I just came across an article about a police officer that shoots an innocent man.  See article here. There are several things to learn from this situation. The first is obvious–pay attention to the 4 firearm rules:

1. Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire

2. Always assume any firearm is loaded

3. Never point your firearm at something that you are not willing to destroy

4. Always identify your target AND what’s behind your target before you fire your weapon

The officer in this situation clearly did not identify his target and pointed his weapon at someone he was not willing to destroy. Now it is obviously a stressful situation when you are called to a home invasion situation, but there were several factors in this situation that could have avoided this tragedy. The homeowner instructed the 911 operator that he had a firearm and was holding the intruder at gunpoint. The homeowners wife had even told one of the three officers who arrived at the home that her husband was holding the intruder at gunpoint. But that information never made its way to the two officers who entered the home. The next mistake was that the officer did not identify the situation nor did he issue any commands. Instead he just shot at the first person he saw, which happened to be the homeowner in his back 6 times.

While this is all tragic, the worst part is that instead of getting help for the injured homeowner the officers drag the man out of his home to try and cover up their mistake.  Police officers are responsible for every bullet that leaves their firearm and it’s tragic that this officer didn’t receive information (that was given to other officers/operators) to help him assess the situation and then made a tragic judgment call (or simply reacted without thinking–both of which are tragic).

While there are many other things to learn from this, I’ll leave you with this last thought. It is always important to hold judgment on a situation until you know what is going on. Walking into a life and death situation halfway through can often be misleading–which can be deadly. While I have a great respect for law enforcement officers, this situation is unacceptable and tragic. It reminds me that when dealing with firearms you have to made the right decision every time.