Video Captures Dramatic L.A. Shootout

[El Rojo]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155956,00.html

Video Captures Dramatic L.A. Shootout

Monday, May 09, 2005

LOS ANGELES — A dramatic piece of videotape captured the aftermath of a police chase Sunday in the Los Angeles area in which several sheriff’s deputies found themselves engaged in a shootout. One deputy and the suspect were injured.

Los Angeles County (search) sheriff’s deputies responded to a call of shots fired in Compton (search) just after midnight Monday. When they arrived at the home, they did not find a victim but they did find a white Chevrolet SUV driving through the neighborhood at speeds of more than 70 mph.

During the chase, the suspect drove over lawns, curbs and sidewalks while trying to elude the authorities. At one point, the suspect backed up and headed toward the law enforcement vehicles — an act that prompted the gunfire.

For roughly 15 seconds, the video shows five deputies firing countless rounds. A rapid succession of “pop, pop, pop†can be heard.

When it was over, a deputy and the suspect were injured. Local media reports said that it appeared the injured deputy was accidentally shot by a fellow deputy.

The investigation into the incident is ongoing. Deputies won’t say if the suspect took the first shot or if he even had a gun at all. But they said that preliminary reports were that their officers were in danger.

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Click the link above so you can see the video yourself. Can you believe they shot nine times and only got 5 hits. 4 hits on the driver and one hit on a fellow officer who took a hit into his bullet proof vest. I was just watching our local news and after watching Lee Baca talk, I have no doubt in my mind that he is an idiot.

At least up here in Kern County when we shoot 90 times at suspects, at least two out of three die. Yeah I know there was only one, but still, we kill more than we let get away. Time to head back to the range boys.

The rest of you feel free to post other articles here as you run into them.

 

[Psssniper]

Hey man, nice shot

 

[thorn726]

watching it on the news now, "cops shoot unarmed man with barrage of bullets"

ooops.

no explanation from sheriff.

cars run away, 18 seconds of gunfire wow this is something else to watch.

unarmed, i guess if they say pull over and you don't - you get shot at.
90 times. literally

 

[UberPhLuBB]

Eesh!

That "officer" telling the camera man to get down by pointing with his gun gave me the willies.

Pointed his gun one handed so clearly he wasn't gun-concious, with his finger on the trigger at the cameraman. 90 shots and the suspect was barely scathed when they pulled him out? How much could it possibly cost to train these dangerous officers to wield a firearm properly? I trust my fellow gun owners to be armed in my vicinity FAR, FAR more than any officer of the law. Instead they go after we legitemate gun owners. I wonder how many tens of thousands of dollars in property damage those officers inflicted on those residences? Who picks up that tab?

Chriminy.

 

[Gunsnrovers]

Even from down here in LA, I know you don't mess with the deputies in Kern County.

 

[Alex45ACP]

Holy ****. I can't believe the cop pointed his gun at the cameraman like that, and his finger was on the trigger too!

 

[MikeIsaj]

It is absolutely amazing that no cops are dead from "friendly fire." I will assume that since someone decided to shoot, deadly force was justified. From there the question, 90 rounds fired and the bad guy is still alive?

 

[jobu07]

That's nuts! They said "one officer was wounded, officials say he may have been hit in the crossfire" If he was shot... and only the cops were shooting...

 

[TheDutchman]

When it was over, a deputy and the suspect were injured. Local media reports said that it appeared the injured deputy was accidentally shot by a fellow deputy.

OOPS

 

[Spot77]

I can't believe the cop pointed his gun at the cameraman like that, and his finger was on the trigger too!

WOW! That was my reaction too....nice muzzle discipline.

But I suppose under the stress of the event, I might not have acted any better.



Is that why only "trained law enforcement officials" should have guns?

 

[280PLUS]

It'd be interesting if we could get the info on where all those rounds ended up. I saw the chief talking about how when the investigation is over we'd probably find most of the officers were "aiming for the tires". The ones I see all seem to have their weapons leveled at the driver.

From what I can hear, those guys were firing way too fast to achieve any reasonable accuracy. They were just dumping lead in the general direction of the truck.

I understand they were all hopped up on adrenaline but letting 90 rounds loose in a congested area like that still raises some questions. I'm truly surprised no bystanders were hit.

I DID think the chief made sense when he said there was too much shooting going on in LA by both the citizens and the police.

I just remembered a saying from at least as far back as WWI:

"It takes a ton of lead to kill a man."

Looks like it still does.

 

[Shovelhead]

Gives a whole new perspective on "Spray & Pray"

 

[Master Blaster]

1. All guns are loaded treat them that way.

2. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target and you are ready to fire.

3. Only point a gun at things you wish to see destroyed.

4. Know your target and what is beyond.


All four of the rules were violated, if you and I did what they did, in the same threat situation we would be in jail.

