[Scharfschuetzer]

Hind sight is always 20/20, but my take from a training standpoint is that the officers could have positioned their cars so as to avoid having to cross a danger area in order to see the driver's side of the vehicle. I believe that there was adaquate room to do so and if done properly, the primary officer could have have issued his orders from the cover of his vehicle and placed his engine block between himself and the miscreants. Ideally, both sides of the PU should have been covered from behind vehicular cover.

With the adrenal glans pumping, it's easy to charge into a situation as depicted, but that is not always the right answer as this case demonstrates. Were I still a PD training officer, I'd certainly use this footage as a "what not to do" and to support the tactics that we taught.

Time was on the officers' side here and there was probably no need to advance on a car with occupants obviously intent on escape. The PU was going no where and this was a classic case for felony stop tactics which may have prevented gun fire to begin with.

I do agree on the use of a supporting carbine here as it would have given the officers a stand off distance advantage from which they could have then controlled the situation. If eventually needed, an officer could advance under the cover of the supporting long gun, but I think that it would have been best to wait it out given the nature of the stop.

That said, I'm glad it all turned out OK for the officers and that the miscreants are all lodged at government expense.