[Billthedrill]

...wonder what the range was?

In an earlier version of this story the range was described as between 40 and 75 feet. He was coming at the officers waving a pellet gun.

It's weird to see this story - I was at the range today with a pair of Glocks (models 19 and 22) that were very likely identical to the duty guns of at least some of the shooters. I shot an IPSC silhouette at those exact ranges. All I can say is that it wasn't coming at me with a gun in its hand, which takes the pucker factor up astronomically, and if we've never been in that situation we cannot properly judge it. But good grief, they HAVE to learn to shoot better than that. If he had had a real gun he could have casually potted the lot of them.

[absalom01]

"All I can say is that it wasn't coming at me ..."

Good point.

One has to question why shots were fired if the situation exceeded the skill level of the guys on scene, but at the same time it's easy to underestimate the difficulty of the marksmanship problem that was presented here. Crazy people don't stand calmly in one place, or walk slowly in a nice straight line -- they weave all over the place. It is EXPONENTIALLY more difficult to hit a target that is moving laterally than a simple static target at a fixed range, and folks would be well advised to avoid snickering until they get a chance to try it themselves. There are a few ranges around the country that have the facilities for this, and believe me, it's a very humbling experience.

Says more about training quality, than to any deficiencies of the individual officers in this case, IMHO.

[umgud]

Thye used the ole spray and pray system. Even with adrenalin, you'd think one out of the 6 could shoot straight.