Attacked, Alone, and Abandoned: What the Left Doesn’t Understand About the Real Dangers Cops Face

I’ve just had a chance to review and analyze the story of the Ohio State Police Trooper who was attacked after responding to a crash scene. It appears that some on the “Left” were praising this man for his assault on the trooper. As a retired veteran police officer and supervisor from South Florida with 37 years of experience and having trained thousands of officers and cadets during my time, I find this disturbing and wish to “enlighten” those as to the dangers of what police officers everywhere face daily. 

The most dangerous single event that an officer can conduct is a traffic stop. Responding to the scene of a crash can be just as risky, and in this case, it was, because the officer is alone and they have no idea who they are going to encounter. On April 4th, this is exactly what took place. The Ohio State Trooper encountered a subject with what turned out to be a severe mental illness, and was attacked by the man repeatedly. The trooper’s body cam video records the attack, and you can hear the subject say that the trooper was the “devil.” The attack lasted several minutes, and though the trooper deployed his Electronic Control Device (commonly known as a TASER), it did not subdue the subject in this instance, and he was overwhelmed. The subject then stole the police cruiser and fled. He crashed shortly thereafter in Pennsylvania, where he entered into a deadly confrontation with Pennsylvania State Police and was killed.

What most folks (this includes activists/media/politicians) really don’t know or understand is that when a police officer conducts a one-one contact with someone who is; a real bad guy, on alcohol and/or drugs, or in this case suffering from a mental illness, the actions and reactions can be the same. The officer is attacked and is now in a struggle, possibly for his or her life.  When a police officer is in a fight, there is at least one gun involved at all times—the officer’s gun. In South Florida, we consider a physical attack on an officer to be “deadly force,” meaning that if the officer is overwhelmed, there is the likelihood that the subject may attempt to obtain the officer’s weapon and possibly kill him or her with it. This authorizes the officer to utilize deadly force in order to prevent this in order to survive, even though the subject isn’t initially armed during the encounter.

This situation played out for us at Metro-Dade Police on December 24, 1983, where my station-mate Officer Robert “Bobby” Zore confronted a robbery subject alone, was attacked and overwhelmed, had his own gun taken from him, and was shot with it. The subject stole Bobby’s radio and unmarked car and drove off.  Bobby used the payphone on-scene to call 9-1-1 to get help. The call was recorded, and you can hear the subject come back and shoot Bobby again. Bobby died shortly after midnight on Christmas morning. 

Here is the point: in 1983, when I entered police work, 50% of all officers shot in the US were shot with their weapon. That was a staggering number. Over the years with “gun-retention” training and the development and widespread use of “security holsters” with double and triple retention features, this number has fortunately dropped to under 5%, but it doesn’t negate the threat and dangers of the subject attempting to get the officer’s weapon, or the officers being shot in confrontations over the years. It just means that the attacks still occur, but we are more successful and retaining our weapons.  

Being alone for an officer, and for state police and highway patrol troopers especially, this is the norm, and most every encounter is done solo with back-up being at best, a few minutes away and up to 10, 20, 30 or more minutes depending on the local and time of day or night. Have you ever been in a fight for just one minute? It felt like an hour, didn’t it? For an officer to be in that same fight like this Ohio State Trooper was, it can be literally a lifetime! 

Many officers over the decades have been defeated in physical confrontations, and this will continue to happen. The use of “tools” such as the TASER, pepper spray, baton, or even a firearm does not guarantee that the officer will be victorious in a combat situation for his or her life. Not every weapon or technique works all of the time, and for my much younger colleagues who are starting out in law enforcement, there is no “app” on your phone that will help you win and survive. “Failure is not an option!” A fight is a fight, and for those who praised this subject and others for attacking police anywhere, shame on you, and let me end by saying this: for those who do encourage attacks on police, criticize and denounce us, you don’t deserve the police you have in America. But be forewarned, that if you attack one of us and it is going south, chances are that you will not be going home to your loved ones because our job Number 1 is to go home to ours!