr. bullet. As my old man proved, there isn’t much stopping power in that. But here is something for the PD’s and the bean counters to consider: ammunition degrades over time. Old ammo of the same manufacture, has less effectiveness than new. Which is why PD’s NEED to be able to spend money for new ammo regularly, and replace the old stuff.
Finally, if the perps can get their hands on .357 magnums, with their higher lethality, why are the cops limited to pea shooters? They need the weapon that has at least the same lethality.
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Indeed, most cops today carry a 9mm semi-automatic, or the larger .40 caliber semi-auto. -rc
I think most people (even in the gun-loving USA) would be surprised to learn that 25 feet counts as far for a handgun, even for a trained professional.
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I believe he was talking about the ability to hit the target more than the stopping power of the round at that distance when it hits the spot where it was aimed. -rc
1) the Prosecuting Attorney’s statement won’t download for me. I get an error saying it’s not a “downloadable link”.
2) Keep up the excellent work. I read this back when you first broke it down for us and it was a great refresher course on my Concealed Carry Permit.
Happily, a Premium Subscriber!
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1) Thanks for the heads up! Even kicking it didn’t help, so I set it up in a different way — and tested it!
2) I’m gratified you found the breakdown interesting and useful. -rc
Great breakdown of a real event, Randy, and i hope the cop has good home and communal support. I worked for the Saanich Police for over a year. The depth of concern for any of their number who had to even draw a gun, much less shoot, much less kill was one of the dimensions i still admire among that group. Professional psychiatric help is available after any killing, as well as leave with pay.
None of those folk had any other interest driving them but concern for the safety of the community and decent pay for that risk. However, growing up in Toronto and living here again, with friends in various neighbourhood forces, i know there are a few who are bullies at heart and barely constrained by communal norms ~ but they’re the ones whose breakout actions make the news, and generate calls for ‘defund’. No way defund ~ just have a mental health expert on call for such 911 calls.
Yes, most police officers are good ones, and most shooting deaths are justified. That does not mean, of course, that we should ignore the ones that are not justified or deny that racism is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. There are bad cops. There are bad decisions. There are cops that panic when they should not and do things that are not justified. And there are abuses of power on a regular basis in some areas.
I know there’s a prevailing idea among Second Amendment proponents that “The best defense against a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”. This incident illustrates an even more important idea — is the good guy with a gun any good with a gun?
I’m more concerned about some random civilian walking around, packing heat than I am about an armed criminal. At least the criminal is predictable — you know he’s going to threaten people or try to hurt them. Civilian guardians of the community, however, most likely don’t have the training, knowledge, constant practice of the police forces.
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While I still think your question is a good one, I’ve seen plenty of full-time veteran cops who weren’t “good” with a gun. I outshot them easily (on the range during qualifications when I was a deputy). And studies* have shown that a civilian is far less likely to shoot the wrong person than a cop is. -rc
*(I searched to try to find those studies, but with recent events “[cop] shoots unarmed black man” dominated the results, and couldn’t find it. Hopefully someone who’s more in touch with such research than I am will post a solid link or two.)
I read this page with great interest. Chilling stuff. As I watched the video I thought how fortunate the Deputy was to not stumble backward and fall with him on top, full of bad intent.