Survival. Lessons learned.

[Capt. Charlie]

I don't normally cross post articles, but this one, from PoliceOne.com, conveys a number of lessons about surviving a gunfight. This officer survived because she knew her stuff! Good lessons here folks!

By PoliceOne News Editor Lindsay Gebhart

Deputy Jennifer Fulford-Salvano of the Orange County (FL) SO had been on the force for just three years when she was put in a situation where her training and instinct took over- saving both her life and those of three children she was protecting. Her heroic actions recently earned her the title of "IACP Officer of the Year." In an interview with PoliceOne, she shared her amazing story.

It was shortly before 8 a.m. May 5, 2004. Fulford-Salvano and a trainee, Jason Gainor, were on patrol when they received a suspicious incident call in an adjoining zone. An 8-year-old had called from a cell phone saying that strangers were in the house with his mom. Gainor was intrigued, so the two of them headed over to assist the primary responders, Deputies Kevin Curry and Dwayne Martin.

The residential area was known for heavy crime. They arrived at the only house on the block with burglar bars on the windows.

"They were trying to keep people out and we didn't know why," Fulford-Salvano told PoliceOne.

Curry and Martin were on the front lawn talking to a black female. When Fulford-Salvano walked up the female started talking to her. Fulford-Salvano assumed it was because the woman felt more comfortable talking to a female officer.

The woman told her there were three men in house and she didn't know what they wanted or why they were there. She wouldn't give any more details.

The situation seemed suspicious. The woman gestured toward a two-car garage that had a door open, revealing a gold minivan. Suddenly, the woman started crying, "My babies! My babies!"

Although none of the officers knew it at the time, the woman was hiding something that would later land her in prison. The men had come to take the 341 pounds of marijuana and $60,000 in cash the woman had in her home. Her husband was in Jamaica and the men must have figured the house would make for an easy heist. The three men had already begun loading the drugs before the police arrived on the scene.


The officers told the woman to wait by the street. The primary unit decided to back off and separate to check out different parts of the house exterior, but Fulford-Salvano, the only officer at the call without children, was worried about the kids.

"I was trying to get to the kids. Everyone else was saying 'pull back, wait for K-9,'" she said. "But all [the intruders] had to do was put a hand out and put down the garage door." Fulford-Salvano didn't know exactly what kind of situation these kids were trapped in, but she knew it wasn't good and she was gravely concerned for their safety.

She entered the garage through the open door and crouched down on the driver's side of the van. She could see two-year-old twins but she couldn't see the little boy who made call. The door handle was locked so she couldn't get in.

Suddenly she heard male voices and three to four shots from house. Stuck in the garage with no where to go, she hit ground and yelled, 'Shots fired!'

A black male, George Jenkins, came around the back of the garage, positioned himself behind the van and began firing out through the garage. Then he spotted Fulford-Salvano and began firing directly at her. The deputy returned fire and ducked back behind the van. Jenkins fell against the garage wall.

Fulford-Salvano then heard movement from the front of van. Another man, John Dzibinski, began to fire at her from the hood. She fired back and began oscillating between firing at Jenkins and firing at Dzibinski. She emptied her magazine and reloaded.

"I kept on thinking, 'I need to keep them away from me,'" she recalled.

The last time she leaned out to fire at Jenkins, she landed a head shot, but not before one of his rounds hit her in the right shoulder. She didn't notice the injury until she was done firing. With her right, dominate hand out of commission, she picked the gun up with her left hand.

At this point, Dzibinski popped out again from the front of the van and Fulford-Salvano fired, hitting him in the head as well. He would be pulled off life support a week later.

Knowing for sure that Dzibinski was done fighting, but not sure the status of the other gunman, Fulford-Salvano took a minute to check on her own injuries. When she looked at her body she saw blood coming from lots of different places. She knew she needed to concentrate, control her breathing and focus on staying conscious. She had learned what to do to prevent shock, and she didn't know if the guy in the front was going to come up again.

Unbeknownst to her, Jenkins, who was fatally wounded, had stumbled out into the driveway and collapsed.

She then heard Deputy Curry call her name - Jennifer - which struck her as strange because everyone calls her Jen. He and Gainor came into the garage and grabbed her, pulled her to the end of the driveway. and with the help of five or six other officers, ran her to an ambulance waiting down the street.

"We're all taught that you have to believe you are going to win, not die," Fulford-Salvano said. "But it is one thing to have someone telling you that, another to hear from someone who had been through it. I remember thinking, 'This garage is not the last thing I am going to see.'

