Disarmings | tacticaldesignlabs

"Understand this! Officer Disarmings and Disarming attempts are an all out fight for one's freedom or life.

For this to be represented, as some have, as a simple 5 sec. struggle or by simply placing your hand on the assailants chest, and they stop while you look down and put your gun away...is naive, deceptive, and completely ignorant. In preparing officers to survive and win this encounter, we must grasp and convey the actual intent, violence, emotion, commitment, and realistic dynamics that are present. The most critical component to any weapon retention curriculum must be to convey the actual truths of this situation to our students. As trainers we fail, if we do not teach reality to our students. As manufacturer's, we fail if we don't understand it.

- Mike Lowe

Below are pictures of an actual disarming attempt. Fortunately for the officer, the suspect's intentions were more suicidal than homicidal and the officer had the help of two other individuals. Committed suspect attempting to disarm officer. Within moments of making contact with the driver of a smashed maroon Chevy, Olveda found himself involved in a potential life-or-death situation as Hernandez attempted, unsuccessfully, to take Olveda's gun.

This time, no one was injured.

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Committed suspect attempting to disarm officer.

"Easily the suspect or one of the officers could have been killed," said Steve D'Arcy, under sheriff for Placer County.

In the past six months five CHP officers were killed in the line of duty and if not for the quick action of multiple law enforcement agencies Monday there could have been one more.

"In any emergency everyone hopes that jurisdictional boundaries disappear as they did in (Monday's) incident," D'Arcy said. "There were Placer County sheriff's deputies, local police, CHP and two detectives from another agency stopped and the paramedic who all helped get this guy under control without anyone being injured."