 

[dolanp]

Can't cut it in the military but like to shoot darkies and other miscreants? Join the LAPD!!

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Everybody who seems incredulous at the number of rounds fired vs. the number of hits, should try that scenario out for themselves. Vehicles and vehicle glass are very capable of deflecting rounds - especially low powered handgun rounds. Rounds that don't deflect may well lack the ability to penetrate deeply enough to do anything more than wound the threat without causing a physiological stop.

There was even a nice thread about this over at AR15.com. A good firsthand report from one of the Marines where a squad of Marines opened up on a vehicle that tried to run a checkpoint and got a similar hit ratio and saw similar success.
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=118&t=229546

I've shot a few movers in the course of competition, including some travelling at vehicle speeds. It seems the most common error for people who have never done this before is to lead the target too much at close range. Sadly, few police departments have the budget and political will to give every officer the kind of firearms training the need to be more successful in these scenarios.

On the other hand, I've got some concerns with the officers breaking several of the four rules simultaneously. This video seems to show 2, 3, and 4 going out the window. Their firearms training needs to incorporate a program that will emphasize the four rules or they better start saving up now for the eventual lawsuit settlement.

 

[Don Gwinn]

Let's keep the venom to a minimum. I just watched it with the sound off (at school), but it looked to me like anybody claiming to know much about who fired at what based on what they SAW on the video is probably allowing their mind to fill in details as appropriate. You certainly can't see much on the video.

I actually thought the deputy who motioned at the cameraman had his finger straight, but I was a little shocked at his muzzle control anyway. On the other hand, he was having a REALLY bad day.

 

[Arc-Lite]

Good point Bart, on auto glass and bullets, if it has always been a problem, continues to be a problem, then it makes you wonder why has something not been designed to punch threw auto glass, and auto bodies, that would have some positive effect, on the target.

 

[El Rojo]

Whether it is right or wrong, the interesting thing about shootings like this is as soon as one cops fires, they all join in. They will rule this justified because the guy was heading towards a police cruiser in his Suburban and he was threatening their lives, but the immediate danger? Not much. Most of those cops were well out of the Suburban's way and were in no danger of being run over. Some precise slow fire would have worked well. However, when your buddies start shooting and pretty soon everyone is shooting and the car doesn't stop instantly like it does in the movies, I guess this is the result.

I do not intend this to be a cop bashing thread and I really think the whole, "If we had done that we would be in jail" is a pointless argument. As citizens, our job is not to stop drivers in Suburbans, so we would never be in a situation with 4 other CCW holders where we would need to ever start shooting at a moving vehicle. Since you can't compare the jobs of LEOs vs. private citizens in making arrests, making these "I would be in jail" statements are completely baseless and invalid.

What it comes down to is cops are human and they act human. The important thing for all of us to remember is if you don't pull your Suburban over and you start to flee towards a stopped police vehicle, you are taking the risk that the cops will shoot at you 90 times. So pull over and comply with their requests.

 

[Gunsnrovers]

Well considereing page A1 of the LA Times shows a bullet hole in a 2nd story window of a house 100 yards from the shooting site, I guess we now know not all the rounds were on target. The Times reports (for what it's worth) that 120 rounds were fired by 10 officers.

This should prove interesting as time the reports get written.

 

[Boats]

Can't cut it in the military but like to shoot darkies and other miscreants? Join the LAPD!!

Looked like County to me, join them and you get to look like a park ranger rather than get the more stylish black unis of the LAPD.

 

[The Rabbi]

From the vid it lookd like the police had some kind of roadblock or other set up. The officers were out and ready. Did no one have an 870 or AR? As far as vehicle speed, it did not appear to be going that fast, esp when they opened fire. None of what I saw gave me a lot of confidence.

 

[TheDutchman]

120 shots fired thats 12 shots a piece from ten officers or a Whole Mag a per each Officer. I have some reasonable doubt about that number of shots fired as report by the LA Times. Did you notice the cross fire between officers thats crazy

 

[Arc-Lite]

I think it is very hard for someone who has not fired rounds in a fire fight, to understand all that is taking place within that "short" period of time.... think of crazy, and kick it up, about 200 times, or more. Stories like this sell lots of newspapers, and polarize people...I am sure if it was a t.v. show....it would have been done, much better...or worse, but hey, this was real.

 

[Waitone]

If LAPD had time to prepare why is it they didn't something with a little more oommmmff than pistols, say an 870 with slugs?

 

[Gung-Ho]

That "officer" telling the camera man to get down by pointing with his gun gave me the willies.

Same here. But what I also noticed was the way he was looking and pointing his gun thru those house windows. What was he going to do if a homeowner stuck his head up?