Now I know what you're thinking... "Just another trainer trying to sell his way of doing things... and he's using a line EVERYONE else uses to do it!" And now you're questioning my creativity... Aren't ya? See... I told you so!
Well... I'm not talking about methods at all.
I'm not even talking about anything anyone can teach you!
And NOW you're thinking "What in the blue blazes of hell is this fool talking about then?"
Decisions. In a time where time is life.
And more importantly how they may affect you... For the rest of your life.
Not here...
Let's start from the beginning...
And we're going to use a VERY prolific case as an example...
Just so everyone knows... I'm going to use the exact case as a rough guideline and I will change certain things about it in various scenarios so we can see where certain choices made would land us if we were the individual involved. And we're going to break down each decision point piece by piece so this is going to be very long and each decision will be one part so we see the chain of decisions involved and how each influences the other.
So here's our background...
You're a CCW holder. Your neighborhood has seen far more than the usual share of crime right now. The perpetrators were dressed in the urban trend... Baggy britches, hoodie, all of it a size or ten too big... You know the type. You pull your ride into your community and see this person... You contact non-emergency and report what you see... They go where off the road to a trail your vehicle can't access...
Decision time...
You can either:
A. Stop your ride. Remain inside and in contact with dispatch until responders show up.
B. Park your ride. Get out of it. Stay close, say within 5 paces. Wait for responders.
C. Park you ride. Get out of it. Pursue/tail on foot.
D. Keep driving. Remain on phone with dispatch. Hold down the fort.
Each decision comes with immediate consequences...
A. Lose visual.
B. Give up cover of the vehicle.
C. Walk into the unknown.
D. (I don't see an IMMEDIATE consequence)
If the subject is behaving and just happened to be walking by...
A. May scare them, causing LE to be called on YOU.
B. May scare them, causing LE to be called on YOU.
C. May scare them, causing them to fear you enough to either respond with force or run away and call LE.
D. No harm, no foul.
If the subject has nefarious intent... but is unarmed or armed with only a contact distance weapon.
A. Maybe a broken window or damage to your ride?
B. May have to RUN... not jog... not even sprint... I mean RUN FOR YOUR LIFE AND HAUL ASS back to your ride and slam the door and lock it with a quickness!
C. Walking into an ambush.
D. Potential for armed subject to escape.
If the subject has nefarious intent and is armed with a firearm of some form:
A. Can not ID exact location to LE who may arrive in a reduced state of readiness.
B. May have to run to cover of vehicle under fire.
C. Walking into an ambush.
D. Potential for armed subject to escape and subject may fire on your vehicle.
Just this first choice can go so many different ways... each with it's own set of consequences... And here's the thing... You don't know which subject you're involved with, do you?
LEO's where you at here... How easy is it to hide a contact distance weapon? A handgun? A short barreled long gun? How easy is it for a criminal to look like they're innocent and just going home? How easy can the innocent accidentally resemble a criminal?
So... What choice did you make?
Let's assume... You're not dealing with an innocent person here...
You chose:
Option A. To Stay in the vehicle.
The subject has three choices.
A. Escape and Evade
B. Set an ambush
C. Attack
The subject goes out of your sight...
Are they just running away, terrified that they're made and trying to outrun the one-time or are they running around that corner to set up and remove the witness? You don't know, do you?
If they attack, can you access your weapon? I'm a big knife guy and I don't want to fight in my vehicle (even mine, which has a large passenger compartment) while seat belted in... or even if I ditched the belt and am free to move somewhat. Are you in a geographic area that will allow you to accelerate out of the danger zone?
Let's assume you have a pistol on you... They charge your vehicle... What's in their hand?
Could be a cell phone, could be a pack of candy or a drink, could be a weapon...
How long do you have to determine this?
The rest of your life...
You draw...
Verbal Command or not?
You choose a verbal command...
"STOP!!!!"
They continue...
You're in your vehicle and chose to fire...
You hit the threat... Threat goes down...
Clean?
I think we'd agree it's clean with one consideration... In my state, you have a duty to retreat...
Was the roadway clear?
If you chose "Draw," when "Drive" was very much an option... well, under NC law, you didn't retreat and had the chance to do so... Guess what?
Requirements for Deadly Force use (here) NOT fulfilled.
Click. Click. "Right to remain silent... Watch your head."
On the flip side...
The roadway was not clear... You accelerate... The collision causes you or an innocent to be injured.
If you're injured... Wasn't the point of leaving the scent supposed to be so you WOULDN'T get injured? That's kind of self-defeating isn't it?
If you injure someone else... You're responsible for that. Period. Whether or not the law says this person charging you caused it... The way I see it, if it were me, I would see my action being what caused that injury... How long would I have to live with that knowledge? The rest of my life.
Let's suppose you chose Option B from the get-go.
Subject has the same three choices as before...
They can:
A. Escape and Evade
B. Set an ambush
C. Attack
You step out of your ride... You take 5 or 6 paces away. Stay mobile. Leave your door open. Stay on the phone.
By doing so you gain a larger field of view than your vehicle would allow plus you're no longer sitting in a big old target if the subject is armed with a firearm. But now you can only get out of the danger zone as fast and far as you can carry yourself.... You do PT like you should, right? You have much more freedom of movement as well, at the cost of not sitting in a several hundred pound battering ram that offers cover from contact distance weapons.
The subject runs away...
By staying near the vehicle, you won't walk into their ambush and from your larger field of view can see more of where they went to advise responders of.
The subject charges...
