Actually, it is easy to understand. While the article is written to make the cops look like idiots, they reacted exactly how they were trained. They get a call for shots being fired from a white van. They arrive in the area and see the white van. They hear what sounds like shot sbeing fired at them. They immediately draw and start returning fire.XtremeDuty.45 wrote:I am just really confused on how they shot their own windows out while exiting the car?
I think it has been posted on this board before, but one of the best ways to survive a gunfight is to shoot while you are moving to cover. So, the door pops open as the gun is coming up from the holster. The first shot goes right through the windshield. The door stays open and the next shots go right through the window as the officer is bailing out and moving for cover. And if there are two officers in the car, they split and move in two different directions to split the attention of the attacker.
Why not shoot through the window? It allows you to see what you are shooting at and does not do much to stop the bullet, especially not the second or third round. And it is much cheaper to repair than holes in my body are.
Strategically, I would like to have seen them wait until they had a better location on the shooter, but I understand why they did not. The first rounds the police fired were more along the lines of suppressive fire to get them to cover. Many departments are teaching this as the police militarize more. I am torn on the tactics used, as I deplore the militarization of the police but I fully understand their wanting to suppress the enemy as they move to safety. Self-preservation is a strong motivator and Patton's attitudes (they don't pay me to die for my country, but to make the other guy die for his) are also coming into police work with the militarization.