Deputy killed in the line of duty

[mbt2001]

I see a lot of posts on tactics. I will move off tactics to doctrine, which IMO would be to back up and holistically focus on the "training" that LEO's receive. No offense to anyone, this is obviously MY opinion.

The focus has become force on force with a total loss of the spiritual aspects. The practioner will develop them eventually on his/her own, but there is no guidance, no shotcuts or better systems being encouraged than his/her own PERSONAL system, which frankly, most likely is flawed. Kata isn't practiced nor is meditation practiced and they should be. They MUST BE.

Meditation trains the mind. The body is trained through action and repetition. The mind must be taught stillness, the body must be taught strength. The mind/body must be fused together through kata so that strength blends into strength.

Also, as a civilian (I live in Colorado), can I shoot a bad guy who is retrieving a weapon from his vehicle? Or is loading a weapon not "imminent" enough?

Well, after this video, I would think that YES, it is enough. Everything is case by case. Considering that IF YOU or I or someone else was in a similar incident, this type of video would most likely be introduced as an object lesson in what can happen / justification.

 

[rm23]

The video that I found starts when Brennan was retrieving the rifle. Does anyone have a link to a longer or possibly complete video?

I hope the guy gets the chair with a dry sponge.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

That man was screaming ,he was obviously outmatched with this lunatic.
The bastard had to know the officer wasn't gonna be able to do a damn thing to him. He didn't have to kill him.

Does anyone know what this whackjob's problem was?

No, he did not have to kill him. He didn't even have to shoot the Deputy. However, Brannan was a bad guy. Bad guys do bad things.

Strangely from what I can find, Brannan did not have a criminal record before the event. Not all bad guys are known as bad guys.

 

[Prion]

He wasn't known as a bad guy but had received much mental health treatment for PTSD stemming from his combat experience. A shrink interviewed him aferward and said he related his side of the events as if it had been a military engagement and was completely removed from reality. Apparently he flashed back to Vietnam and hallucinated seeing enemy soldiers etc. Don't know if I buy it but that is one guys opinion.

Either way, I wish he had laid laid him out upon seeing the rifle and this nuts failure to comply. Heartbreaking to watch it turn out otherwise.

 

[Zoogster]

Honestly I think this is a poor situation and video to analyze as something to expect.

This video is relatively clear where mistakes are made, far clearer than in most situations.
A guy gets out of a vehicle and is severely non-compliant. He shows a strong willingness to be confrontational, and after running towards the officer, swears at him, flips him off and goes back to his vehicle.
All of this demonstrates that this guy has absolutely no desire to comply with instructions.
He does not get in his vehicle or try to flee but clearly is trying to retrieve something for several moments.
What that means is as soon as the guy retrieves a firearm there is a clear and immediate deadly threat by someone that has shown they are absolutely unwilling to follow any instructions.
There is really no need to even issue an additional instruction at that point and the officer should have began firing at the man right then, or after the first warning at the latest if he was inclined to issue one.

As soon as the guy who has shown he is hostile and uncooperative retrieves a firearm, never mind a rifle, it is time to put him down. We know the deputy realized he has a long gun because he tells him to put the gun down.

The reason this alone is a bad training video is most situations do not gradually progress so clearly.
So this gives an overly simplified situation to react to.


Keep in mind officers will encounter good people with firearms. Both open carrying, concealed carrying, and stored within the vehicle. As well as criminals that will not go for them or misuse them.
So someone simply having access to a firearm alone is not a good reason to shoot them.
It can be a reason for the officer to take precautions to be ready to use deadly force as soon as necessary though.
(But there is two sides to everything. Think to the open carry threads where the guy legally open carrying is dealt with at gunpoint.)


Here is another situation an officer faces, also in Georgia. In my opinion this video is a much better example of what to expect in a bad scenario. This officer survives, but only due to pure luck (criminal's gun jammed) and determination. This is deputy Steven Rankin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEpUtoUzE4U

He is shot in the face approaching a vehicle in the dark before he even realizes a threat exists. Without any warning of noncooperation, or knowing a firearm will be involved. The criminal then gets out of the vehicle after shooting the officer in the face and attempts to execute him iwth additional shots. Fortunately for the officer in the state of Georgia they have not outlawed "Saturday night specials" or "junk handguns". So the criminal is using a piece of junk that jammed after the first shot, and he is unable to execute the defenseless officer sprawled out on the ground.