You can either:
A. Fight the subject.
B. Run to your vehicle.
You choose to fight:
Well, obviously this can go any number of ways... But if your state has a duty to retreat law.... And if it's a contact distance weapon... let's say it's a brick... What would you be better able to live with? Brick to the dome... or brick to your window? If it's a firearm, Yes you have MUCH more freedom of movement but at the cost of slower evacuation speed if you see the weapon produced. It's not easy to hit a person running at full speed.... OK, my little Toyota gets up to a lot higher speed than I can a whole lot faster than I can...
If you chose to run to your vehicle, now you are traveling in a predictable direction, and there will be a time when you're climbing in, shutting doors, turning ignitions, shifting a gear, or a combination of the above where you are static... and we spell "STATIC" the same way we spell "TARGET."
This one really is a double edged sword... By getting out of the ride, you've given up the advantages of the vehicle but by staying close you've gained a few advantages that remaining inside didn't offer.
Let's say you chose Option C.
You get out and tail the suspect into the dark unknown....
Again, they have three options.
A. Escape and Evade
B. Set an ambush
C. Attack
If they choose A, you are now giving them cause to choose B or C... Plus you are going into an area where you DO NOT KNOW what is back there... Are they meeting friends? Did they stash a better weapon there earlier? Are they wanted and think you're the police?
If they choose B, you are walking right into their trap... You must assume that you are walking into this one if you choose to pursue...
That said... If they leave the initial area, you follow... Decision time again...
You see them duck out of sight...
A. Pursue?
B. Hold position?
Another decision goes along as well...
A. Draw your firearm?
B. Maintain low profile?
We'll cover each of the second decisions on the first A, then B.
You decide to Pursue. You decide to Draw your firearm.
You move up on the subject's last known, weapon in a Contact Ready position, using the appropriate tactics for the location... Movement...
Do you?
A. Fire.
B. Challenge.
C. Hold position.
Consequences:
A. In many states, my own included, you sought the fight out while in no outward danger... Manslaughter at best.
B. Subject may surrender, May run, May initiate assault...
C. See above.
(In case you can't tell... I think the above decision series of Pursue, Pursue, Draw is stupid)
Next...
You choose to Pursue. You choose to Maintain low profile.
You move up on the subject's last known, weapon in a Contact Ready position, using the appropriate tactics for the location... Movement...
Do you?
A. Draw.
B. Challenge.
C. Maintain low profile.
D. Retreat.
E. A & B
F. B & C
G. A & D
H. B & D
I. A, B, & D
J. B, C, & D
Consequences:
A. Heightened state of readiness, subject may initiate assault, maintain position, or attempt to evacuate... Disadvantages is subject may now have a brandishing case against you in addition to "Assault By Pointing Gun."
B. Subject may assault, attempt to evacuate, or maintain position. Challenging by itself is never a good idea! Challenging a gang banger without showing them you mean business WILL be seen as disrespect and THAT WILL MOST DEFINITELY cause you having a serious fight on your hands... A fight which could've been avoided... See where this is going?
C. Same as B above. I would say just freezing may work better than challenging OR drawing... But the cards are all in the suspect's hand and if he chooses to attack now you're WAY behind the power curve!
D. Same as B above. I would say that by retreating, quietly, you stand more likelihood of extricating yourself from the situation than just drawing, or just standing there, and for damn sure more likely than JUST challenging, but again, the cards are still better for the attacker as they may attack during your retreat.
E. Higher state of readiness, more likely to gain compliance than challenge or draw alone. If you feel seriously threatened, maybe you saw a weapon, this isn't a bad choice.
F. Subject more likely to attack than challenging alone. If you challenge and stand there... Again, if you're dealing with a banger, they're going to take it as a threat and fight's on.
G. Subject may see draw and not pursue. More likely to attempt to evacuate. If you draw and retreat without a challenge you stand a fairly good chance of extricating yourself to a position of cover where you can be ready to suppress the threat and maintaining good situational awareness. By not challenging, the subject may not feel provoked and may extricate themselves. If you need to use force, you have fulfilled your duty to retreat and hopefully have opened the distance enough to give you more time to handle business safely.
H. Subject likely to pursue as you have acknowledged that you are a witness. Why challenge if you're retreating?
I. Subject not as likely to pursue and likely to evacuate. I would say that while this is a better choice than NOT drawing, a challenge in this instance may escalate the attack... Not in a legal since but figurative.
J. Subject likely to attack, but may evacuate. This is not a good idea at all... I challenge you, move away, and don't deploy a method to protect myself if you choose fight over flight.... Hmmm... How many ways could THAT one go wrong?
What if you chose to hold your position?
You choose to draw...
Subject approaches.
You retreat... Subject pursues. You fire on the subject. Clean shoot.
You challenge... They either stop, or continue forward. They come forward, you fire. Maybe clean, maybe not...
You choose to remain low profile...
Subject approaches... You retreat. They pursue... You draw and challenge... See above.
You just draw... See above.
Of course you could always keep driving from the get go...
Maybe LE catches up to them, maybe this one gets away...
Maybe you can live with what they may do to your neighbors... Maybe you can't.
This article isn't meant to be taken as advice... Just some opinions and highlighting just how many decisions go into an encounter with a hostile combatant...
EVERY decision you make can and will be picked apart by opposing counsel in the aftermath of even the cleanest of shootings. How many points were here where an error could be made?
How long do you have to make each decision?
An instant.
How long will you have to yourself to think about it if you're wrong?
The rest of your life... Either way.
Hope this sheds some light on some things.
You have only an instant to balance and weigh all of these choices while in a highly adrenalized state... Can you think that quickly on your feet? Can you make life and death decision that quickly? Have you trained to think and analyze situations under stress?
Hopefully, this helps you think about your stress training and why you should incorporate it...
The scenario and decisions presented... Were based off the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin trial.
Everyone Stay Frosty
Watch Your Six
And 1*
v/r
-Kenny Smith
Chief Master Instructor
President, Total Force Training Group