I’m genuinely confused by the account this article gives of the shooting.
My understanding was that proper police procedure calls for an officer not to allow the person they’ve stopped to get out of their vehicle unless they request it. I have also been under the impression that if a stopped person were to approach the police cruiser, that the officer would get out, order them to stop, and possibly pull his/her weapon.
It sounds like this is not what happened at this traffic stop. I’m not looking to criticize the deceased officers, but I’m wondering: am I wrong? Or did these officers (probably) not follow correct procedure?
Without knowing the full details and going from the article, one probable scenario would be:
Officers pull over the vehicle, approach the driver and take his license/registration/insurance. The officers return to their cruiser to run the license. As they do so, the driver gets out of his vehicle and approaches the cruiser. Officer tells him to return to his vehicle, driver pulls out weapon and shoots 1 officer. Other officer calls for back-up and exits the cruiser.
Shooter (Driver) runs away and officer doesn’t want to leave their partner (nor should they). Shooter returns, shoots other officer, and flees.
The article does say the officers did not call in the traffic stop and that is a mistake. Every law enforcement department I know of requires the officer to call in a traffic stop. As far as letting the driver get out of his vehicle–don’t have enough information. In the end it really sounds like the officers let their guard down–and unfortunately paid for it.
Of course, next week someone will be complaining about how the cop freaked out when they got out of their car on a traffic stop.
Jesus! That guy still has zits. What a tragedy! From the Cite:
The traffic stop had not been called in to police dispatchers. “We don’t know what they stopped him for. It’s hard to say,”
Not calling in a stop is a MAJOR screw up. I have to take my annual in-service training next month, and I’ll lay odds that during the officer safety portion of the training they mention this case.
Still, though, had they called it in before they approached the truck in the first place, the outcome would have been much the same.
The description in the article makes it sound like the officers followed almost no safety procedures. After the shooter ran off the first time, I would have thought that the second officer would draw his weapon, radio for help, and wait.
It also appears that the shooter could have retrieved his ID from the squad car and he would not have been caught. Don’t most cops have VCRs nowadays?
Right. I’m wondering what other safety procedures, besides the “call in all traffic stops,” must have been violated.
I have a hard time understanding how this guy was able to approach the cruiser close enough to shoot Officer Fettig in the head without her having time to react. My understanding is that if a traffic stop jumps out of his car, the cop jumps out too, and goes immediately on the defensive, probably pulling his/her weapon.
I seem to recall hearing or seeing this somewhere. Maybe on COPS.
I’m having a hard time seeing how the suspect was able to leave the scene, return, and shoot the other police officer. Maybe he was attending the first officer, and didn’t expect the suspect to return?
Is it normal to pair up two rookies and send them out stopping cars at 2am? I’d have thought the newbies ride with an experienced officer until they have enough experience of their own for something like this not to happen… I can see getting the drop and killing one cop, but both? - with an intermission in-between? Something must have gone very awry with the procedures…
I seem to remember reading a book on law enforcement procedural reccomendations back in high school. This would have been '93, with the book being from the early 90s/late 80s.
In the “Officer Down” part, his book reccomended NOT waiting with your injured law enforcement colleague, and rather radioing for medical assistance and continuing to engage the criminal element in an effort to apprehend them.
The logic argued that many people are capable of providing medical assistance, but law enforcement is rare, and that it’s irresponsible to allow the suspects to escape in this scenario.
Don’t know if doctrine has changed since then. Perhaps modern cops have more medical background than in the 80s, or perhaps no-chase rules have become more common.