Via Greg Ellifritz. Everything happens on the top half of the screen.
I can’t tell for certain and I wish we could have access to the autopsy report, but it seems not surprisingly) that it was a shot to the head at very uncomfortable close range what finally stopped the attack.
When I began training in firearms, one of the things that I was taught was defending against a man armed with a knife. First thing I was told was to put a lot of distance and have some physical object in between the attacker and my body. Lacking that and if attacked, you were to sidestep the bad guy to the side opposite where he had his knife once he got somewhat close to you. The idea was that the inertia of the forward movement would be big enough for the attacker to have a much difficult time reacting and trying to change directions. On the other hand, sidestepping is faster and you are the one doing the action. Action always beats reaction.
And goes without saying that you must place effective shots on the attacker. Other than that, you are just doing a dance with a nutcase wanting to kill you.
My take (yours may vary according to the local laws) is that if a violent person is displaying a knife, your first movement must be at least drawing your weapon and putting distance between you and him. Maybe he will see the wisdom of stopping his actions, but that is a bet that I am not willing to pay with my life. The attacker in the video knew he was going after an armed person and still did not stop him from attempting to kill him.
According to the FBI, in 2014 there were 1,567 homicides and 124,380 Aggravated Assaults by Knives or cutting instruments. But what is interesting from the FBI stats is that although homicide by firearms far surpasses homicides by knives, there is only a small difference between them when it comes to aggravated assault: 138,336 by firearms.
Inevitably somebody ignorant will come around and say being wounded by a knife is not as bad as being shot and that we are better off without guns and blah-blah:
I beg to differ.
That one came all the way down to the last second… But the good guy won. And no, knife fights ARE NOT pretty.
And I think that if the officer had not already had his pistol out, he’d be dead.
The knife-wielding guy was not gonna stop.
Don’t forget he covered 30-40 ft in about 3 secs
Interesting that the FIRST thing the LEO did was to back off … way off! … to give himself as much stand-off distance as possible and still retain a modicum of ‘control’ and ‘presence’ in the situation.
There’s no doubt that this immediate response saved his life, and perhaps the lives of other innocents.
It’s amazing how oblivious everyone else is in that video.