SWAT Operation

[DavidI]

Here is a current story in LA. On Friday, 2 cops (a training officer and a guy out of the academy for 3 weeks) pulled over a car for running a red light. The bad guy immediately exited his car and ran up on the 2 officers who were still in their police car. The bad guy shot both officers, the training officer in the face and the trainee in the neck and upper torso, through the windshield. They were unable to return fire. The bad guy sped off and engaged responding officers in another gunfight and was able to escape. Lawmen surveiled the bad guys' known areas he frequents. They finally spotted him as he left a location in the public. Police attempted to take him into custody. He again engaged them in a gunfight in a public area with bullets flying everywhere. No police were injured and only the bad guy was killed.

For those of you who are completely against entries into a home, how would you have handled it?

60 lawmen joined hunt for suspect
Detectives staked out a number of locations in hunt for man linked to shooting of two officers.
By Andrew Blankstein and Garrett Therolf, Times Staff Writers
December 29, 2006


For days, 60 undercover police detectives had been watching more than a dozen residences across Southern California — locations, informants told them, where Oscar Gabriel Gallegos might be holed up.

They got their break Wednesday afternoon when four undercover officers spotted Gallegos, suspected in the shooting of two Long Beach police officers, walking out of an apartment in Santa Ana.

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The detectives followed him to a nearby strip mall before moving in for a closer look to confirm his identity, said Long Beach Police Lt. David D. Cannan.

Long Beach detectives called in Santa Ana police SWAT officers.

Within moments, three uniformed officers arrived in an unmarked car.

As they approached Gallegos, he allegedly opened fire — beginning a wild gun battle in which more than 40 shots were exchanged in under a minute, police said.

At least five bullets entered a crowded laundry. Another pierced the passenger door of the police car. Another smashed through the back window of a passing car, frightening the driver.

The operators of a taqueria, a bakery, a water store and other shops cowered with customers in back corners and under tables. Angelica Carrillo, who runs Stacy's Fashion clothing store, said she didn't emerge from her hiding place for more than 20 minutes after the shooting stopped.

"I can't tell you how terrified I was," Carrillo said. "First came the shots. Then so many people running in front and in back of the store. The helicopters were overhead."

Santa Ana Police Sgt. Lorenzo Carrillo said officers had no other choice but to attempt to arrest Gallegos in the crowded shopping center. "If you don't take him when you have him, you may never again have the opportunity," he said.

Gallegos, who was shot multiple times, was pronounced dead at the scene, and police later recovered a .40-caliber Glock pistol and two loaded ammunition clips.

Authorities called it a violent end to a five-day dragnet.

According to police, the Long Beach officers, Abe Yap, 35, and Roy Wade Jr., 39, stopped Gallegos, who was driving a white Nissan Pathfinder, about 1:20 p.m. Friday at the intersection of 6th Street and Long Beach Boulevard.

Two law enforcement sources involved in the investigation said that a short time before, an off-duty, undercover Long Beach police investigator saw a man acting strangely at an area gun store and called police with a description of the man and the white sport utility vehicle he was driving.

Yap and Wade spotted the Pathfinder that matched the investigator's description and moments later saw the driver run a red light, the sources said.

After he was stopped, Gallegos stepped out of the sport utility vehicle and without provocation, according to police, began shooting at the officers, who were unable to return fire.

As the wounded officers were rushed in patrol cars to Long Beach Memorial Hospital, police swarmed the downtown area.

Within minutes, police said officers crossed paths with Gallegos at Broadway and Long Beach Boulevard, about a quarter of a mile from the scene of the shooting.

Officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect before Gallegos fled.

Investigators found the abandoned SUV about 5 p.m. at an underground parking garage in the 200 block of Elm Avenue.

It was then that police said they linked the car to Gallegos.

Long Beach Police Chief Anthony Batts said Friday that Gallegos had an extensive criminal record, including charges on weapons, drug sales and possession, as well as assault.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said authorities were concerned that Gallegos, a Mexican national who had been deported from the United States three times, might flee the country.

Long Beach police, meanwhile, had begun dispatching their undercover detectives, 60 in all, to locations that Gallegos was known to frequent in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties.

Officers concentrated their efforts on Long Beach and Santa Ana. But despite days of round-the-clock stakeouts, Gallegos didn't turn up.

"We did not stop, we did not slow down," Batts said.

On Wednesday afternoon, a break came outside an apartment in Santa Ana.

"We weren't sure if it was him," Cannan, of the Long Beach Police Department, said. "We followed the car to the strip mall, where our officers got in for a closer look to identify him."

Authorities said another man dropped Gallegos off in front of a taqueria, then went to park the car.

Gallegos' companion was detained and cooperated with authorities, Carrillo said. Investigators determined that he was not involved in any criminal activities, he added.