"I had gotten engaged in January. I had spent too much time and money on (wedding preparations). I haven't had any kids yet … it is amazing the amount of stuff that ran through my head."

Only 47 second passed from the time shots were fired until the gunman came into driveway. During that time, the mother attempted to flee the scene, fearing that she would be arrested.

One of the high-stress sensory reactions Fulford-Salvano remembers experiencing is auditory exclusion.

"I heard the first few shots, but then it was almost like my body shut my ears off.," she said. "At some point I realized I wasn't hearing the radio. There was a big chunk missing out of it."

She said her recent training was the key to her making it out alive.

"[Training in] off-handed shooting really, really helped me. I just reacted," she said.

In her weak hand development training she held a tennis ball in her strong hand and learned to use her off hand to do everything, including reloading using her shoe or the ground. She said her training did not involve the shoot/reholster approach that can lead to muscle memory.

"(In training), they made us keep our guns out, communicate with each other and keep moving," she said.

" [The incident] felt like a movie, It wasn't like I was watching it, but it was like, 'This can't be happening."

She said you never know how you will react until you are in a deadly situation.

"All things considered it turned out well," she said. "Forensics said ten bullets hit me. Three hit my equipment and didn't injure me." The other seven did.

After the incident she went on to marry her fiancé, a firefighter, and returned to light duty July 23, 2004. She returned to full duty 38 days later. She has received nearly a dozen honors for the incident, including the IACP Officer of the Year award and U.S. Medal of Valor.

The woman and her husband went to jail for drug trafficking. Shaun Schaumbryom, the man who remained in the house and lived, received life in prison.

Fulford-Salvano is now working as a detective in her station's child abuse unit.

http://www.policeone.com/police-heroes/articles/120351/

[dave_in_delaware]

That story is just awesome. Thanks for sharing it! I'm not sure if I could have handled that situation at all, but then again, I didn't have the training. She definitely deserved that "Officer of the Year" award. That story proves just how important proper training is.

[Sir William]

I am wearing asbestos. I think she should have been busted to probationary officer or subject to dismissal. She caught no dispatch, she jumped the original dispatch units call. She disobeyed commands/orders to retreat and wait for additional resources. She made multiple tactical mistakes and was emotionally overwrought. Another promotion to her level of incompetence? No heroic actions. Immature, irresponsible and insubordination. If she had followed policies,, stuck to procedure and obeyed commands to retreat until additional resources arrived, she wouldn't have been shot, endangered the children in a firefight and cost the taxpayers money for her treatment, rehabilitation and loss of a street patrol officer. I cannot see her as anything but a hot dog.

[clt46910]

I can see Sir Williams point. Unfortuatelly lots of times injury or death will stop people from pointing out mistakes or criticising someone for poor performance.

Ever go to the funeral for one of the worse people you knew and hear just how great they was? I sometimes wondered if I was at the wrong funeral.

I have been involved in construction accidents where someone was killed or hunt badly. The fact they disregarded safety rules and did something just plain stupid has been overlooked and heaven forbid you try and point it out. At least outside the accident report. Same with car accidents, forget the fact they was driving too fast or careless. Never point that out either.

[sterno]

If she would have followed the rules, the gunmen would have taken the kids hostage and tied up those cops there for a long time. They may have killed the kids, they may have killed cops. More than likely more than one of them would be in prison for life, and that would cost way more than her treatment.

IF she followed the rules, the kids MIGHT have been safe and the gunmen MIGHT have been collared - But because she put her commission ahead of her personal saftey the BG's are out of operation and the kids are safe.

I think she's a hero.

(Plus that off-hand shooting is pretty cool...)

[John28226]

Thanks for posting this. I had read the story earlier in Parade as well as other magazines. I felt then and feel now that she did an outstanding job of doing what police officers all over the world do ----- protect the public. Glad she got the recognition as so many others do not.

Good tactics and training too. This forum is the proper place to post the story.
John
Charlotte, NC

[john in jax]

Where was her partner (the trainee)? While the two primary responders were reconing the perimeter, she took up a surveilance position in the gargage by the van. I don't think she was trying to rush into a gunbattle, but I am positive her partner should have moved to a position that he could cover her from. Maybe he (the trainee) was detailed to detain the lady at the curb, but he still should have shifted to a point along the curb/street where he could see/cover his partner in the garage.

[k9lwt]

Sir William,

While I respect your opinion, I have to disagree.

