follow the link for video: South Carolina Deputy shoots charging knife-wielding attacker
A couple months ago I wrote about shooting on the move (SOM) and the importance of moving at a pace that matters. Sometimes merely sprinting (without getting hits) or shooting (while flat footed) isn’t enough. The video linked above is a perfect example. While the Deputy certainly isn’t moving fast, he’s moving fast enough to stay out of the reach of the nutjob trying to cut him.
The Deputy was able to draw and score hits while backing up… contrary to the myth that one should “never back up because you’ll fall down.” If you’re reading this post then it’s safe to assume you’ve been walking for almost twenty years (or possibly 2-3 times that). Your brain knows how to make your feet move without falling over at random. The Deputy here kept his weight slightly forward instead of leaning backwards, too, which makes a big difference in maintaining balance if your foot lands on something slippery or uneven.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
C’mon Todd. The scumbag was shuffling forward. I am glad it worked out for the officer, but if the knife wielder would have been moving at full speed, it would have been an entirely different story.
vincent — But that’s exactly the point! We’ll often be told that retreating won’t work because it won’t work against a certain type of attacker who is willing to charge head first into a loaded gun. But in the instant case you have an actual incident where the attacker did not do that. Had the Deputy stood still, he would have been within reach and would have been slashed. Backing up at greater-than-babystep speed kept the Deputy from getting cut while still allowing him to get effective hits.
The fact that it isn’t a 100% solution doesn’t mean it is thus a 0% solution.
If that nutjob with a knife was on a unicycle, the officer woulda been toast!
The Deputy is lucky the guy gave him enough room and distance to react. If the perpetrator waited until he was a little closer the outcome might’ve been very different. The Deputy did a great job of changing gears.
Michael “Iron Mike” Webb
I am sure if the guy came at him faster, the deputy would have backed up faster. Looks like he did a great job keeping the distance he needed to get the job done.
Suspect is obviously a slow learner: had been previously shot by the police in another incident. Oh well, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
And the deputy declined the day off….outstanding.
The deputy did a great job dealing with an “out of the blue” violent assault.
two thumbs up 🙂
I think retreating is the right thing to do. I was taught to fight until you can’t fight anymore and if retreating gives you a couple of steeps and half a second wouldn’t you want that.
Also note that it seemed like he only fired one shot not 46 or whatever like up here in Michigan.
Retreating was in fact appropriate for an attacker advancing at this speed.
If he was going faster then moving into him on a diagonal and redirecting his attack would have been the better first step, but in this case that would not have worked because you need the speed of the attack to work off of.
Very telling to me and what I would like to know is when the deputy first saw the guy….Did he see him walking down the street; recognize him as a pedestrian who was going to walk on by-then pulled the knife? You can see the deputy focused on the driver then he is confronted. I’m impressed the deputy immediatly begins his counter attack…moving away, drawing, firing, etc. The bad ends up beyond where the deputy was to begin with; so you can see the bad guys attempt to advances was thwarted by the retreat. Doesn’t look pretty but in “real life” sometimes things look a little awkward…And I beleive it’s a two handed sighted shot; and where did the ticket and paperwork go…is it tucked in his belt.. Again very interesting. An interview with the deputy and the little things he did; maybe without even knowing; may offer some valuable insight. Thanks.
Based my experience and what I saw in the video, the deputy performed very well. It the deputy saw the male walking along (or in) the road while he was speaking to the violator. I would think it is hard to miss seeing a large man with a blue umbrella. Tactically speaking he could not move forward, or to his left (traffic) and standing still offered no advantage. Moving has to be part of the equation, and if you can move and shoot that is a better solution. If he needed to run away from a person charging him then he may not have been able to shoot and if he was required to make a difficult shot then he may not have been able move. But in this incident he was able to perform both well enough to prevail. Good job!
As far as the paperwork goes I think he still has it in his hand after the shooting.
Stay Sharp & Stay Safe!
Surreally archetypal, it looks (to my novice eye) almost like a staged Tueller demo. Outstanding job by the LEO, and thank God the knife-wielding psychopath* fumbled with his kit.
(*alleged, of course)
William April actually talked about this in his class. Funny to see the video not long after. As far as the one shot stop, Officer jerked round low and to the left, directly into the suspect’s right kneecap.
Anatomically correct misses are always nice.
“Anatomically good misses” I thought I’d coined that myself working FAST drills. ???
😉
“It wasn’t the suspect’s only run in with the law. Pearson was shot in the shoulder in New York.”
Well, New York, thanks for your catch and release program. Shoot em, patch em up. Turn them loose.
“Officer jerked round low and to the left, directly into the suspect’s right kneecap.”
Or fired early as he was bringing his gun up. An officer here scored hits to the upper thigh and groin in a similar incident here.
I think the interesting part to this, is the car stop. Generally while conducting a car stop (I have no idea who/what was in the stopped car) you are pretty focused on who is in the car, doing what. In this instance kind of out of the blue, a nut walks up and challenges the Deputy. He did the right thing, he made some distance and shot the guy, whether it was a good shot (high value) or not, it folded the nut job. Sure, I would have liked to hear that he center punched the guy and took out his CN system or something like that, but in this instance it turned out to be a knee cap shot…. We’ll take a win wherever we can get them.
From watching the video in slow-mo it looks as though the deputy’s head snapped to the attacker when he saw the attacker’s draw movement in an instinctive response. Then there’s a pause as the deputy is processing what he’s seeing…then movement and draw.
The deputy’s life was saved by multiple mistakes from the attacker, including the decision to ditch the umbrella and backpack. That gave the deputy time…time is life.
It’s certainly true that if the bad guy was more together with his plan the day could have ended very differently…but there’s a million ways any given use of force incident could have gone the other way.
TC, this video is a perfect view of Boyd’s OODA loop. When the deputy snaps his head around we have the observe and orient phases taking place. The slight pause is the decide and the backing up while shooting is the act phase.
I wonder if this guy was trying suicide by cop given that he was almost provoking and not attacking? Just a guess and nothing more than that.
I can’t be the only one who noticed the deputy maintained enough presence of mind to not back up into the lane of traffic. That dude did everything right.