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ronldo
Student
Whitmore Lake, Michigan
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Have you ever shot anyone as a cop or detective?
Hello, I am a student from Whitmore lake Middle and Highschool. I am doing an assignment where I search up jobs I like and ask questions. #law #business
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2 answers
Brad Burnell
Security Team Leader St. Vincent Heart Center
2
Answers
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Brad’s Answer
Unfortunately yes. No real police officer ever wakes up and puts on his gear, thinking ....I hope i get to shoot someone today. What went through my mind everyday i put my uniform on was,let this be a quiet shift and let me make the right decisions, and hope i help those that need it.
To preface this incident, I will tell you the suspect had been harassing his ex girlfriend and baby for a while. Even going as far as trying to burn the house they were in down, with them in it. That being said, my shift started at 2pm, the rollcall went something along the lines of "The suspect wanted in connection with the arson had run from another agency earlier armed with a handgun and a shotgun. The shotgun was found lying on the railroad tracks near the ex girlfriend's house". I jokingly went up to my Sargeant and said "You know we're gonna have to shoot this guy if we find him". He looked at me and said "As long as it doesn't happen on this shift". "Don't worry ", I said. (famous last words) Off we went to do our shift, after about 2 hours i was hungry and decided to slip into line of a fast food drive through, as i was paying for my sandwich, dispatch came over the radio with " Edward12 (me), i have a neighbor of the arsonist's ex girlfriend on 911, she can see someone creeping around in the woods behind their houses, she believes it is the suspect." At that moment, i began to go over every scenario possible in my head. Knowing that everytime we had responded, we had pulled into the main driveway, and the suspect ran into the woods behind the houses. I decided to pull into the drive of a house that was separated from the witness and ex girlfriend's house by an already picked cornfield. A good 200-300 yards away. Upon arrival i decided not to take my shotgun, as i figured the suspect would take off running and I would have to chase him.
As i begin to walk across the open field, my dispatcher told me that she still had the witness on the phone and that the witness could see the suspect crawling towards the back of the house. ( side note, where i parked was from my perspective TO THE SIDE of the houses. The witness' perspective from where she was watching was behind tbe other side, which my dispatcher failed to tell me ) So with the mindset that the suspect was nowhere near where i was coming into the scene i began to run. I ran maybe 20 yards when i saw him, lying on the ground 30 yards away looking at me. An off duty officer had also come on scene but had a tree for cover. Drawing my weapon, and shouting "show me your hands!" Several times loud enough for the witness to hear. To which the suspect gathered his hands in and got to his knees with one hand under his other arm. In a flash he jumped up, took a shooter's stance and aimed towards the off duty officer. As i began to fire, everything went in slow motion, the sound was very distant, the thoughts of dying or killing someone never entered my mind. All i remember thinking was" if you stop shooting, I'll stop shooting and we can both go home." As I neared what believed was running out rounds, i reloaded,and fired maybe 2 more times, at which point the suspect fell to the ground. All of the shooting and reloading had taken approximately 10 seconds. As i approached the suspect i saw the other officer approaching as well. I remember feeling relieved to see him. Long story short, i shot 12 times, striking the suspect 9 times. He did not die, the black object i saw him draw turned out to be a checkbook. It had been an attempt at "Suicide by cop". I was cleared by the shooting board and a psychologist. The suspect was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
There is nothing that can prepare you for this situation except good training. Instinct and training takeover the second the suspect jumps up and extends his arms. Like I said at the beginning, let me make the right decisions and help someone in need.
I hope this gives you some perspective as to what every officer goes through when they are faced with using leathal force.
Brad Burnell
Hendricks Co. Sheriff's Dept. (Retired)
To preface this incident, I will tell you the suspect had been harassing his ex girlfriend and baby for a while. Even going as far as trying to burn the house they were in down, with them in it. That being said, my shift started at 2pm, the rollcall went something along the lines of "The suspect wanted in connection with the arson had run from another agency earlier armed with a handgun and a shotgun. The shotgun was found lying on the railroad tracks near the ex girlfriend's house". I jokingly went up to my Sargeant and said "You know we're gonna have to shoot this guy if we find him". He looked at me and said "As long as it doesn't happen on this shift". "Don't worry ", I said. (famous last words) Off we went to do our shift, after about 2 hours i was hungry and decided to slip into line of a fast food drive through, as i was paying for my sandwich, dispatch came over the radio with " Edward12 (me), i have a neighbor of the arsonist's ex girlfriend on 911, she can see someone creeping around in the woods behind their houses, she believes it is the suspect." At that moment, i began to go over every scenario possible in my head. Knowing that everytime we had responded, we had pulled into the main driveway, and the suspect ran into the woods behind the houses. I decided to pull into the drive of a house that was separated from the witness and ex girlfriend's house by an already picked cornfield. A good 200-300 yards away. Upon arrival i decided not to take my shotgun, as i figured the suspect would take off running and I would have to chase him.
As i begin to walk across the open field, my dispatcher told me that she still had the witness on the phone and that the witness could see the suspect crawling towards the back of the house. ( side note, where i parked was from my perspective TO THE SIDE of the houses. The witness' perspective from where she was watching was behind tbe other side, which my dispatcher failed to tell me ) So with the mindset that the suspect was nowhere near where i was coming into the scene i began to run. I ran maybe 20 yards when i saw him, lying on the ground 30 yards away looking at me. An off duty officer had also come on scene but had a tree for cover. Drawing my weapon, and shouting "show me your hands!" Several times loud enough for the witness to hear. To which the suspect gathered his hands in and got to his knees with one hand under his other arm. In a flash he jumped up, took a shooter's stance and aimed towards the off duty officer. As i began to fire, everything went in slow motion, the sound was very distant, the thoughts of dying or killing someone never entered my mind. All i remember thinking was" if you stop shooting, I'll stop shooting and we can both go home." As I neared what believed was running out rounds, i reloaded,and fired maybe 2 more times, at which point the suspect fell to the ground. All of the shooting and reloading had taken approximately 10 seconds. As i approached the suspect i saw the other officer approaching as well. I remember feeling relieved to see him. Long story short, i shot 12 times, striking the suspect 9 times. He did not die, the black object i saw him draw turned out to be a checkbook. It had been an attempt at "Suicide by cop". I was cleared by the shooting board and a psychologist. The suspect was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
There is nothing that can prepare you for this situation except good training. Instinct and training takeover the second the suspect jumps up and extends his arms. Like I said at the beginning, let me make the right decisions and help someone in need.
I hope this gives you some perspective as to what every officer goes through when they are faced with using leathal force.
Brad Burnell
Hendricks Co. Sheriff's Dept. (Retired)
Nick McGregor
Law Enforcement
35
Answers
Denton, Texas
Updated
Nick’s Answer
Fortunately, no. To date, working 16 years in law enforcement, I have not had to. There have been several close calls, but , thankfully, they all worked out.