It sounds to me like the original dispatched unit was already on scene and she and her trainee partner were responding to assist. This isn't jumping someone else's call-there is nothing wrong with assiting your other officers. I don't think she disobeyed anything by reading this article. How do you know that the primary officers had seniority over her? Did I miss where they ordered her not to enter? I thought it said that the other officers said to pull back and wait for K9??? That is not an order, it's a suggestion. If the OIC or incident commander told her not to go in, that's another story.

If she disobeyed an order, that's one thing, but if she decided to go in while others stood by, that's a completely different story. I don't know what their procedure was, but I am sure that exigent circumstances trumps a co-worker saying to wait for a K9. It's easy to sit back and criticize her and say that she made mistakes, but I think she's one hell of a cop.

It sounds like these unfortunate children were already in harm's way-how do you know that they were not just going to be killed? I think I'd take my chances of the kids being in a firefight over just standing by while some scumbag drug dealer decides to execute the poor kids. My point is that you don't know what the bad guys are going to do, so you can't put in the hypothetical that she was wrong to involve them in this firefight.

As far as costing the taxpayers a little more money-oh well. These are the kinds of taxes I like to pay. I hope she gets the best treatment our money can buy. Just think of the money she's saving us by putting down the thugs that we'd pay to "rehabilitate" for the next 20 years if they didn't take head shots.

[XavierBreath]

"I was trying to get to the kids. Everyone else was saying 'pull back, wait for K-9,'" she said. "But all [the intruders] had to do was put a hand out and put down the garage door." Fulford-Salvano didn't know exactly what kind of situation these kids were trapped in, but she knew it wasn't good and she was gravely concerned for their safety.

I'm not going to take the hard stand William did, but he has a valid point in that this officer placed herself in grave peril with no avenue of escape.
I can understand her fear that the garage door might close. So get in there and stick something in the tracks to block it open, and get out. Problem solved.
Had this officer died of her wounds, she would be used as an example of what not to do. Because she lived she is heralded as a hero. Is that because someone in command is doing a CYA job?
I do not know the lady, and I have only read this account of the incident, so I do not want to comment further. She is a very very fortunate lady, and her training served her well. I am glad she is alive, but sorry she had to go through the trauma she experienced.

[BreacherUp!]

8 yr old calls saying strangers are in the house..
Woman points at house, distraught and says, "My babies 2X"...
Officer in fear of danger to the kids.
Columbine ring a bell (granted, not an active shooter situation)? Had the kids been hurt and the officers were waiting around for the dogs, what would peolpe be saying then? She did what she was paid to do. Make a decision based upon what she knew and act on it.
My question, why didin't the other officer)s) move up to support her when she went into the garage. Right or wrong, you never let your partner (or others) go in alone.
Award justly deserved.

[Sir William]

I simply feel the awards, kudos and attaboys wre more deserved by the deputies who rescued this impulsive deputy. XB makes an excellent observation. If she had been KIA, the incident would have been used as a what NOT to do scenario in training. There may have been some CYA by superiors. The article does state that she left her patrol assignment.

[k9lwt]

I know where you are coming from, I just think this should be more about her guts than her making a mistake.

[sendec]

....in that this officer placed herself in grave peril with no avenue of escape........

And after Columbine people complained that cops didnt take enough risk.

Sometimes ya just gotta cowboy, or cowgirl, up and take care of business. Not every answer is in The Book.

[jeff_troop]

she showed lots of courage. but just plain dumb.

[Capt. Charlie]

Well guys, I didn't post this to determine whether she's a hero or an idiot. I did post it for readers to glean a few gems of knowledge here. Salvano had a trainee, which meant she was an FTO, and most likely a senior officer. The others said "back off & wait for K-9". OK, then what? You don't deploy K-9 off leash when there are kids present. The dogs don't discriminate. Perhaps when she entered the garage, she expected some back up? I would. Remember that the whole incident lasted 47 seconds! She had less than that to make life or death decisions, and she made them. Some of you MMQ's here thought about it a lot longer than that before you posted, and you weren't under stress. So what did she do right? Let's take a look.

She successfully and properly engaged multiple targets.

"I kept on thinking, 'I need to keep them away from me,'" she recalled.

Proper tactics. Remember the infamous CHP Newhall Incident?

"[Training in] off-handed shooting really, really helped me. I just reacted," she said.

In her weak hand development training she held a tennis ball in her strong hand and learned to use her off hand to do everything, including reloading using her shoe or the ground. She said her training did not involve the shoot/reholster approach that can lead to muscle memory.

