Training Pays

Cop who foiled Brooklyn salon robbery says she was following her training

She knocked the gun out of his hand with one shot, and with another damaged the lock on the door, trapping Cox for several moments. Cops said he escaped by breaking the glass on the door and crawling out.

I don't want to take anything away from her, she was very brave to do what she did, to stand there while someone is shooting at her and shoot back. You cannot imagine the changes you body goes through when the adrenaline hits in a situation like that, she did great and I'm proud of her.

I do have to comment on an aspect of this, however. If you read the comment on the bottom of the article you will see that some people want to use this as an example of how the police should handle shootings. It's not the only place I read a comment like it about this shooting, either, which is why I'm writing this.

If you read the article without knowledge of real gunfights you will come away with the idea that she calmly shot the gun out of his hand and then shot the door lock so he couldn't escape, as if that's what she meant to do. Sorry to disappoint, but that's Hollywood fantasy.

In the words of Officer Feris Jones: "I was using my training, center mass, and that's where it landed." Exactly. She was using a 5 shot Smith and Wesson pistol, she aimed center mass - at the chest - and hit his hand, which was holding the gun up in front of his chest shooting at her. You pretty much hit what you are looking at and when someone is pointing a gun at you, you naturally look at the gun. Her other shots missed the target, one of which hit the door lock. There is no way in hell she did that on purpose. Even in a controlled situation, aiming at the door lock, you could not guarantee what would happen.

In a situation like that your senses warp, you get tunnel vision, your sense of time is exaggerated, you lose feeling in your extremities, you body trembles. You can't stop this from happening. I'd lay odds she fired every shot she had just as fast as she could pull the trigger, and probably pulled the trigger a few more times before she realized she was out. She did as much as any good cop could do, and she survived. Notice, too, that the criminal missed every time he fired. He was having the same effects on his body, but he was not trained, over and over, for the situation.

Please don't expect that police should be able to shoot a gun out of someones hand on command or just shoot someone in the arm, or just wound them - it's not possible and it's unreasonable to expect it.