Module 4 - Forensic Ballistics

When police officers encounter an armed suspect, they must focus on three factors to ensure the safety of themselves and the public:

• maintaining a safe distance
• seeking cover (shielding)
• movement to a safe area from which to contain the suspect.

Ideally, a police officer will seek cover (rather than concealment) behind which he or she can maintain visual contact with a suspect. This way, if the officer is fired upon, he or she is not an easy target. Moving to cover or gaining distance from the suspect is also effective if the officer is not in a position to seek immediate cover.

Identifying the type of firearm being used by a suspect is important when considering the principles of distance, shielding, and movement. Often, distinguishing among a revolver, semi-automatic pistol, shotgun, and rifle is possible. Confronting a suspect who has a rifle rather than a small handgun means that officers must be especially careful when choosing cover because rifle bullets can penetrate many materials that handgun bullets cannot.

Early Morning Robbery

At 5:30 on a Sunday morning, a silent alarm is received by police from a local convenience store located in a quiet neighbourhood in a large city. Several violent robberies have occurred in the past month, and this alarm might be related.

Four police officers are available to respond. They travel to the convenience store in two police vehicles. When the patrol units are still about a block away from the store, they receive word that three masked suspects have fled the store and are about to leave in a vehicle. However, police have cut off the only avenue of escape, leaving the suspects with nowhere to go.

The four officers are then notified by radio that one of the suspects shot and killed the lone clerk at the convenience store and may use a firearm to aid in his escape. The officers are in various positions about half a block away. If the suspects decide to escape on foot, police may have to close in on the parking lot to contain the area until additional police units respond.

The suspects step out of their vehicle and begin running across the parking lot. One suspect brandishes a handgun and runs west towards an elementary school. A second suspect, also armed with a handgun, runs north toward a shopping mall. The third suspect runs east into a wooded ravine, carrying what appears to be a shotgun. The officers are still a half block away, but they start to move in on foot to prevent the suspects from escaping.

A police helicopter arrives and is able to track the three suspects, simultaneously broadcasting their locations over the police radio. Another pair of officers, traveling in a marked police cruiser, locates the first suspect hiding in a playground at the nearby school. When officers corner the suspect, he is upset and makes verbal threats that he will shoot if the police close in. Meanwhile, the second suspect runs towards the shopping mall pursued by officers on foot. The officers see the man throw his gun into a dumpster as he enters the building. At the same time, officers on foot follow the third suspect into a ravine.