He then goes for the officer's gun to use it to finish him off, but by this time officer Rankin has started to partially recover some sense of what is going on, and fights with the criminal. Officer Rankin manages to both retain control of his own firearm and then later return fire when the suspect is trying to flee (which may have resulted in manslaughter or attempted murder charges for a non-officer at that point.) Of course as far as he knew those shots may have been the last thing he did before dying to his head wounds, and he wanted that criminal to pay as demonstrated by his own statement "I wanted him dead right then". He fired all 16 rounds from his weapon at the fleeing vehicle but the violent predator was not hit.

This is a much better video in demonstrating how quickly things happen and what to expect.
Most criminals are not going to demonstrate they are a threat in a lengthy manner before retrieving a firearm like in the first video. Training to expect for that to happen when it normally will not is in my opinion training for a "trigger" that may never come.


On the opposite end of the spectrum an officer pointing a gun at every potential threat increases the chance of the gun being pointed at someone during a negligent discharge.
Here is a negligent discharges by an officer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDfNV9bJoSg
Now imagine that is you after being stopped and you are open or concealed carrying and the gun is pointed at you.
Or here is what appears to be a mistake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bvWBN0IQCc
The officer on the driver's side says "reach in there and go ahead and get it". Presumably talking to the other officer near the passenger's side. However the criminal who ends up dead may have believed he was being told to 'reach in and get it'. An error in communication that cost him his life if so. Now imagine it was a good person with a firearm who made the same mistake or misunderstood commands or instructions being given to him, while commands are also being given to the other officer. Lights in his face unable to see gestures or who is talking to who, adrenaline pumping, one mistaken interpretation of a command and he is dead.

Now ask yourself if you want every uncomfortable cop with with their adrenaline high pointing a gun at you each time you are open carrying or concealed carrying and encounter them.
Keep in mind your suggestions to act a certain way anytime a gun is involved will involve such people as well as predatory criminals.
Being a cop is a tough job. But how tough a job should being a citizen exercising a right to carry a firearm be? The balance is not easy.

 

[thorazine]

Last I read Brannan was down to his last appeal to the GA Supreme Court. Anyone know the result of that appeal?

I pray this guy receives his full sentence and has been or will shortly be executed.

Are you serious?

Ten years later and he still is living off of appeals?



Having watched the video a while ago...

The death sentence is too good for brannan,

http://www.medievality.com/torture.html

 

[mbt2001]

Zoogster,

Introducing more videos into the mix doesn't help or clarify anything. There is a difference in getting sucker punched (your video) and freezing (the OP). I can't train enough to avoid getting sucker punched entirely.

I can train to avoid freezing up. I think that it is important to keep in mind that training, lack thereof or lack of emphasis on some things maybe exactly the problem for the officer in the OP.

 

[Zoogster]

Zoogster,

Introducing more videos into the mix doesn't help or clarify anything. There is a difference in getting sucker punched (your video) and freezing (the OP). I can't train enough to avoid getting sucker punched entirely.

Granted, but I think that video is more typical. There is dozens of similar videos. There is also the statistics compiled on what officers are typically killed with. Most situations that turn deadly for an officer involve concealed handguns used unexpectedly or officers killed with their own sidearm.

A criminal clearly demonstrating he is both non compliant and dangerous, before clearly going for a long gun is a very rare scenario. Doing it all relatively slowly even more rare.
A luxury that I think is foolish to train for when statistically my example is far more typical.
A luxury that contains clear "triggers" with multiple seconds in between which I think is foolish to train potential future jurors (or concealed handgun carriers) to expect. Things typically happen much faster, and "triggers" are much less clear before the first shot is fired.

Just as important is that people understand general policies in place may also involve good citizens with firearms as well as criminals. So knee jerk suggestions or policies that always deal with things a certain way when firearms are involved will effect more than just predatory criminals.
Which can take other examples to demonstrate so people realize the balance that must be met by policies designed to deal with situations such as in the OP video and my example, as well as good people that may also have access to a firearm when stopped. It is a tough balance, and a balance that is easily forgotten when you focus on just one side of the equation.

