Off-duty police officer shoots two men, kills one

[Paladin]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3625471.html

"Jan. 31, 2006, 1:23PM
Off-duty police officer shoots two men, kills one


By ROBERT CROWE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

An off-duty Richmond police officer shot two men, killing one and wounding another, as they attempted to carjack her in a northwest Harris County apartment complex parking lot this morning, police said.

The incident happened about 6:30 a.m. at 11011 Pleasant Colony in the Trails of Steeplechase apartments, Jersey Village Police Chief Charles N. Wedemeyer said in a prepared statement.

Two armed men entered the officer's personal vehicle as she was putting her keys in the ignition. As one man pointed a pistol at her head and instructed her to move over, she pulled out her weapon and fired, striking two of the suspects.

One man was pronounced dead at the scene while another was flown by LifeFlight to Memorial Hermann Hospital. His condition is unknown.

The Richmond officer was not in uniform, and her name has not been released. The shooting is being investigated by Jersey Village police, Texas Rangers and the Harris County District Attorney's Office."

----------------------------------

Sounds like she's very lucky they didn't get a shot off at her. They must have been VERY surprised

[stevie_d_64]

As Gomer Pyle would say:

"Surprise, Surprise, Surprise..."

Good for her...

One thing though...Since she was off-duty, and she was involved in a shooting...

Does she have to ride a desk until the "investigation" is complete?

She wasn't involved in the shooting while on-duty, so would they do this to her???

[jimlongley]

+1 on the "Surprise..."

I think she needs to be given a couple of weeks of paid vacation, in the location of her choice with the partner of her choice, just as a reward for ridding the gene pool of unwanted trash.

[stevie_d_64]

I'm actually surprised as well she didn't get shot...

Maybe we'll see some details soon about how that happened...

How did they get that close, and in the car before she could react...

Maybe her situational awareness was not tuned in as much...That right there surprises me...

I am always aware (and ready to react) of whats going on around me regardless of the situation when I am approaching my vehicle...

[tex45acp]

I am so thankful that she came out of it unharmed. I agree with stevie that is amazing that she did not get shot.
I hope this will send a message to the badguys that we are getting better at defending ourselves when lives and property are threatened.
I also hope she is able to cope with the situation of taking a human life. I hafe read may times the act of doing so can ruin a police officers ability to make that decision again, thus causing them to have to leave the job.

[txinvestigator]

Maybe her situational awareness was not tuned in as much...That right there surprises me...

I am always aware (and ready to react) of whats going on around me regardless of the situation when I am approaching my vehicle...

I know we ALL think we stay in Yellow at all times, but you would be really surprised. The more familiar a location is to us, the more likely we are to allow or minds to wander to other things.....

[stevie_d_64]

Maybe her situational awareness was not tuned in as much...That right there surprises me...

I am always aware (and ready to react) of whats going on around me regardless of the situation when I am approaching my vehicle...

I know we ALL think we stay in Yellow at all times, but you would be really surprised. The more familiar a location is to us, the more likely we are to allow or minds to wander to other things.....

It doesn't make me more paranoid...

It does make me re-examine where my head is sometimes...

I agree, it gets tuned out/down from time to time, and this is a good lesson to apply when you are coming up on your vehicle in a situation like this...

[ShootNMove]

Paranoia saves lives. Just b/c you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're NOT out to get you!

[flintknapper]

It might turn out differently next time, but it is possible (though not advisable) to draw on an already drawn weapon.

Apparently, she felt as if the perp. was going to shoot her no matter what she did.

I'm not advocating that you "draw when already covered", unless there is no other alternative. But, when you consider certain factors, it might be possible to do so.

If someone is holding you at gun point (and especially if they are verbal), then their mind is not yet made up to shoot. Action generally beats reaction (all things being equal). In this case "all things" are not equal because the officer must draw and present her weapon.

Still, if the perp. is inattentive, doesn't get a "tactile clue", or is simply so surprised by her reaction, then she might well get 1-2 seconds "ahead" of him. Then consider... that he must "assimilate" what he has seen (decide to react). A good rate of assimilation is .20 to .40 of a second. Add to that... "reaction time", (the time required to physically accomplish a given task". In this case, (even if she didn't move, which I bet she did) and he only needed to pull the trigger, then .20 to .25 would be pretty darn good.

