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This is another great training video. Hats off to the officer for winning the gunfight. Here are some of my observations, based on 15 years of LE experience:
Action beats reaction every time. This philosophy is why I don't like the traffic stop tactic of standing exposed to the motorist and passengers simply to see what is going on in the car. Even if you do see the movement, it may be too late. The bad guy got the drop on the officer but the officer got some luck and made the very best of it by immediately lessening his exposure.
My choice since my early days on the street was the passenger side approach. A lot more tactical advantages from that side for many different reasons.
Flashlight should be in the support hand. I still see this regularly violated. The officer in this case switched over intead of dropping the light. The process took some valuable time but it didn't matter in end.
The officer did what most officers do now, pull the trigger as fast as you possibly can until you run out of ammo or the threat is out of range. This is how it is done time and time again in gunfights now. I'm not sure if this is what happened pre auto-loader days since I wasn't around then.
I've seen some discussion elsewhere about shooting the operator of a vehicle in motion. You've got to look at the setting here. I don't think there was any real danger to anyone else and even if there were, the officer didn't have much time to ponder it.
As far as the legality, when a criminal tries to destroy your life and then attempts to flee, you are justified 100% in taking immediate action. Good shoot and Officer Jessop's family still gets to enjoy his company.
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