 

[mbt2001]

Zoogster:

Again, I hear you. We all hear you. I think you are missing the point of this video. Not only did the officer FAIL to use deadly force, he failed to use ANY FORCE. He completely froze, even though he had warning and time perhaps with which to do something. To compare it to a "regular shooting" wherein someone pulls a concealed pistol at close range and fires before the officer can react is to miss the point.

Please, no offense to the officer or his friends and family, but he shouldn't have been an officer at all OR this should have been dealt with in training so that he didn't freeze or they KNEW he might. The point of what I said in my post regarding mindset is simply that this officer had none.

So I agree with you, but the point of this video IMO is that it is singular in it's picture. The officer wasn't ready, perhaps never would be, to use force. How many others are out there?

P.S.

BTW, I really don't disagree with anything you said. I just didn't want to confuse this with other shootings, as I have never really seen anything like this. Except in movies like Saving Private Ryan or something.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

The reason this alone is a bad training video is most situations do not gradually progress so clearly.
So this gives an overly simplified situation to react to.

Most situations may not progress in this manner, but that does not make it a bad training video. It is a fine example of what can happen. In many cases, the progression ends up being nothing more than ego/peer/alcohol/drug-induced posturing, bark but no bite. Some situations progress to a culmination of a fight, some don't

Even if most situations do not progress in such a clear manner, are educational/training videos only supposed to include information on what happens most of the time, or should they include unique sorts of events so as to educate officers on the broader spectrum of how things can go wrong?

If this was such a clear progression as you noted (and I would agree), the deputy still ended up getting killed. How could he have missed such a clear progression and/or failed to react more appropriately? These facets alone make this incident very educational.

Was the deputy ever in control of the situation? If not, why not, and what could he have done differently? In this regard, there is a lot to learn from the video.

Please, no offense to the officer or his friends and family, but he shouldn't have been an officer at all OR this should have been dealt with in training so that he didn't freeze or they KNEW he might. The point of what I said in my post regarding mindset is simply that this officer had none.

A lot of folks' performance suffers in a crisis despite their training. Dave Grossman's research indicates that 80-85% of soldiers in Vietnam either did not fire their weapons or intentionally did not shoot the enemy. Training only goes so far and the biggest difference about training from real life is that training doesn't actually involve the trainee actually dealing with actually killing real people. A trainee can get through a lot of training and never freeze because the trainee knows it isn't real life. Training alone isn't likely to negate the emotional aspects a trainee might have about taking another life. In short, training may not have revealed the Deputy's possible aversion to taking another life.

 

[Full Metal Jacket]

i saw this video a while back. i feel bad for that poor deputy.

i hate to sound cliche, but there really are two types of people in the world: the quick & the dead. that deputy should have opened fire the second he saw that rifle in that nut's hands, but you could hear the nervousness in his voice.

at least they caught him and gave that scumbag the death penalty.

 

[joe_security]

I saw the video. Heartbreaking. The video serves to assist in training future LEOs. I wish the Deputy had transitioned to a long gun upon seeing the rifle coming out of that truck.

 

[Redneck with a 40]

I too watched the video, very tragic and sad, makes me very angry that there are scumbags out there with no respect for authority. I agree with Joe, as soon as it was evident he (the scumbag) was going for the rifle, he should have pulled the 12 gauge as his primary and then promptly unloaded into him, he all the justification he needed at that point. He waited too long to take decisive action, in this case, deadly force.

 

[joe_security]

Back in the mid 1990s, a bank robber put 2 rounds through the windshield of a squad car, after the Officer caught up with him on a side street. The bad guy used a folding stock Ruger Mini-14. The Officer was grazed, a light wound to his shoulder. He put the cruiser in reverse and burned rubber, backing out of the kill zone. The bank robber was an ex-LEO, he went on to escape from custody and kill a court security officer and took his own life with a revolver used in the escape. This happened in the suburbs of chicago.

 

[gym]

It's hard to imaging, but some folks out there just have murder in their hearts. It's all training, some react better than others. As mentioned if you hesitate, you lose your life. In a police or military situation like that you must be in high gear all the time, and expect the worse case scenario and plan for it. But sometimes people have something else on their mind or just aren't ready for the crazys that are out there. I didn't watch the clip nor do I care to, having seen enough in my life, but it's usually the same thing, someone is prepared to die and others aren't expecting that.

