Engaging a Mobile Threat From Behind Cover

[luzyfuerza]

Proper use of cover is a fundamental skill. We are often taught to:

1) Stand back from cover (don't "hug it"),
2) Change the positions relative to cover from which we engage targets (if we first engage from high right, the next time should be something like low left), and to
3) Move!

These three principles are basic. Even drills as simple and widely practiced as the IDPA classifier are based on these principles.

Most of us by now have seen this video, which appears to show the murder of a police officer by a rifle-wielding assailant last night in Dallas:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1306452/WARNING-GRAPHIC-Gunman-shoots-police-officer-Dallas-street.html

The police officer appears to have hugged his cover, and to have only looked around his cover from the high-right position. He appears to have been pretty much stationary once he was behind the concrete pillar. By contrast, the assailant moves constantly, and was able to maneuver to the side of the concrete pillar opposite from where the officer last engaged him.

It is a horrible thing to see a recording of a human being who is injured or killed at the hands of evil. We all mourn with the family of this injured or dead officer.


What can we learn from it?

Because many of us most commonly practice engaging paper targets that do not move, we sometimes only use the first two principles of the use of cover that I mentioned above. These are sufficient, I suppose, for dealing with a stationary target that isn't shooting back.

However, most real threats start moving when bullets start to fly. Some will shoot back. If they are going to move, then we must, too, even if it means leaving good cover, or moving to a position that our bodies may not go to easily (e.g. moving from standing to kneeling), or shooting from a less comfortable position (e.g. from the support hand side of cover). I believe that we have to practice these actions in order to be better able to use them for real, should such a horrible situation arise.

I'm looking for suggestions here.

How do you train in the use of cover? What drills and scenarios do you use?

I personally have a tendency to freeze in place and try to cognitively reason things out when confronted by a threat. How do you train your minds to avoid the tendency to freeze in place and to act quickly when confronted with a threat?

Are there other principles of the use of cover that you believe are also fundamental?


Please, lets focus on use of cover in this thread. We can discuss body armor/failure to stop, and rifle versus pistol elsewhere.

 

[lemaymiami]

Cover is both a blessing and a curse in a real fire fight... It's a blessing since it protects you - a curse in that many (unless it's trained out of them...) will go to cover as bullets fly and not move allowing a mobile shooter to pin them down and maneuver into a point of advantage - then end the fight... That was one of the basic problems our trainers noted as we responded to incidents years ago down in south Florida... We noted that in an ambush situation or a simple one on one armed shootout officers tended to retreat to their vehicles when better cover was much closer (and that maneuver was very predictable as we video'd our officer survival sessions... over and over... In addition their reliance on radio communications was overwhelming in our reviews -to the extent that reliance on communications took the place of heads up responses to a mobile threat.... Lastly the worst part about hugging cover is that it prevents the defending individual from seeing things that might save his/her life in an armed conflict...

I was heavily involved in Officer Survival training at the end of the eighties and into the early nineties down here in south Florida for a small department (100 sworn authorized) and there were a number of things about last night's incident to be spoken about. Sadly most police responses to an unknown armed assailant work against them if it's a planned ambush in a heavily built up area going up against shooter(s) with an elevation advantage (and the additional advantage of the echoing sounds of gunfire in an urban canyon -particularly at night...). The shooter has every advantage - the officers have none - unless they've been trained to set up a perimeter and not enter the killing zone until a plan was in place with the best assets... This was one of the kind of incidents we trained to prevent (on a smaller scale) way back when. I'm guessing that every department will now work to prevent deliberate ambush attacks on their officers for the near future (at least I hope so...).

These criticisms are the ones that police agencies will come up with themselves as they analyze the results of last night's terrible events. In short the officer's best instincts guarantee casualties in this kind of situation... Wish it weren't so and I'm glad that police work is long behind me... Prayers for their families, friends and that whole community...

 

[JohnKSa]

Lessons:

1. If you can be approached from either side of your cover, you need to watch both sides at once. If you can't do that, then you need a partner to help you watch the other side or you need to be doing your absolute best to get away.

2. Don't assume that your opponent will act rationally. The officer probably thought the shooter would stay behind cover as he was doing and that they would exchange fire around the edges of the cover until another officer arrived and they could gain an advantage. The shooter was likely already resigned to the idea that he wouldn't live out the night and so instead of staying safely behind cover, he left cover and rushed the officer.

3. If it's cover to you, it's cover to the other guy too. Just as you can use it to keep your opponent from shooting you, he can use it to advance on you in safety if he can pin you behind it.

4. Cover is better than standing in the open, but it's not a good substitute for being far enough away from the shooter that you can't be easily rushed.

 

[David N]

Thanks for some very educational posts. Just like they say don't hug the cover, they say don't hug the wall on your side. I never understood why until reading this thread.
I'll be following this one closely.

 

[lemaymiami]

There's one additional reason to "never hug a wall" in a firefight... If you take fire from your flank any rounds that hit that wall will run along it -perhaps biting flesh along the way. Most think that bullets or buckshot bounce off of walls the way a cue ball bounces off the rail on a pool table. That doesn't happen -instead the rounds tend to run down the wall (or other hard surface) so there's a very good reason not to "hug that wall" that has nothing to do with not being able to see what's coming (although that might be the more important reason).

I was taught the basics of skip shooting or bounce shooting with a shotgun some years ago and it was an eye opener. A skilled 'gunner can hit things and people that are solidly behind cover if they leave any area open to a ricochet shot. Those rounds are very controllable as well once you know how they'll react to glancing off of a hard, smooth surface (whether it's a wall or pavement or any other hard surface...).

 

[Phaedrus/69]

Great post! I expect that complacency is a serious problem. In reality cop isn't in the top ten most dangerous job in the US; in fatalities it's way behind loggers, commercial fishermen, roofers, etc. In 2014 twice as many people died falling off ladders than there were cops killed in the line of duty. When cops do die it's usually in a traffic accident. So on the one hand you're tasked with teaching advanced survival skills to someone who knows they will probably never need them, while getting them to absorb the skills anyway.

I don't think the world is vastly more dangerous than it was 20 years ago but as always the threats morph and evolve. Its seems prudent for training to address ambushes, heavily armed threats and [particularly] the possibility of explosive and/or booby traps.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

John's analysis was good. I will add that always being on the move means leaving cover and that is when people will often be shot as well. ROE are not as simple as described in the OP. They are exceptionally situational.

The link in the OP is now deceased. Here is the YT version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpb-mtjN9q8

Johnson violates the first rule numerous times and uses this tactic to hide from responding officers. He made it work for him.