At the downtown Long Beach apartment house where Gallegos once lived, one tenant expressed shock Thursday over the incident.

"I still can't believe it," said the tenant, who asked not to be identified. "He was a nice guy, he was really pleasant."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew.blankstein @latimes.com

Garrett.therolf@latimes.com

Times staff writers Seema Mehta and Stuart Silverstein contributed to this report.

[on-ramp]

i'm all for the cops shooting and killing the bad guys and getting them off the street before they cause harm to innocent people.
costs too much to keep them in the court system.

i think the problem arises when cops "accidently" kill someone who poses no threat to anyone...

however, i do understant why cops have itchy trigger fingers, quite a few have been killed recently on duty, and that's quite tragic.

[legion]

I'm not completely against SWAT teams, they are just far overused IMO.

Aprehending a guy who is known to shoot at police is okay. Using a SWAT team to serve an arrest warrant against a Playstation thief is not.

[KevinP73]

Any update on the condition of the officers shot in the original incident?

[bivenator]

+1 on legion

[Jim Bremner]

in before Slowpaste !

[Rikao4]

has been deported 3 times....

Rika

[KFC911]

Originally posted by legion
I'm not completely against SWAT teams, they are just far overused IMO.

Aprehending a guy who is known to shoot at police is okay. Using a SWAT team to serve an arrest warrant against a Playstation thief is not.

That pretty much nails it IMO....

[island911]

Originally posted by DavidI
Here is a current story in LA. On Friday, 2 cops (a training officer and a guy out of the academy for 3 weeks) pulled over a car for running a red light. The bad guy immediately exited his car and ran up on the 2 officers who were still in their police car. The bad guy shot both officers, the training officer in the face and the trainee in the neck and upper torso, through the windshield. They were unable to return fire. The bad guy sped off and engaged responding officers in another gunfight and was able to escape. . . .

Clearly we need more "red light cameras." Tho' rather than aimed cameras, we need aimed cannons to SHOOT red light offenders.

. .. for our safety, and the safety of our officers.

[DavidI]

Originally posted by KevinP73
Any update on the condition of the officers shot in the original incident?

Both are still in critical stable.............David

[KFC911]

Originally posted by DavidI
Both are still in critical stable.............David

And we're pulling for them too... David, you seem to be a credit to your profession, along with MOST of the LEOs that I've ever had to interact with. Unfortunately, I've personally seen a few too many that weren't, and there is nothing worse than corruption in LE imo. Good luck to you and your brothers who put there lives on the line everyday!

[Hugh R]

Years ago, I went to the CHP Academy in Sacramento and tried their confrontation simulator with a laser gun in a holster. The training officer could manipulate the simulator based on how you handled the situation (DUI, Domestic disturbance, serving a warrant, etc.) I was dead four times in a row. Before you playstation apologists voice your opinion, contact your local police academy and have a go at one of those simulators. I've noticed that when the CHP pulls someone over on the freeway and approach on the passenger side, they seem to always have their hand on their holster, can't say I blame them.

Oh, and I'm glad the POS was killed. Saves the expense of a trial and some lawsuit about his "rights" being violated. Hope the best for the two police officers.

[m21sniper]

Originally posted by DavidI

"The detectives followed him to a nearby strip mall before moving in for a closer look to confirm his identity, said Long Beach Police Lt. David D. Cannan.

Long Beach detectives called in Santa Ana police SWAT officers.

Within moments, three uniformed officers arrived in an unmarked car.

As they approached Gallegos, he allegedly opened fire — beginning a wild gun battle in which more than 40 shots were exchanged in under a minute, police said."

From an AAR perspective, this is the only part that gives me any pause at all, and we'd need to see more details on how that part played out. If possible it would've probably been wise to let the guy leave the mall and try to take him down from all sides as he entered his car in the parking lot, but lacking more pertinent details it's impossible to say if that part was a mistake or a prudent action.

One thing i would say is that in their place i would've definitely preferred to have waited for more than three SWAT troops to show up to move- if at all possible.
Going with only three operators really reduces your tactical options and your ability to rapidly envelop and overpower the opposition. Circumstances may have dictated that waiting was not possible, but on the surface(based solely on this report) it appears to be a tactical blunder. I will reserve judgement until more facts are in, but i am inclined to extend the cops the benefit of the doubt in this particular case at this time.

And again, i recognize a limited need for SWAT teams, as this case is the sort of thing we should have them for, not for making pot busts, or for going in on the sole testimony of a known junkie, etc, etc.

I see nothing unreasonable at all about my position.

[m21sniper]

Originally posted by DavidI
Here is a current story in LA. On Friday, 2 cops (a training officer and a guy out of the academy for 3 weeks) pulled over a car for running a red light. The bad guy immediately exited his car and ran up on the 2 officers who were still in their police car. The bad guy shot both officers, the training officer in the face and the trainee in the neck and upper torso, through the windshield. They were unable to return fire. The bad guy sped off and engaged responding officers in another gunfight and was able to escape. . . .