 

[longdayjake]

That poor officer probably just needed more confidence that can only come from more experience. When you're unsure on how to act its usually too late when you finally do. That said, I am one that got lucky a few times before I finally got the confidence to act instantly without fear of legal or civil repraisal.

 

[duns]

I watched the video once and will never watch it again. Too painful. The officer seems to me to have been a very decent man who just couldn't bear to pull the trigger on another human being - until he was being shot at himself and then it was too late.

 

[David E]

I just watched the video
How could someone do that?

Because evil exists.

That man was screaming ,he was obviously outmatched with this lunatic.

We don't get to pick and choose our attacker or his abilities. It is our duty to get training and maintain proficiency. If we are outmatched, then whose fault is it?

The bastard had to know the officer wasn't gonna be able to do a damn thing to him. He didn't have to kill him.

Nope, but evil exists.

Does anyone know what this whackjob's problem was?

Why does it matter? Some folks get paralyzed because they analyzed. Why do we care what caused this piece o' crap to snap? Deal with the situation at hand swiftly, not try to ponder the reasons motivating the badguy.

 

[Spencer_OKC]

This is a good example of the concept Be Aggressive Enough, Soon Enough.

Unfortunately the officer was not able to take Brannan into custody during the physical encounter that occurs off camera before he returned to his truck.

When Brannan runs back towards his truck, another tactic would have been to pursue and engage him physically in an attempt to keep him from getting back to the cab of his pickup.

Once Brannan has made it back to the cab of his truck, the problem changes. Officer Dinkheller should have been changing his position, seeking cover. I know a State Trooper who was involved in a shootout with three suspects on a wooded rural road. After the initial gunfire, the trooper retreated into the treeline for cover & concealment while waiting for backup units.

The video I watched shows Brannan run back to his truck at 1:12 on the counter. He is verbally challenged until 1:32 on the timer, when the officer apparently notices the firearm and begins commanding Brannan to drop the gun. From what I could tell the first shots are not fired until about 2:00 on the counter. This is 48 seconds of the officer failing to adjust his tactics.

The officer knew he was dealing with a non-compliant, apparently mentally unstable assailant. After failing to comply to repeated commands and being involved in a physical confrontation, when that rifle came into view Officer Dinkhiller should have killed Brannan.

Some fault lies with the limited training that many police officers receive, standing static on the firing line, banging away at known distances at a single target. No movement, nothing dynamic, no critical thinking.

If you find yourself in a situation like this, DO SOMETHING. Move, shoot, run...please do not just stand there yelling for your killer to stop.

Prayers for Officer Dinkhiller & his family. He placed himself on the line, which is more than many are willing to do. Understand that we honor his service by learning from his tragedy.

 

[MachIVshooter]

This is 48 seconds of the officer failing to adjust his tactics.

An eternity in a situation like that. I maintain that he should have either opened up or peeled rubber. He had plenty of time for either (or both).

 

[mrokern]

Anyone who hasn't read Jeff Cooper's "Principles of Personal Defense", go to the Paladin Press website and spend your money NOW.

The Dinkheller video is an object lesson of Cooper's principles in action, or rather, NOT in action.

Deputy Dinkheller lost his life at the hands of disturbed, violent individual by being, well, a nice guy. Nice guys tend to not win gunfights (or any other fight, for that matter). When things go sideways, you need to put kindness and gentleness in the deepest, darkest hole of your psyche and put your animal brain in charge. You must get aggressive, or you will get your butt handed to you...and I'm not talking about "school-yard" aggressive. You must fight to end it, as quickly and as brutally as possible. In a life and death situation, there is no other option that leads to success other than luck...and luck is never an option.

May God keep Deputy Dinkheller's soul, and may Brannan die painfully.

-Mark

 

[rustycrusty]

So sorry that the deputy was killed by this dirt bag. I saw this reaction several times in country. Guys would freeze or not take appropriate action.
I honestly think that some people like this deputy aren't capable of conceptualizing themselves taking another life, and when the time comes they go into a non-action mode rather than respond. So sad.