More Officers Defending Themselves

There are numerous occasions in a year where sworn law enforcement professionals encounter life-threatening situations while off-duty, and by not having the unequivocal Right-To-Carry outside of their jurisdictions, without facing criminal prosecution, these officers are left at a disadvantage.

Fortunately, many officers have been able to defend themselves from attack, or have been able to intercede where other innocent lives were threatened. Here at LEAA, we frequently hear about various stories, and certainly there are countless others we never hear about. But by using these chronicles, we hope to pave the way for final passage of H.R. 218. Following are just a few incidents we can point to as evidence for the need to enact the Community Protection Act.

• Only on the force one year, a quick-thinking off-duty deputy sheriff picking relatives up at a bus terminal killed an armed suspect near Orlando, Fla., this past July. After seeing the subject shoot at another person outside the bus station, the plainclothes deputy confronted the shooter who then turned his gun on the officer. Finding himself in a life-threatening situation, the deputy fired his gun, fatally wounding the man.
   
• A retired cop in Long Island, N.Y., was at the right place at the right time when a man in a black hood decided to rob a bank in August. The robber waved around a realistic-looking toy gun and ordered the midday customers to lie on the floor. The retired officer followed the robber as he fled to a nearby gas station, and then attempted to apprehend him. Suddenly, the gunman turned his weapon on the officer. Left with no other option, the ex-cop shot the robber who then fled in a vehicle and crashed into a tree about 100 yards away; he did not survive.
   
• An off-duty police sergeant was beaten by a Brooklyn teen armed with a hammer shortly after midnight this past summer. The sergeant, who had just used an ATM, refused to hand his money over when the thug decided to use force. Fortunately, the 13-year police veteran was able to defend himself and shot his attacker in the thigh. The sergeant was later treated at a local hospital and needed several stitches to close a wound to the head.
   
• A Staten Island robber was fatally shot in the chest last year by an off-duty New Jersey cop. Three thugs reportedly try to rob the officer as he walked with a friend down the street shortly after 3 a.m. The officer says he felt a gun in his back as the robbers demanded money; then the officer spun around and responded with deadly force; the other two suspects fled.
   

* Thanks to new member Thomas J. Humphrey of New York who brought two of these stories to our attention. Joining in April 1999, Mr. Humphrey immediately became a life member and within five months, he was writing to his U.S. representative on behalf of H.R. 218. Another story here was supplied by Life Member Joseph Kusk, a retired officer from NYPD. What a great examples these guys set for all of us!