Posted on 05/05/2015 8:50:33 PM PDT by servo1969
More details are beginning to emerge about the incompetent Islamic terrorist attack on a free speech event held by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) in Garland, Texas Sunday. Bearing Arms readers have asked for more details about how the actual shooting went down, and about the Garland police officer who used his duty sidearm to defeat two attackers armed with rifles within 15 seconds.
Please keep in mind that we don’t have all the details about the attack, the individual officer’s response, or the exact steps law enforcement took once the attack began, and that even if we had that information, we would withhold such details which may be useful for any other would-be terrorists attempting future attacks.
That said, we will provide analysis of some key pieces of publicly available information.
* * *
At the point of the attack, the two suspects apparently drove up and opened fire upon an unarmed security guard who was accompanied by a 60-year-old Garland police officer. The unarmed guard was struck the volley of gunfire. The veteran Garland officer then drew his duty-issue Glock pistol and opened fire on the suspects.
The officer killed one terrorist and wounded the other in his initial volley of return fire. Witnesses claim there was a brief pause, and then the officer fire two more shots to kill the still-moving terrorist as he appears to be reaching for a backpack. The entire event lasted 15 seconds, with heavily-armed Garland SWAT converging on the scene immediately afterward.
We’re not going to mention any more about the officer who took out these terrorists, only that to give an idea of his approximate position in relation to the terrorists as he engaged them.
The evidence markers at the bottom of the photo above show us a remarkable story, as they denote the final locations of the shell casings ejected from the officer’s Glock duty pistol. While every pistol is different from another in its ejection pattern, and the movement of the officer and the cant of his gun precludes us from knowing exactly where he was, there, is a distinct trial of shells showing that the officer was moving forward from the bottom left of the photo above towards the terrorists at the rear of the vehicle. He appears to have opened fire from 20 yards away, and fired at least a dozen shots by the time he reached an area near the traffic cones, roughly 7-10 yards from where the terrorists died.
Second photo taken from the opposite angle (below) seems to confirm this determined officer’s advance on the terrorists while firing.
Note: the damage to the vehicle driven by the terrorists was from controlled demolitions from EOD units ensuring that the car was not a VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device).
There seems to be a great deal of skepticism regarding whether or not the suspects were wearing body armor and whether they were armed with “automatic weapons” or “assault rifles” or something else entirely. Other photos from the crime scene suggest answers to those questions as well.
In the image above, we have drawn an orange rectangle around what appears to be blood-drenched halves of a soft body armor carrier worn by one of the terrorists. Most people don’t seem to grasp that there are multiple grades of soft body armor, that these materials degrade over time, and that the armor panels themselves do not often cover the entire torso, leaving gaps under the arms, below the ribs, and at the neck.
We simply don’t know if the officer’s bullets compromised the armor or went around the armor panels, but it is quite clear that there was soft body armor worn by at least one of the terrorists, and that it did not prevent him from being quickly taken out of of the fight.
Did the terrorists have “automatic weapons” as some mainstream media outlets initially claimed?
The media claim of “automatic weapons” or “machine guns” is always to be discounted until positively affirmed beyond the shadow of a doubt by firearms experts (not law enforcement public information officers), simply based on how difficult it is to obtain automatic weapons in the United States.
What we do have is two separate images that appear to show long guns recovered at the scene. We’ve taken part of the image above and flipped it vertically below in an effort to better determine what we’re looking at.
It isn’t anything we immediately recognize, though we can say for certain that it doesn’t appear to be any centerfire variant or an AR-15 or AKM. While the photo we have to work with is frankly horrible, our best guess is that The firearm we’re looking at is a most likely Kel-Tec SUB-2000, a popular and inexpensive pistol caliber carbine shown below.
Partially obscured behind evidence marker 34 is what appears to be a firearm with an AR-15-type front sight post, but the quality of the image and amount of the gun covered by the evidence marker make it impossible to tell what we’re really looking at.
Is this a legitimate centerfire AR-15? Is this a rimfire copy? Is this an airgun, designed to look enough like an AR-15 to win a jihadi his martyrdom?
Frankly, I’m tempted to think that we’re looking at a “faux-15″ martyrdom special or a .22 clone, considering we’ve not be able to track down credible reports of the distinctively different reports of a centerfire rifle fire, and the confirmed Glock pistol-fire from the Garland officer.
We’re not ruling out the possibility that this was a centerfire AR-15 recovered at the scene, we’re simply noting that there wasn’t much evidence suggesting it was able to be brought into play by the terrorists.
* * *
No matter how you break down the details, this was an incredible display of bravery and marksmanship by this 30+ year veteran of the Garland Police Department, who not only resisted the natural urge to create distance between yourself and rifle-armed assailants, but who appears to have done precisely the opposite, and who advanced while firing accurately, bringing the attack to a swift conclusion without a single additional casualty once he brought his weapon to bear.
Determined people with good training and a decent handgun can indeed defeat the most zealous fanatic.
Get out there and train folks. Maybe one day it will be your turn to be the one standing on the line defending liberty from savagery.
Update: We’d like to thank Kaitian for finding a higher resolution image of the SUB-2000 used in the attack, which we’ve swapped out in the story above.
@bob_owens Don’t know if you know but there’s a higher resolution picture of the gun used. https://t.co/39OmgBAclL
Kaitian (@Kaitian1) May 5, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgsrnmzxEUY
Islam has not been hijacked.
3 things you didn’t know about Islam..
Are you armed?
Looks like a pump shotgun to my eyes.
Fifty or sixty years ago, Christians knew that
1) God made Man "very good"
2) Man thoroughly corrupted his nature through Original Sin.
Christians may argue with each other over the extent of the corruption, but not over the fact of its existence. Christianity has ALWAYS rejected the idea that Man is 'inherently good'.
Christianity, yes. Christians, no. There are plenty of people here in Red England who consider themselves Christians who wear slings from the sprains received when they pat themselves on the back for being such 'good' people. I certainly don't consider myself good.
I personally don't carry, but my husband wants that to change, and I agree with him.
It’s a very good idea.
It is unfortunate that were so summarily exterminated. I would have enjoyed an extended discussion in which you would have had the opportunity to explain why tolerating the death cult and observing it as a religion is fair or productive.
It is, especially with the way things have gotten down here. It’s unreal.
Your husband is a very wise man. My wife LOVES her S&W .357, and she is very good with it. (Not a good piece for concealed carry, but I would say it’s a very good idea for people to ‘stay off our lawn’. Hey...there’s bobcats around here.)
Good analogy comparing these butchers to Jim Jones society.
***************
Faux fabricated Religions that kill because YOU or I do not believe are CULTs...
BTTT!!
I’m just glad that I don’t live near a big city. What’s happening in this country is alarming.
Wise man, your husband ...
No time like the present. And ammo is relatively inexpensive, these days. Get lots of good practice and training.
He kept going back to how terrible everyone was for condemning Islam for the actions of “a few” among other things.
He also, on another thread, claimed it was “hypocritical” to criticize Islam.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3285908/posts?page=12#12
No, he never did explain anything.
Seconded.
My girl prefers long guns though.
John, seems willywill ate the steaming plasma.
Well, now that I've spent 11 milliseconds on mourning, I've got to get back to something important. Like mopping this side of the art-room. It really needs it.
At least that mess I can clean up.
/johnny
Looks like Trump was outed, eh? :’)
LOL, we have a .357. Too big for me to carry, but I have no problem using it here.
I agree, trisham...nothing could induce me to move near or into a city. I’m fine down here in redneck country.
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