NC:Polite LEO missed 5 times,then shoots BG 5 times.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

http://www.myfox8.com/wghp-story-man-se ... 2646.story

The above is almost a 10 minute long video, but full of suspense and then action.

The Guilford County, North Carolina LEO is questioning a man out walking at 400 AM.
The man was a 57 year old bank robber who had been living at a halfway house, but walked away.
It's unclear the time he had been gone from the halfway house, but he already had a gun.

The LEO, Corporal Mecham, seems to be a little too much of a nice guy to the BG.
He doesn't pat the man down. The LEO doesn't draw his own gun or try to cuff the suspect, even after
his time in the cruiser, on the radio, had revealed to him that the suspect had an NCIC hit (National Crime
Information Computer, or something like that).

Although some of the encounter is offscreen, the BG draws 1st, fires 2 shots at the officer, who is backing
away, but trips on the pavement. At some point the BG fires 3 more rounds. All 5 of his rounds miss the LEO.

Cpl Mecham then returns fire and drops the suspect with 5 rounds in him, but the man still has his gun and is
not showing his gun hand, although he is on the ground. Backup LEO's arrive and assist Cpl Mecham.

There is no mention made in the story of what handguns each was using.

I'm glad Cpl Mecham was OK, but it seems to me that he should have exerted control over this suspect much earlier
in the game.

I post dashcams like this to give forum members in general some exposure to actual shooting incidents, but
more specifically to our forum members who are LEO's, just in case they don't see these at their own agency trainings.

Excaliber, gigag04, jbirds1210, Kythas, speedsix, anyone - Care to comment on this LEO's handling of the situation?

TIA / SIA

[Keith B]

I really don't see that he did anything wrong. Up until he ran a check and decided he had a possible warrant, there was no reason to pat him down or cuff him. Once he exited the car, the officer was playing the cool game and still being friendly in an attempt to get the subject to play friendly. If he had gotten out of the car with an attitude, the guy would have immediately known something was up and gotten on the defensive.

When the officer started to move him to the front of the car to do a search/pat down, the subject knew he was made and started backing away. The officer tried to reason with him, but within 5 seconds the guy had the gun out and was shooting within about 2 more, so that shows you how fast something can go down.

Bottom line, these types of encounters are very hard to deal with as you have to be cautious, but not violate the rights or just plain abuse someone who is totally legal by harassing them or physically detaining them for no reason.

[Gr8_Outdoorsman]

Wow, that's scary but I'm glad the officer won the upper hand.

[olafpfj]

WOW...what gets me is how long it takes for backup to arrive. My comment is not meant in any way to bash on police but boy does this video reinforce the saying, "when seconds count the police are minutes away". Glad the officer got it done and I hope to never be in a situation like that. While I'm not a cop I've often rehearsed in my mind something going down like that. Everything seems OK and then someone pulls a gun and its game on. As a CHL and unlike the officer I would have had the option to walk away and attempt to leave to avert the problem before it got that far so we as CHL's have an option that the police do not.

Again...thats exactly how I think a self defense vs robbery scenario would play out. Scary, violent and quick!!!.....

[Medic218]

Wow, that's scary but I'm glad the officer won the upper hand.

[speedsix]

WOW...what gets me is how long it takes for backup to arrive. My comment is not meant in any way to bash on police but boy does this video reinforce the saying, "when seconds count the police are minutes away". Glad the officer got it done and I hope to never be in a situation like that. While I'm not a cop I've often rehearsed in my mind something going down like that. Everything seems OK and then someone pulls a gun and its game on. As a CHL and unlike the officer I would have had the option to walk away and attempt to leave to avert the problem before it got that far so we as CHL's have an option that the police do not.

Again...thats exactly how I think a self defense vs robbery scenario would play out. Scary, violent and quick!!!.....

...drilled it into my rookies...tell it to CHLers...plan as if you are your own backup...you will likely be...

[speedsix]

...the video doesn't show a lot of what the OP posted...the officer tripping, who shot when, etc...must be another source for those facts...one thing I noticed wrong...the officer had his gun hand tied up with his flashlight...the flashlight should be in the off hand, interview position(resting on the shoulder)he could have brought it down breaking the perp's collar bone and interrupting his draw while drawing his own weapon with his free right hand...other than that, I'm with Keith B on the rest of it...
...it's upsetting to watch this, even after 32 years...but if it makes one active LEO even a little bit sharper...thanks for posting it...it gets so real out there in less than a second...

[surprise_i'm_armed]

speedsix:

The reason that some of the data is not in the link I supplied is that many times these interesting videos are
found by me on a website which I can't link to due to existing forum rules. So some of the details of incidents
are reported there, but I can't post the link. Usually the same video can be found in http://www.youtube.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, which
has the same video, but not the rest of the text story.

Also, when I am researching the best link to post for a thread, I usually read multiple accounts, look at multiple
videos, and then try to post the one which shows it best.

SIA

[speedsix]

...by now, the officer's statement should be out there somewhere...if we know where to look...won't be long and they will have dashcams that pan following the movement...but he kept trying to keep the perp in the cam...