KevinB
Army.ca Relic
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Terrible event;So, I don’t feel able or equipped to pass judgment on her. I won’t.
Here’s what I can see about how it went down, and then some considerations they come to mind. I’m doing this as dispassionately and objectively as I can, I’ll just ask for a bit of understanding that I’m doing this by going frame by frame of a cop getting murdered and J believe another grievously wounded, and a civilian killed.
This looks like it took place at 6895 Boulevard de Décarie, at the south corner of the building at the intersection of Décarie and Av. de Courtrai. Everything is ‘angled’ on a map; Décarie runs northwest to southeast; Courtrai perpendicular to that.
It’s a very new development; Décarie is a wide boulevard, de Courtrai is a mixed use urban canyon with ground level storefronts and many stories of offices, hotels etc stacked above. At street level there are large columns and planters that would serve as cover, there are cars and pedestrians, and all the movement that comes with that.
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The two officers appear to have been first on scene responding to a gun call. They have pistols and their soft vests. I see no long guns or hard plates. I don’t know what their training or equipment is.
As the most graphic videos open, the officers appear to be behind the northwest face of a planter/column supporting the building facade. This would be hard cover for south and east, but from the northeast they were in enfilade. As best as I can tell they were moving northeast to where the incident was probably initially reported.
The shooter was to their east maybe 50-100m. They likely did not have line of sight. I suspect he didn’t either. He was running west and ended up in the same patch of space they were advancing in. Effectively a ‘meeting engagement’. At a distance of 10-15m he saw them and opened fire with what looks like an SKS, and he moved to cover as he engaged. They were in enfilade to him. They have to retreat a couple meters to gain cover. They appear to have both scrambled back to cover. The male officer was hit, I think catastrophically. He crawled a few meters farther south from his hover and I believe died there. It looks like he bled out very quickly. As this happened I believe the civilian was within a few meters of the officer. Going frame by frame I can only guess he was either concealed from view behind the pillar, or possibly he emerged from a store entrance during these seconds.
I don’t know if the female officer was hit at that point or if either officer fired back. She ended up behind cover on the southwest facing of the planter. The threat at this point was northeast within ten meters. She had just been shot at with a long gun, probably for the first time in her life. The noise in that space would have been enormous. Probably she’s never fired pistol without ear protection before either. She likely saw the shooter, very close and advancing in her direction. She saw her partner shot and, though she likely didn’t know yet, killed. She likely did not see the shooter duck back behind cover himself. Her last view was probably him moving on her shooting. Very likely she didn’t get a particularly good view of the shooter; given the male officer took rounds she was probably ‘second in the stack’.
Within a second or two of this, as she has a knee behind cover, the civilian advances from exactly the direction of the shooter, rounding the corner in tight basically right on top of her. The civilian didn’t proceed past her; he looks to have paused and turned to face her at a distance of about a foot (although he was probably similarly moving to cover). He was standing adjacent to and above her, facing her way. At that point in a fraction of a second it looks like she made a decision to shoot and did so. However I cannot rule out that the civilian was shot by the shooter. The shooter could similarly have emerged from cover, seen a male standing in dark clothing ten meters away, and shot. Forensic examination will easily determine that.
She then moved south, east, and ran northeast, possibly either to new cover or possibly to try to flank the shooter in turn. She would likely not have been able to see that in that time the shooter himself was moving southwest to flank her in her cover. A couple seconds later the shooter emerged exactly where it appears she had just shot the civilian. He was gun up and specifically hunting her and I believe he saw her moving from her cover-her heel was visible as he rounded the corner.
View attachment 100952
The shooter then looks to aim in the direction she fled and fires four rounds, probably at her back. In that time she can’t have made it more than a couple tens of meters. I don’t know if she’s the seriously wounded officer but I suspect she is.
After he fires four rounds at her, someone engages him with some FANTASTIC disciplined fire. 13 rounds in a steady, calm cadence, I suspect someone had him at quite a distance and was ‘shooting for score’. He did not appear to return fire. At some point someone made those shots count and the shooter fell there. All three deceased were within meters of each other.
The officer that appears to have shot a civilian? If in fact she did, I can’t say with all my training and experience that in that moment and in those circumstances I might not have perceived a threat and engaged too. I like to hope I wouldn’t have, but I don’t know. She was on the losing side of a two way range, pistol versus rifle, probably her first, and it wasn’t an incidental encounter- he was hunting police and it seems possible this was a contrived ambush. Worst case scenario for all the psychology and physiology of a fight stuff.
As a firearms instructor and active shooter instructor, had this been a training scenario there’s lots that could be dispassionately critiqued… But I can’t and won’t chirp from the cheap seats on a real event and not knowing her training and experience. And, most critically, we don’t have her own articulation of what she saw, heard, perceived, thought, feared, decided and did.
A terrible, terrible event. I hope she can recover both physically and mentally from this, and my thoughts are with the families of all involved.
In a hindsight being 20/20 issue, I would suggest the DS answer when confronted with a SKS type firearm at that distance (10-15m) the best option would have been for the 2 LEO’s to try to rush the shooter online, not letting him out of sight and neutralizing him as a threat at close range - mainly because distance favors the long gun - and cover from pistol ammunition isn’t always cover from rifle ammo.
They also have at least 30rds between them of ready ammo I their weapons, and more in magazine pouches seconds away - while the shooter is likely with an SKS to have 10 or less (or 5 or less if they are obeying magazine laws...)
That said, I say that as a Lessons Learned point, from someone with a decent background in firearms and tactics. It isn’t designed to be a slight at the officers at all - as anyone can have a plan before they get punched in the face, also it is easy to say from the comfort of of my armchair, and a fair decent tactical background, but I couldn’t guarantee that I would have done any better in the same situation with no warning.
I am not sure what the Uniform or Equipment Standard for the SPVM are, I would hope that any LEO responding to a Shots Fired call or Active Shooter has the ability (and does) to put on Hard Armor, Helmet and some sort of Carbine.
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but there is a high degree of differences in front line response safety gear- even with long guns. A not low amount only have so many “carbine trained” first responders.
