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Video of the gun fight is on the Internet. The police came running up to the guy. He turned and pointed his .45 directly at them. If the .45 hadn't malfunctioned one of the officers would most likely be dead. The officers’ instincts took over and they fired until the bad guy hit the ground. It was probably 2 seconds between the time that the .45 was pointed at the officers and the gunman was on the ground.

Even though the officers already had their weapons drawn the whole incident developed so quickly that there was no time for them to develop any type of plan. It is pretty easy to be critical after the fact especially since the bullets they were using fragmented and the pieces flew into a crowd of bystanders; but watch the video and see what you think could have been done differently.

I hope whatever “lessons are learned” here do not further hamstring the police officers and make all of us less safe. It is possible that if the officers had somehow confronted the gunman in a different way that everyone could have been put at less risk. Once the shooting started in a crowded area bystanders were likely to get hurt no matter how much range time or previous experience the officers had.

I guess we get to disagree about whether better training or equipment would have made a difference. If they were using jhp bullets, and the bullets went out the other side, shot placement was bad or the bullets failed to function. Misses are the responsibility of the shooter and could/would cause fragmentation of the round.

16 rounds fired with 10(?) hits from what, 10 feet away, is just not acceptable.

I will say again, I do not fault their actions. I question their training and equipment. It is something that must be addressed by a department that sends their members out on crowded streets where the potential exists that innocent bystanders may be injured.

I know some LEOs can do better. Where I live we had a Deputy who encountered a guy who was randomly discharging a handgun around a neighborhood. When the guy trained the gun on the deputy, the deputy killed him with one shot. It can be done.