The importance of offhand and weak hand shooting, and one handed reloads. How many of us actually do that? C'mon, guys, almost no one enjoys shooting weak hand, (especially when someone else is watching )

She saw the extent of her injuries, and kept her cool. How many here, taking 7 hits, could do that?

"We're all taught that you have to believe you are going to win, not die," Fulford-Salvano said. "But it is one thing to have someone telling you that, another to hear from someone who had been through it. I remember thinking, 'This garage is not the last thing I am going to see.'

And it just might be that the most important thing during a gunfight is ATTITUDE! And she had the right one: WIN, at all costs! NEVER give up!

Whether or not she made the right decision to enter that garage will never be known. Doesn't matter. She found herself in a situation and dealt with it, properly, with great courage, determination, and tactics.

[jeff_troop]

excuse me but her quotes in that article were her own mmq. who knows what she really thought, felt, or even did.
she put those kids in danger by drawing fire in their direction.

[jeff_troop]

Whether or not she made the right decision to enter that garage will never be known. Doesn't matter.

doesn't matter? that is the main point. of course it matters.

she should have checked her emotions and acted like a cop, not a mom.

[blackmind]

I'm more in the camp of Sir William and Jeff Troop and others. It's nice that she was courageous, but that HAS to be tempered with tactical, strategic, intelligent, etc. She rushed in, in what was possibly a quite foolish way, not considering what she was doing. Too many movies, perhaps?

Interesting what XB said about how this would be used as a "what-not-to-do" training scenario. The officer went into the garage to check on "my babies," but what that ended up accomplishing was drawing fire through that very garage! No mention is made of how many shots hit the VAN! (Probably for obvious reasons. To acknowledge that 14 shots hit the van or something would be to show how recklessly endangered the kids actually were. I mean, she was shot TEN TIMES and she was right next to the van in the garage -- and she's not van-sized; the VAN is van-sized.)

Where is the balance between bravery and stupidity? I don't know. But I think she was certainly in a gray area. People say that if they bad guys had decided to, they could have shut the garage door and there would have been a hostage situation. Barring the good idea that was suggested, of simply dragging a box into the path of the door, which would send it back up (safety switch), how is it better to have shots fired through the garage rather than have negotiators come in to deal with the drug dealers to get the kids released? In the former situation, you HAVE shots fired near the kids; in the latter, you only MIGHT get shots fired near the kids. Seems a clear choice to me; and that's only IF they manage to hole up with the kids.

I think the woman was rash. But in these days, when a guy rushes into a frozen river to rescue a dog that's fallen through the ice and drowns himself and still gets called a "hero," don't expect the level of accolade to be proportional to the actual level of heroism.


-blackmind

[BreacherUp!]

I cannot fathom what the hell some of you are talking about. Dragging boxes, setting up poles, drawing fire to the kids?! Let's do a little math here. The whole incident took 47 seconds. Less time for you to type out your after action report. How much time do you think it took for her to go to the van (where she thought the kids were) , check inside and attempt to extract the kids from the situation (therefore NO DAMN HOSTAGE SITUATION). Why the hell would you wait for the kids to be taken hostage and call CNT, when you can take them out of the equation in the first place, which seemed to be the situation as she stated she atempted to open the van but it was locked. She then took fire. The time from her initial entry to the 1st shots must've only been 15 seconds.
She didn't draw any fire to the kids. She was shot at right there. There was no evasive movement to dodge rounds that brought her next to the van.
Again, had her rookie partner moved up and supported her, she most likely would not have been caught from behind.
Honestly, some of you guys never have a good thing to say about anybody.

[John28226]

Some of the opinions expessed here remind me that a camel is said to be a greyhound designed by a committee. The story of this officer's actions and heroism has been covered in several publications. Read the total story before you jump on your superior attitudes and condemn her. Thankfully other people who learned of her actions and knew what happened gave her the awards she so rightly deserved. Breacher has it right -- all the way through.

John
Charlotte, NC

[SCCop]

+1 Breacher and saying that a worse outcome would have became a training scenario is not correct. ALL critical incidents should become training scenarios regardless of outcome. Nothing is done perfectly because everyone won't agree with particular tactics. That is why you review all of these incidents because something can always be done better or worse. Just my .02.

[Double Naught Spy]

Sir William said

I am wearing asbestos. I think she should have been busted to probationary officer or subject to dismissal. She caught no dispatch, she jumped the original dispatch units call. She disobeyed commands/orders to retreat and wait for additional resources. She made multiple tactical mistakes and was emotionally overwrought. Another promotion to her level of incompetence? No heroic actions. Immature, irresponsible and insubordination. If she had followed policies,, stuck to procedure and obeyed commands to retreat until additional resources arrived, she wouldn't have been shot, endangered the children in a firefight and cost the taxpayers money for her treatment, rehabilitation and loss of a street patrol officer. I cannot see her as anything but a hot dog.

