The protester targeting a family in a Jeep driving along I-225 in Aurora, Colo., has been arrested after shooting two other protesters.
Samuel Young, 23, was arrested Monday night on four counts of attempted homicide and two counts of assault according to the Aurora Police Department.
Take a look at the situation here:
This is the same shooting that was described in our recent post regarding the increasing proclivity of the protesters to shoot others. You can see a helicopter video of the incident in the story linked above. The level of violence has been escalated dramatically and you are most likely facing a deadly-force level in and around these types of protests.
One witness told police that Young had a "wild west-style gun".
"After firing his weapon, he placed his gun back into his pocket, and entered a state of shock which she describes as the male's legs weakened, causing him to fall to the ground," the affidavit says the witness told police.
The affidavit says Young dumped the shell casings from his weapon onto the highway. They were later recovered by investigators.
According to the affidavit, Young began firing at a Jeep that drove through the crowd of protesters at around 7 p.m. as they gathered on northbound I-225.
Two people were struck by gunfire, APD said: One man was shot in the leg and was taken to the hospital, and another was grazed on the head. That man also went to the hospital. There have been no reports of anyone being injured by the Jeep, police said.
In other words, it appears that while Young was targeting the moving Jeep, he failed to hit anyone in the vehicle, yet wounded two other bystanders with his misses. One was wounded in the leg and another was grazed in the head. Any of those shots could have easily killed a bystander. Regardless, Young is now facing attempted homicide charges.
I was taught it was reckless to fire from -- or towards -- a moving vehicle. I've held that policy personally today after being involved in a situation that was developing in a way that required me to have sights on a moving vehicle while driving my moving vehicle. In this situation, a passenger in the subject car was out of the passenger window, sitting on the door sill, while aiming a rifle at a car following behind.
I have to admit the problem-solving process in my mind during this incident was complicated: 'Do I have to lead the target since we are moving? Or since we are side-by-side and traveling at the same speed, do I hold my aim even? Should I use my strong hand across my body and drive with my left hand? Or should I use my support hand straight out the driver's window while driving with my right hand? Should I verbally challenge the rifleman before I engage? What if I challenge him and he turns the weapon toward me? Maybe I should shoot him now while he is concentrating on the other car? Or should I wait until he actually fires a shot? What if I miss and my shot goes through the car's two open windows out the other side? What if my shot misses the rifleman and strikes the driver? Will the car go out of control?
As Hock Hockheim would say, "It's all shades of terrible." You can see how chaotic the thought process is when computing your response with moving vehicles. Thankfully, I did not need to engage as we passed a municipal cop who immediately took up the chase running at Code 3. I can still see the astonished look on the officer's face when he saw three cars driving by with a guy hanging out of the passenger window with a rifle wrapped in a pink baby blanket.
Back to the shooting at Aurora. As I mentioned in the previous post about the increasing amount of firearms being carried by protesters and their use, it's not productive to mock the apparent lack of experience and expertise in their use of #firearms. The important part to remember is that they are arming up.
Get your head straight. This social fracturing will continue and it will be increasingly more violent for perhaps the next decade.
Self-defense Lessons:
Stay away from crowds. Do not attempt to drive through them. Do not move around barricades even though you might be inconvenienced. If you find yourself in a situation like this immediately do a U-turn and drive on the shoulder in the opposite direction to a point where you can either get help or exit and evade.
Accept that the level of violence is increasing and you can be a target at any time, anywhere.
Shooting on the move is an advanced skill. It's difficult to accurately shoot someone in a moving vehicle and it's difficult to accurately shoot someone from a moving vehicle. In this case, when you look at the photo above, it appears that Young is shooting while he is moving as well. This is a whole lot of complicated right here.
The flipside of this movement coin is that someone shooting at you has the same problems, so moving to avoid and evade can provide some additional safety for you by providing additional complications to your attacker.
As a student of the martial art of gunfighting, you need to learn how to effectively shoot while moving. First, learn the mechanics of shooting. Then learn the applications of gunfighting.
As the driver evading or avoiding the situation, you need to concentrate on your first priority -- driving. Trying to multitask by deploying your own firearm, calling 911, or anything else which takes your attention away from driving is secondary. Cops have tons of problems driving to a situation while talking to dispatch, looking at addresses, thinking about who else is working and where they are located, and attempting other tasks. You may think they're better at it because they have more experience, but I can assure you they are not. This is a hot topic with law-enforcement trainers because of the many liabilities which can befall the officer and the department with officers driving while distracted. Concentrate on driving to get distance and/or cover from a shooter.
In regards to distance, it's better to move at right angles to the shooter when moving. You might not have the option, but any side-to-side movement is better than straight away or straight towards. If you are moving straight away from the threat, the shooter just has to shoot straight. The bullet's flight has no complications either. The shooter aims straight and the bullet flies straight. The only problem you are giving him is an increasingly smaller target. Worse is moving directly towards the shooter. All you are doing is giving him an increasingly larger target.
Remember, every day is a training day. What did you do today to advance your skills?