To enhance safety, the officer must remain professional, vigilant, and cautious during all law enforcement interactions. Maintaining a greater distance between the officer and offender proves critical in preventing assaults or felonious deaths of law enforcement personnel.įrequently, a uniformed officer may not know the background of the subject when conducting a traffic stop, contacting a suspicious person, or handling a call for service. These statistics support what many law enforcement trainers and supervisors may teach. Concerning additional incidents, 13 involved bombs, 83 employed vehicles, and 78 included other types of weapons. Of the 1,880 total victim officers, the 1985 to 2014 statistics indicate that in addition to the 1,665 officers killed with firearms, offenders murdered 19 with knives or other cutting instruments, 12 with personal weapons (e.g., hands, fists, feet), and 10 with blunt objects. Although the distances between the officers and offenders are not published for these weapons, their use inherently requires close proximity.

While the statistics include close-proximity murders using firearms, offenders may employ other weapons at close range. The statistics demonstrate that the number of officers who die decreases as the distance between the officer and offender incrementally increases to 50 feet or more.

Offenders shot approximately half-50.9 percent-of these officers within a distance of 0 to 5 feet. During this period 69.7 percent of officers killed with firearms in the line of duty were murdered within 0 to 10 feet of perpetrators. In the 30 years between 19, the trend rose slightly higher. Of those incidents, 44.8 percent included events where offenders within 0 to 5 feet killed officers with firearms. Over a 10-year period between 20, 62.2 percent of officers murdered with firearms in the line of duty were shot within 0 to 10 feet of perpetrators. Statistics published annually by the FBI’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) Program suggest that in incidents involving firearms, close-distance encounters feature more officers killed by an offender compared with situations involving greater distances. While several issues in this encounter warrant extra consideration, the author will explore the proximity of the officer to the offender as an important facet. Additional personnel were not requested until after the shooting.

The sergeant did not use distance, cover, or backup officers as a tactical advantage.

In addition to the knife and gun, the subject also possessed five improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Follow-up investigation identified the man as a violent gang member wanted for a felony offense.

As the event unfolded, the officer did not know the offender’s name, background, or extensive criminal history.

In this situation, a sergeant and security guard suffered life-threatening injuries and were fortunate to survive.Īfter his recovery, the police officer noted elements about the incident from which he narrowly escaped death. This case study presents a dangerous close-distance encounter between a law enforcement officer and offender. The security guard also recovered after the incident. During the incident, the offender stabbed one of the security guards-who attempted to protect the sergeant-in the left side of his chest and shoulder area. The officer sustained five gunshot wounds from a distance of less than 5 feet, but ultimately survived the attack. 38-caliber five-shot revolver from his right jacket pocket and shot the sergeant once in the head, right arm, and left front torso and twice in the back.

As the officer took the offender’s left hand and the knife, the boyfriend used his other hand to remove a. The subject began to remove his left hand from his pocket, and the sergeant closed the distance between them to control the fixed-blade knife concealed in the jacket.

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