Every solution has it's own set of compromises. Someone else mentioned in this thread that their father was a police officer and he used a 38 special with soft lead bullets that were less likely to ricochet or fragment. This type of projectile would most likely be designed for lower pressures and velocities than a typical 9mm hollow point. His example demonstrates that persons from earlier generations, many of whom had wartime or law enforcement gun fighting experiences... understood that many projectiles fired in a stressful situation would miss their mark and be a danger to bystanders regardless of the officers’ training, experience and judgment.
I don't know... 9mm hollow points very well could be the best choice for most officers in most situations. However it is also possible that for officers confronting armed violent criminals on busy sidewalks there might be other choices that would either be more effective or safer for the bystanders.
Some might say that the fact that none of the bystanders were killed indicates that the ammo was a good choice. At the least this situation is a PR nightmare. I personally have never heard of this many bystanders being wounded by police shooting at just one person, but it most likely is not the first time. My guess would be with the number of people hit, that some of those “fragments” ended up in areas where they couldn't be easily removed. Some of the injuries and tissue damaged will no doubt cause difficulties for the victims that will be long lasting if not permanent.
Two days ago I met a person who was shot in the head with a .22 pistol 18 years ago when he was a teen. The projectile caused permanent brain damage. He is still riding around in an electric wheel chair and has a difficult time communicating. Fragments from a 9mm hollow point could easily have done the same type of damage. It was a fragment from a .22 pistol that ricocheted off the presidential limo that nearly killed President Reagan.
Watching the video makes you realize just how quickly a situation like this can go bad. When the criminal who had just killed another man drew and pointed the barrel of that big .45 at the two officers they both immediately went into survival mode. They were pulling the trigger as fast as they could until the threat was on the ground. I am not sure that any amount of training would have prevented this reaction in the last few seconds of this confrontation... it would depend on the individuals involved. Better training might have caused them to approach the individual in a way that would have put themselves and the bystanders at less risk. There might also be different guns and ammo that would be better tools for officers who are most likely to find themselves in this type of predicament.
I hope that if any changes are made to training, protocol or equipment that the changes will actually make the police and bystanders safer. Unfortunately, it is just as likely that a knee jerk reaction will make the police less able to perform their duties in a safe and effective manner and the public will actually be put at greater risk.
Thanks, good points. The main reason for so many hit— the sidewalk there at 9 AM is jammed. I’m surprised they didn’t hit a cabbie or auto. There was a bus pulling up just as this started.
Agree that maybe something else could have been used. Not a taser- say maybe a developed hand held sonic weapon could be directionally used.
It is also, my opinion, the lack of an armed populace. Somebody could have stopped this clown long before he walked around the corner. Too much reliance on big brother govt.— keeping us safe from salt, trans fat,soda pop.... but not from armed loonies.