Lets do some math: Minimum (Shock factor 1 second, rate of assimilation .20, reaction time .20)........we're pretty close to 1.50 seconds for her to draw and shoot. Thats very do-able.

Try your reaction time here:

http://www.getyourwebsitehere.com/jswb/rttest01.html


It may add more time to the scenario above.

Mine was .20666

[G.C.Montgomery]

Don't know all the facts but on the surface, it sounds like this officer thought fast on her feet and acted quickly.

My guess is she was targeted before hand but these morons didn't know what they were getting into. They assumed they had an unarmed, distracted female. They were wrong.

Their first clue that she had a gun was likely the first round she fired. I've always thought that the advice "Don't draw on a drawn gun..." was short sighted and failed to take into account the element of surprise.

One can fake compliance to create to opportunity to strike. It sounds like the officer did just that. And in the process, she has probably put a significant dent in the number of driveway robberies and car-jackings in Fort Bend County that would have been reported at the end of next month.

[Baytown]

I was glad to see how it turned out. Looks like the thugs had a poor judgement in the victim selection process.

glenn

[Charles L. Cotton]

I've always thought that the advice "Don't draw on a drawn gun..." was short sighted and failed to take into account the element of surprise.

That's the danger in trying to give short, one-size-fits-all answers. It might be generally true. Heck, it might be true in the vast majority of cases, but it's not a universal truth and if we don't understand that fact it could get us killed. And no, I'm not advocating drawing on an already drawn gun - unless of course you have to!

Regards,
Chas.

[DiverDn]

Here's the Houston Chronicle article.
___________________________________

Richmond rookie officer's training helped foil carjacking

By ROBERT CROWE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Holly Mong was just six months into her career as a police officer when she shot two armed men who tried to hijack her car outside her Jersey Village apartment.

Police said Mong, 22, a Richmond Police Department rookie, was wearing civilian clothes about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday when two suspects climbed into her Jeep Liberty and pointed guns at her head as she was starting the vehicle.

"It was her training that helped her react in that situation," said detective Sgt. C.J. Harper of the Jersey Village Police Department.

On her off day, she was about to drive to Richmond to attend an in-service training class.

"The suspects had no way of knowing she was an officer," said Jersey Village Police Chief Charles N. Wedemeyer.

When the men ordered her to move to the passenger seat, she grabbed her gun from her purse and fired several times, killing one man and striking another.

Police later found a third suspect hiding nearby in a getaway car.

Wedemeyer said police do not think the suspects fired their weapons.

The two surviving suspects were charged Wednesday with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon.

Wedemeyer said investigators think the men may have been involved in other carjackings and robberies in the Houston area.

Cordale Stubblefield, 19, of Cypress, was killed in the shooting.

Christopher Wayne Yell, 19, of the 31600 block of Cypress Circle in Waller, was in critical condition at a local hospital. His bail was set at $200,000.

Yell had been sentenced to four years of probation in June for a residential burglary charge.

The third suspect, Marcus Marquis Holmes, 20, of the 16500 block of Cypress Thicket in Cypress, is being held in the Harris County Jail on $150,000 bail.

Investigators said Mong spent Wednesday with family and counselors away from her apartment.

"She was shaken up at the time, but I think she's holding up pretty well, considering there was a life-and-death struggle in that car," Wedemeyer said.

Mong declined repeated requests for interviews.

Her fiance, Shawn Horton, is an officer in Jersey Village.

"Many of us know her through her fiance," Harper said. "She's a very dedicated and conscientious individual."

Richmond police would not comment on the incident other than to confirm that Mong is an officer there.

robert.crowe@chron.com

[Paladin]

You just beat me too it DiverDn!

Here's the link to the story anyway:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 30033.html

[Paladin]

Good to hear that they arrested the other 2. I'm kinda confused by the article, because it says her training helped, but it didn't say how More than anything, having the gun seemed to help.