Doomed SWAT sergeants didn't expect an AK-47

SF Gate ^ | 23 Mar 09 | Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

[Drew68]

When Oakland police Sgts. Ervin Romans and Daniel Sakai burst into an apartment on 74th Avenue on Saturday, they knew they were entering a dangerous situation. After all, they were looking for a man who had already killed two police officers.

What they didn't know was that the killer, Lovelle Mixon, had somehow gotten hold of an AK-47 assault rifle, police officials say. All they knew was that the gunman who had shot motorcycle officers Sgt. Mark Dunakin and Officer John Hege about two hours earlier used a handgun.

"Nobody knew he had an AK-47," said City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, who was among four council members to join Mayor Ron Dellums and acting Police Chief Howard Jordan for a late-night press conference Saturday.

The bulletproof vests that Romans and Sakai wore were no help - when Mixon fired his automatic rifle through a closet door in the apartment, he hit the two sergeants in the head.

The killings of four officers would devastate any police department. But it was especially traumatic for an Oakland force that has been beefed up in recent years with a lot of young, inexperienced cops.

"We've got a really young force out there, and this is really hitting them hard," officer Bob Valladon, former head of the Oakland Police Officers Association, said Sunday as he drove from one slain officer's home to another to meet with their families. "We've hired maybe 25o new cops in the past five years, so about a quarter of the force has never seen anything like this. No one has.

"These cops (who were killed) were veterans," Valladon said. "The best of the best."

[BillyBonebrake]

Exactly. Lets see the rap sheet.

[GOP Poet]

good point.

[Beagle8U]

“The bulletproof vests that Romans and Sakai wore were no help - when Mixon fired his automatic rifle through a closet door in the apartment, he hit the two sergeants in the head.”

No, and the bulletproof vests would have been no help if he shot them in the HEAD with a 22 rimfire pistol!

[DuncanWaring]

That’s certainly true, but the question remains “Is the story as published accurate?”.

[stainlessbanner]

The MSM is sensationalizing to prepare for AWB2 - Holder's.

Prayers for the officers families.

[Atlas Sneezed]

The bulletproof vests that Romans and Sakai wore were no help - when Mixon fired his automatic rifle through a closet door in the apartment, he hit the two sergeants in the head.

---

So a pistol would have been just as effective, as would a 22 rifle.

[Revolting cat!]

So we now pick and choose what to trust the MSM with? (The schmuck’s criminal record is listed elsewhere on this site, by the way.) We trust MSM saying that the dead officers “did not expect”?

[Old Teufel Hunden]

Maybe some police officers out there could tell me what the correct procedures are, but it seems to me that if you know a guy who just killed two cops is in an apartment you don’t just go charging in. Would you not want to surround him and try to talk him out, knowing he’s armed. If he kills himself, no big loss really. If you choose to go in, would you not try to shoot some CS or tear gas into the room? I mean it just seems that there was a better way to do this than what has been described.

[Ev Reeman]

The one thing they should teach all police officers is to EXPECT THE WORST in any given situation because the minute you let your guard down youre dead.

[Drew68]

Speaking of predictions, I predict a 50% chance that the rifle in question is actually an SKS, which isn't even an "assualt weapon" by the standards of the lapsed AWB.

That's what my money says as well.

[mamelukesabre]

What makes you think they care if it’s accurate? The story is about assault rifles now. Not criminals or dead cops.

[Oldexpat]

They let violent felons out too soon. Someone who commits and assault with a gun should get some real hard time. He was only 21..so he didn’t serve very long at all.
It is not hard to identify the ones who will repeat..they should never be out on parole.

[mamelukesabre]

Well, gosh! The pistol he killed cops with was an “AUTO”!

That right there is scary enough to tell a whole story about.

[Polynikes]

The lapsed AWB is at the federal level. The California DOJ will rule according to which ever standard is stricter. It usually is California and the SKS was judged to be a prohibited assault weapon some years back. There was a brouhaha about sks owners having to turn in their SKS. Initially it was judged to be an assault weapon but needed to be registered. New AG comes in now SKS is in prohibited class so turn in in boys.

[Drew68]

Were the last two SWAT or street cops? I am a bit confused by the title.

I believe all four dead officers were sergeants. The last two killed were SWAT.

[B-Chan]

Exactly.

Besides, at point-blank range a 7.62mm slug would cut through those cops’ flak jackets like they were wet toilet paper. A typical, so-called bulletproof vest will stop a .22 slug, most of the time, but up against a high-powered combat round at full muzzle velocity, forget it.

[Redbob]

"Nobody expects an AK-47."

See Post No. 4.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

Wikipedia says that the AK-47 fires a 7.62x39mm, and lists typical energy ratings in the general vicinity of 1500 ft-lbs at the muzzle [about 125 to 150 grains, at about 2100 to 2300 feet per second]:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.62x39mm

In all honesty, that's not a very high-powered round.

Now a Class III vest can stop a 150 grain round at 2750 feet per second:

http://www.bulletproofme.com/NIJ_Test_Rounds_CHART.shtml

So unless this guy was doing head shots, or he nicked a femoral artery in a leg, then I'd say that the Oakland PD "Swat" team skimped on their vest budget.

[Pharmboy]

Ping...

[smokingfrog]

I believe they were SWAT cops. The first two that were attacked were street cops or motorcycle patrol.