and starts shooting.
After each scenario came to an end, the group discussed whether
the participant made the right call. In the case of the stairwell gunman versus the pastor, deadly force was justified, as the perp had
even gotten a round off before the pastor could pull his own trigger,
shooting him down. In other cases, the decision wasn’t as clear.
“It’s one thing to be able to sit at home and analyze based on an
article what an officer did, should have done, didn’t do,” said Academy Chief Eric Mason. “It’s very difficult to be in that officer’s shoes
at that very moment, making that split-second decision.”
At the close of the training, the participants said the act of holding
the gun and shooting – or knowing to use enough restraint not to –
did take an emotional toll.
“You can feel the impact that kind of thing would have on a
police officer,” Bishop Glen Colley of New Covenant Church in
Plainfield said.
Schmidt was surprised to hear from the community leaders
about how hard it is to communicate with their communities following law enforcement shooting, which led to “a lot of understanding on both sides,” he recalled. “They understood how final a
decision it is (to shoot a suspect); to say ‘If I could do that again I
would do this or that,’ and therein lays the problem.”
“The officers sometimes say, ‘I can’t believe he did it. He made me
do it,’” added John McCabe, the Prosecut