Caught no dispatch? Where is the rule saying one officer cannot roll up and assist another officer even though the assisting officer was not callled to the scene?

No insubordination. There was no superior/higher ranking officer issuing commands.

The officer did not endanger the children. The children were endangered by the bad guys.

john in jax said,

Where was her partner (the trainee)? While the two primary responders were reconing the perimeter, she took up a surveilance position in the gargage by the van. I don't think she was trying to rush into a gunbattle, but I am positive her partner should have moved to a position that he could cover her from. Maybe he (the trainee) was detailed to detain the lady at the curb, but he still should have shifted to a point along the curb/street where he could see/cover his partner in the garage.

I don't think she rushed in to a gun fight, but I also didn't get the impression she went into the garage for survallience. In fact , the officer stated that she was trying to get the kids.

The trainee partner should have moved to a point to be able to watch his partner and to could provide help if needed, but he was a trainee and his training officer apparently did not instruct him on how he was to proceed.

Capt Charlie said,

Perhaps when she entered the garage, she expected some back up? I would.

I don't see how or why she should have had backup while going into the garage. She apparently did not inform her fellow officers of her intent and what she was doing was contrary to what the others were doing, pulling back. Of the four officers, the two first responders were elsewhere on the property. So they were not in a position to provide back to their fellow officer who failed to inform them of her intentions, plans, etc. The training officer might have been available as backup, but we don't know if he was aware of her actions or not.

---

While it can be debated as to whether she was brave, stupid, or whatever, she did get the job done. However, under what premise should she have acted in the manner she did concerning trying to get to the kids? What she did sounds like what is now called an 'active shooter response.' Yes, there was no active shooting before she entered the garage. However in active shooter situations, people in and around the shooter are seen as being in extremely dangerous circumstances and current thinking is that officers should charge in and neutralize the threat before the threat has a chance to do more harm. This strategy came out of the Columbine situation. So while there were not shots before the officer entered, she may have entered because the kids were in a life threatening situation.

Active shooter response is undoubtedly one of the most dangerous things an officer may have t perform as because in their attempt to neutralize the shooter(s), they end up needing to close the distance to the shooter which puts the officers in more and more danger as they approach.

In our local public school system that comprises about a dozen schools, we have 2 officers trained in active shooter scenarios. They sometimes roam between schools individually or hole up in a given school individually for the day. What is interesting is that they receive more days of professional training each year than the SWAT officers receive. The active shooter training they receive is based on their situation being that of a sole responder with no immediate backup present. The only have themselves on which to rely, at least for the first few minutes. To perform their job properly, it appears to be quite stupid and tactically unsound, charging into a gun fight unassisted with the plan of closing the distance to the threat and neutralizing the threat before the threat and shoot more people or shoot the responding officer. In terms of officer safety, being an active shooter responder is a very bad idea. That is why they receive so much training so as to improve their effectiveness against the bad guy(s) and to improve the odds of their survival and a very dangerous job.

[sendec]

As soon as the critics post their experience and training in LE tactics and operations, then maybe I'll place some credence in their opinions.

Some people here would complain if the police took their trash out for'em cause they drug the cans on the ground

[sterno]

I still think the off hand shooting was cool. I definetly need to do some more of that.

[Eghad]

"We're all taught that you have to believe you are going to win, not die," Fulford-Salvano said. "But it is one thing to have someone telling you that, another to hear from someone who had been through it.

thats the attitude to keep in any situation.......

I was watching a fight last night between the UFC Welterweight champion and the challenger....

The champion got kneed in the groin but the ref didnt see it, he looked to the ref and got caught with a fist.... It looked like it was pretty much over for the champion. Next thing you know the champion has escaped what looked like sure submission and loss. Within minutes he reversed the situation and made the challenger tap out and came back form what looked like a loss. Listening to him speak you could tell he had just such an attitude.

You have to have that attitude.....

thats why the champ still has his belt

and the officer still has her life and the bad guys dont have squat.......

I feel sorry for any bad guys this lady comes up against. with an attitude like that its probably over before the car doors open.

As far as her actions she was thinking about the kids and not herself. Thats the difference between a law enforcment officer and a law enforcment officer who is a bearuacrat....

sometimes its required to go outside the box.....an area the bureacrats and naysayers dont venture outside of.