Officers are dispatched to a report of a “welfare check” at a nursing home because a shirtless man is outside attempting to cut down a tree.
When you hear that, what do you think it could be? A case of someone mentally ill, high on drugs, a combination, or a neighborhood dispute?
The first-arriving officer at the location is told by a passerby that the man is inside the nursing home with a running chainsaw. There doesn’t appear to be a great urgency in his response based on the information he has received so far. The officer attempts to gain entry but the door is locked.
How would that delay affect your stress level?
The officer bangs on the door and an employee opens it. The officer speaks with the employee but no new or clarifying information is provided. He enters the nursing home and passes multiple people going about their business as if nothing is happening.
Is nothing wrong, or do they not know about the situation?
Watch the body-worn camera below and then let’s discuss what happened.
Bodycam vs. reality: What do you really see?
All this is based on my observations watching the officer’s bodycam video. The video doesn’t see what the officer sees. The video doesn’t feel what the officer feels. The video is clear and focused. The officer sees only the narrow, 3- to 5-degree portion of his visual field that is in constant motion, gathering information. His brain interprets what he sees based on past experience. What the camera captures and what the officer perceives are different.
The officer radios for backup to “step it up” and then sees someone running away down the hallway and yells, “Hey.” It appears that he sees someone with a chainsaw before the camera does.
Is this the suspect? Put away your bias. Is this the suspect? Do you know for sure? You are supposed to find a shirtless man with a running chainsaw. You would hate to tase the wrong person. How long would it take to decide with confidence how to handle the situation?
Decisions take time in the real world. Ambiguity adds to that decision-making process.
Decision-making under pressure
The officer draws his TASER and says, “Drop the TASER.” Twice. That’s a clue to the possible state of mind of the officer. But what is it? You can’t know until you interview him. Anyone else’s conclusions are just guesses based on biases.
The video blurs the images of those people near the suspect. While talking with the suspect, the officer now has to attempt to direct those people away from the suspect, adding to his cognitive load of observation, decision, and action. Stress, ambiguity, complexity, and time constraints all add to the time it takes to decide.
What else is the officer thinking? Cops going to prison for making a mistake? Political prosecutions of police officers? What is his confidence level in his training? Is he seeing this situation as a challenge or a threat?
Now to the main criticism of the officer: the time it took to make his decision, and the choices that were made.
A chainsaw isn’t in the training manual
It wasn’t a knife or a gun or a broken bottle, it was a chainsaw. How many times in your training have you had to deal with a chainsaw? I’m guessing never. So, this is a first-time experience and those decisions and actions take longer. Add to that, the chainsaw isn’t running. So, what level of threat is a non-operational chainsaw? How fast can you start one? Would this officer know that? It can be used as an impact weapon. It is a very real threat to a very vulnerable population of elderly residents.
The officer is aware enough to shake his TASER to attempt to engage the long-distance prongs. That shows a level of cognitive awareness based on training. He continues to give commands and talk on the radio as the suspect attempts to start the chainsaw. Why? We don’t know.
The suspect turns and walks away, presenting the perfect, preferred, and hopefully trained-for target for the TASER. Why doesn’t the officer deploy the TASER? Only he knows. When the suspect starts the chainsaw a second time, the TASER is deployed. Why? Possibly because now the chainsaw is running and poses a clear deadly force threat.
The suspect drops from the TASER but gets up. The officer backs out of the room. Why? Have you trained to create distance, find cover, and create time? But what if there are innocent people in danger in that room? Have you trained for that?
The officer transfers his TASER to his non-dominant hand and draws his pistol. He now has backup with him and directs other officers to his location. The suspect goes mobile running out of the main lobby back into the hall.
Shooting under stress
A second officer’s video shows the suspect charging an officer who fires twice. Both rounds miss. The suspect strikes him with the chainsaw, then drops it and runs away. Did the officer have a safe backstop? No, there is no “safe” backstop. Was the officer aware of his target and what lay beyond? Probably not at that moment.
Officers continue to shoot as the suspect flees down the hallway despite multiple crossfire situations, with no less than three people in the hallway. Why?
They probably couldn’t see them because they were so focused on the suspect, because that’s how the eyes and brain work under stress.
Hindsight is easy — real life isn’t
As I wrote this, I had the opportunity to watch the video, back it up, and watch it several more times in some cases to clearly describe what happened.
Did I fail to see or mention some things that you saw or heard? Probably. Perception is individual based on what draws your attention.
Did we ever see what the officer saw? NEVER.
Were you ever under the level of stress that the officer was? NEVER.
Were you under the time constraints that the officer was? NEVER.
Were you under the threat that the officer was? You guessed it. NEVER.
Did you judge the video from your biased view or attempt to understand it from the officer’s view? I tried to remove my hindsight bias and come to a conclusion based on my perceptions, knowledge, training, experience, and biases while watching and rewatching a video — while sitting comfortably in my easy chair with the time to watch, analyze, and write a response that took me about an hour and a half. The incident lasted about a minute and 41 seconds.
Take what you learned from the video and adjust your training accordingly. Chainsaw attacks in nursing homes don’t occur every day. You never know when you will get that call.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS: How would you have handled this call? Email editor@police1.com.
