ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA — A recent police-involved shooting was captured on video after an off-duty police officer attempted to detain a juvenile trespasser. During the incident, the off-duty officer drew a concealed handgun and apparently had a negligent discharged while trying to maintain positive control over the juvenile.
We reviewed the footage available on YouTube. The off-duty police officer was surrounded by juveniles after he detained one of them. The situation escalated quickly. The off-duty officer was then repeatedly physically assaulted by multiple teenagers.
At one point, he makes the decision to draw his concealed handgun from his waistband because he was getting ganged up on and assaulted from multiple teenagers. To maintain positive control over the first teenager he detained, it appears that he uses the same hand clutching the gun in an attempt to pull a juvenile from the bushes.
During that movement, it appears he negligently discharged a round.
No one was hurt from the bullet but both the 13-year-old and a 15-year-old were detained by police.
via FOX 59
“The confrontation began over ongoing issues with juveniles walking across the officer’s property,” Anaheim police said in an updated statement.
From the video, it’s difficult to understand how the situation got to the point where the confrontation begins. It appears that the off-duty LAPD officer attempted to detain a 13-year-old boy and a cohort of other juveniles quickly got involved. The situation continued to escalate as the officer attempted to pull the boy onto his property.
From a concealed carry standpoint, I can see where a lot of things had to go wrong before the negligent discharge ever entered into the equation. If I was speaking to a concealed carrier, I would recommend that if a group of juveniles continually violated your private property, you should take footage of the violations and use that as a basis for a civil case against the juvenile’s parents.
If they act with criminal bad intent, get a restraining order.
That would be the easiest thing to do. And it virtually guarantees no violence will be necessary.
Unfortunately, this off-duty officer decided to take matters into his own hands and things quickly spiral out of control from there. He quickly finds himself in a situation where he is physically surrounded by teenagers who are assaulting him.
Because he was surrounded by juveniles who put their hands on him, hit him, tackled him, he was unable to maintain control over his principle detainee. If you can’t maintain control over one, you certainly can’t maintain control over two or three. It would have been better, at this point, to break contact.
That is what I would have recommended to just about any law-abiding citizen stuck in a similar situation.
However, we can see from the video that at one point the off-duty officer decides to draw a pistol. He then used the same hand holding that pistol to move his detainee. There’s no way that’s going to work.
It’s a stressful situation and that’s where training and discipline both come into play. The basic rule is keep it simple, stupid. He had the opportunity to contact authorities and get backup. He instead decided to “Cowboy” the situation. That almost never ends well. And in this case, thankfully, no one was hurt but the results were far less than ideal.
We’re not going to comment on the politics surrounding this case or how Anaheim decides to proceed. That’s not within the purview of this article. In this article, we’re simply discussing how a bad situation goes to worse and what we can do, as concealed carriers and law-abiding citizens to avoid getting stuck in similar situations.
If, by your actions, you turn a non-violent situation into an escalated and potentially violent one, you truly need to reconsider the steps you took to get there. Be logical. Walk yourself back from a situation if possible. It doesn’t matter how dumb you think you look to others or what some snot-nosed 13-year-old has to say about it. You’re a property owner and a gun owner. You have responsibilities to maintain that property and not lose it in frivolous court cases. You also have a responsibility for every round that leaves the chamber of your gun.
Use technology to your advantage. If there are kids trespassing on your property or disrespecting your property bounds, there are legal processes you can pursue. Be cool and logical about that approach. Don’t let the tension and stress affect how you treat other people.
That’s an easy thing to say but, as gun owners and concealed carriers, we are obliged to practice that philosophy.