Posted on 03/21/2009 7:32:26 PM PDT by Steelfish
According to this source the till is now four:
“A fourth police officer shot during a pair of deadly confrontations with an Oakland, Calif., gunman has died, officials told CNN.”
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/yb/127894348
Wow....prayers up for his family and friends.
This reminds me a bit of the infamous 1986 FBI shootout in Miami where lessons were learned the hard way about how to—and how not to—effectively engage and eliminate well-armed criminals. How did not one but two motorcycle cops get taken out with headshots from a handgun fired by a two-bit thug? Why did two experienced SWAT team members go down? There are well-established protocols and tactics that are supposed to be followed that give almost all the advantages to the SWAT team members—not to the thug. There’s a lot we don’t know at this point, but the circumstantial evidence suggests that there was a failure of tactics or training.
Just read your post. It was essentially an ambush at the apartment, and the bullets found their marks blindly. What horrible luck.
Not unlikely, I’d say.
27 year old 2 bit thug may have had former military experience and lots of remote range time. Not all gang bangers are spray and prey wannabes. Some can shoot !
WHat the SWAt cops should have done was pull back, call in a airstrike and then move in to mop up.
It is Oakland afterall, a city that prides itself on being thuggish. Birth place of both the Hells Angels and Black Panthers. An ARCLIGHT misson would only increase property value.
The traffic stop situation is hard to stop if a perp just comes out firing head shots. You can’t treat every routine stop like an armored car robber max felony stop. (Miami).
In the apt house, that’s harder. If the building was evacuated, do you ever send a SWAT team in? If the perp is hiding in a closet with a leveled semi-auto rifle, and just blasts away at the sound of approaching cops talking “clear” etc, what do you do?
Do you just pump in tear gas? If you do, it can cause the entire apt house to ignite, explode and burn. Then the community hangs you. Remember, it was only a “tip” that he might be inside. What if he’s not, and you keep the apt house evacuated for a full day or two, for officer safety. Then the community hangs you for keeping them out of their apts.
Being a cop is hard and dangerous. All danger and risk cannot be eliminated, ever.
I guess the lesson is, assume they ALL can shoot. And because they CAN shoot, give them the best-trained, most deadly accurate, and concentrated counterfire from behind cover that can be offered. All of them. Even the greenest gang banger. Don’t attempt to arrest them. Take them out.
Nope .......I shoot to stop the threat. See my tag line.
I was heartened to know that someone cared enough in that hell hole to tell the cops where this thug had retreated.
As for the closet scenario, there have got to be effective ways to approach and breach closet doors (or any interior door) to determine if they hide a threat without unduly compromising the safety of so many SWAT team members. Maybe the SWAT team members should stay a certain distance from one another to minimize the risk a single burst of gunfire through a door will hit more than one of them. I just don’t know. And I really don’t want to be seen finding fault with the SWAT team members in this instance. It could be that they did everything perfectly and that blind, stupid, bad luck did its deadly dirty work in this instance.
Thanks, Star! You’re a Champion and a Patriot!
The suspect was identified as Oakland resident Lovelle Mixon, 26. He was on parole for assault with a deadly weapon, police said. He had a no-bail warrant for his arrest on charges of violating parole. He had previous convictions in Alameda County for grand theft and possession of marijuana.
Prayers for Officers John Hege, Erv Romans, Dan Sakai,and Mark Dunakin, their families and friends. God bless them.
You are new here so I will take my precious time to say this just once. Nobody here likes self indulgent thread stealers. Give it up, get over yourself and stick to the subject or get gone.
Portable ballistic shields come to mind. Ankle to head coverage.
When I see Ron "anti-cop" Dellums as Mayor, and Jerry "no death penalty" Brown as AG, it brings the situation in that area of the world all the more into focus.
I heard one news report that said, at the initial scene -- at the place of the first murdered officer -- a twenty+ in number crowd began taunting public safety personnel, because of some unrelated incident.
Outrageous, senseless, and angering...
Body bunkers have their purpose......
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