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By Don Heinzman
When a gunman threatens to take hostages and shoot the captives, law enforcement officers face a tough situation.
Delicate decisions are involved with protecting the lives of those being threatened by a gunman as well as making reasonable efforts to disarm them.
At Little Falls two weeks ago, a disgruntled businessman held seven Morrison County officials hostage and threatened to shoot them. The county sheriff, a deputy and a state trooper entered the room and at least three times ordered Gordon Wheeler, Sr., to put the gun down.
They tried to talk him out of it even as he threatened to shoot someone and held his gun to the head of two officials.
Failing to negotiate and reacting to Wheeler pointing the gun at them, the three officers fired 20 rounds at once, seven striking Wheeler who died at a Little Falls hospital.
There always is some second guessing when police shoot a gunman, who in this case never did fire a shot but had a live bullet in the chamber and four others in the magazine. He also carried handcuffs and another revolver.
Based on the state law and how it was followed by law enforcement, shooting Wheeler, while tragic, appears justified. The case is being investigated.
Around the country, police officers have been trained to confront the shooter and crime scene right away, rather than waiting for a more experienced and trained team to come.
The tragic shooting of 12 students and a teacher at the Columbine High School in Denver, CO, has changed the tactics of law enforcers.
Before Columbine, the tactic was to control the situation while waiting for a better trained Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT). At Columbine the first officer arrived at 11:23 a.m., four minutes after the call, but a five-man SWAT team did not enter the building until 12:06 p.m., 43 minutes later.
Parents criticized the strategy saying the police should have gone in sooner.
Law enforcement officers are trained differently now. Officers who arrive on the scene, no matter what their rank and training, are taught to enter the building and to kill or disable the gunman as soon as possible.
A state law actually governs how and when police officers have the duty to shoot someone threatening to kill someone.
This is a tough call for any law enforcement officer. The law allows a police officer to shoot an attacker if they believe the threat is real, if someone’s life is in danger and if the attacker has the means and the ability to shoot someone.
The officer first must demand repeatedly that the gunman drop the weapon, or be killed. In most instances that command works and the man or woman is disarmed.
When the gunman refuses, the officer must decide to shoot, knowing he or she must shoot to kill.
There is a lesson for all law enforcement personnel who have a plan ready, should any school or public building be taken over by a person with a gun.
County sheriffs and city police chiefs would do well to go over the plan, knowing that real-life situations can happen as in Morrison County.
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