BTW, from a coldly neutral AAR standpoint, this part is a flagrant tactical failure on the part of the training officer and young cop. A suspect exiting his car is an overt cue that the situation is potentially extremely dangerous, and should've IMMEDIATELY spurred both officers into their threat response training. I believe any police instructor would probably say the same thing.

Their stories will surely be told in academy's all over America as what not to do from this day forth. Real shame, cause in reality it is almost impossible to "always be ready", and this crap always happens at the worst possible moment, like when you're getting your pen out of your pocket(or whatever). I offer my condolences to the guys and their families.

"There are two kinds of soldiers, the quick and the dead."
~old army saying

[sammyg2]

That's so not fair. He probably had a rough childhood or came from a bad area. It wasn't his fault he tried to murder the police officers, he was just mixed up from all the drugs. That's a disease you know. not his fault at all.
BAH!

They shouda fired an RPG into his a$$ and then hung his charred remains on a pole for all to see.

Scumbag was deprted three times and kept coming back and kept committing crimes, all those morons who don't want illegal immigrant reform are partly responsible for the police officers getting shot whether they want to admit it or not.

[DavidI]

Originally posted by m21sniper
BTW, from a coldly neutral AAR standpoint, this part is a flagrant tactical failure on the part of the training officer and young cop. A suspect exiting his car is an overt cue that the situation is potentially extremely dangerous, and should've IMMEDIATELY spurred both officers into their threat response training. I believe any police instructor would probably say the same thing.

Their stories will surely be told in academy's all over America as what not to do from this day forth. Real shame, cause in reality it is almost impossible to "always be ready", and this crap always happens at the worst possible moment, like when you're getting your pen out of your pocket(or whatever). I offer my condolences to the guys and their families.

"There are two kinds of soldiers, the quick and the dead."
~old army saying

Wow, snipey and I agree on something! I don't know what the officers were thinking when they stopped the car in the initial stop. You can be sure we will analyze the tactics used and train to make sure it does not happen again. This bad guy was extremely aggressive, somewhat following military tactics. You are also right that an officer cannot be readly to engage someone on every single stop. That is why we do not call traffic stops "routine." We call them unknown.

David

[vash]

damn, that sucks. any fool that would attack armed policemen would devastate un-armed citizens. glad he is dead.

what could the original policemen have done differently. not pull up so closely? that is a really bad situation.

[DavidI]

Originally posted by m21sniper
[B]From an AAR perspective, this is the only part that gives me any pause at all, and we'd need to see more details on how that part played out. If possible it would've probably been wise to let the guy leave the mall and try to take him down from all sides as he entered his car in the parking lot, but lacking more pertinent details it's impossible to say if that part was a mistake or a prudent action.

What about crossfire? Think about this from your military tactical training snipey. What about the backdrop? This is where military training and police training differ. There are no "accepted casualty" rate in the civilian world.

One thing i would say is that in their place i would've definitely preferred to have waited for more than three SWAT troops to show up to move- if at all possible. Going with only three operators really reduces your tactical options and your ability to rapidly envelop and overpower the opposition. Circumstances may have dictated that waiting was not possible, but on the surface(based solely on this report) it appears to be a tactical blunder.

Again, you have a "different" understanding of tactics. In these operations, we try to have "designated shooters" who are specifically selected based on their training and experience. We do not want operators shooting fully automatic rifles in many directions. We want focused firepower to stop the problem.

Our new friendship is going to be fun Snipey, David

[m21sniper]

It goes back to what i said in the riot thread David. In military encounters(which any gunfight really is) the side that siezes the initiative and applies surprise, shock, and audacity usually wins (and often in spectacular fashion).

The ex-Ranger that got into the huge shootout with all those FBI agents in Miami-Dade in '86 (the one that doomed the 9mm in police circles despite the fact that all kinds of rounds were used and failed to stop) did the same thing, directly assaulting the position of several agents behind cover by charging/flanking them on foot with his mini-14 while using suppressive fire to keep their heads down.

It is highly counter-intuitive, but all the experts throughout history all say the same thing, and the US Military teaches all our troops the same way.

"Fortune favors the bold."

As far as us agreeing, as i said before, on most issues we probably would agree. We just have one hot-button issue that separates us, and that's often enough to create a lot of enmity between people. Whether it's abortion, gun control, or over-zealous policing, hot button issues have the name they do for a reason. It's no big deal, i'm sure you're a nice dude in person. You drive a classic Porsche afterall, you can't be THAT bad.

[Rikao4]

One of the good guys should have walked up to him, and at pointblank range given him a headache he would not remember.
no fuss alot of muss.
Rika