Polk County, Florida sheriff's department needs more bullets

[Char Ell]

Except that through your own calculations, it was indeed more then 10 rounds, 12.2 for 9 officers to be exact. 12 rounds for a pistol is very plausible and SWAT teams do use handguns. Even under 10 rounds, they could use a Desert Eagle .50 though when you get hit by one of those 68 times, they're picking you up with a little spoon.

Gah! Poor wording on my part failed to properly communicate my idea. What I meant is that I would be very surprised if any of the nine SWAT officers used a firearm with less than a 10-round capacity. So in other words I assume none of the officers used a six-shooter. And yes, all nine officers could have used pistols although I would be very surprised if that were the case.

 

About the only thing I think we can safely assume though is that the officers involved in this shooting did not use the same firearm. If it were not so then we would have had a total number of shots fired that was evenly divisible by 9. But again this assumes that Sheriff Judd made an accurate statement about the SWAT team members ceasing fire due to running out of ammo. He may very well have made an erroneous assumption.

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

The man obviously managed to deflect the first 42 rounds and thus needed to be shot 68 more times in order to ensure the safety of the SWAT team.

 

Honestly though, he's as dead after 68 rounds as he is after 3 or 4 rounds, so whatever.

[Jae Onasi]

It would depend on their range, but yes, it would be lower then in a control environment.

I just can't imagine a SWAT team surrounding someone and still missing that often.

 

Depends on how far away they were. I can't imagine they were that close, otherwise if they had the guy surrounded at close range and they all shot at him, they would have been in each others' lines of fire.

 

According to the FOX NEWS article, he was surrounded. So that rules out running away, so 110 rounds because he ran isn't among the possibility, especially as he was hit 68 times.

If they had him surrounded and were only about 2 m from the guy, then sure, the most he could do was run at one of the cops, and not very far at that.

I think they likely were much farther away so that they didn't accidentally shoot each other trying to get him.

 

See link below--he was hiding under a tree, and they told him to put his gun down and hands up and he put one hand up and the gun up with the other.

I have indeed heard of stories, mostly from WWII, of people able to function with a lung pierced or many other injuries, but certainly not even close to 68 bullet holes.

Depends where you get shot, though yes, 68 bullets to your hands is going to cause some serious problems, and I'm speculating he got hit in the chest more than anywhere else. If you get hit in a non-critical area, you can keep going for quite some time. Even if he got hit in a critical area, as long as the gun was raised, he was fair game.

 

As for body armor, I doubt he had any. What would he do with it? Where did he get it? Was it planned? You don't just walk around with body armor. More information would be needed, but body armor seems pretty unlikely.

 

Don't know if he did or not--I was suggesting that as an option that alters the need for high numbers of bullets. He killed a cop and wounded another and apparently had a history of dealing drugs--he knew he'd have people coming after him at some point. Body armor/bullet-resistant vests aren't that hard to get.

 

Here's a possible explanation for all the misses--the guy was hiding under a tree that had fallen over. Some bullets likely hit the tree.

The Ledger looks like it's a newspaper for the Lakeland FL area.

Still couldn't tell you if it was excessive or not without knowing the SWAT team's weapons and the report of what happened.

[MTV2]

If someone killed my friend, or I just hated his guts so much, I'd shoot him as much as possible.

[swphreak]

As for body armor, I doubt he had any. What would he do with it? Where did he get it? Was it planned? You don't just walk around with body armor. More information would be needed, but body armor seems pretty unlikely.

 

If he was wearing body armor, I could understand why they shot 110 times. If they were using a standard cop issue beretta or handgun, the bullets would bounce right off (see North Hollywood Shootout).

 

I'm still waiting to read an official press release from the Polk County Police Department before I make any final opinion, but I'll probably still back the cops. Their jobs are hard enough without having people roast them for "excessive force" and crap. The guy had a gun, and he used the gun to kill a cop. For all we know, he would have shot more cops.

[lukeiamyourdad]

D

Here's a possible explanation for all the misses--the guy was hiding under a tree that had fallen over. Some bullets likely hit the tree.

The Ledger looks like it's a newspaper for the Lakeland FL area.

Still couldn't tell you if it was excessive or not without knowing the SWAT team's weapons and the report of what happened.

 

That would indeed explain the lower hit rate.

That would also rule out any running away. He could run at one of the cops, it could explain a higher miss rate. Certainly makes a lot of sense.

 

As for body armor and the North Hollywood Shootout, as cutmeister said, it would be unlikely that a whole 9 men SWAT team used only handguns. The NHS was a planned robbery so we'll have to see what Freeland's motives were. There's simply no indication of possible body armor and the SWAT couldn't have been caught off-guard as they were hunting for him.

[Phantom Joker]

Let's see now... Heavily wooded area with a known violent felon holed up. Already shot one sheriff's deputy and wounded another. SWAT team, many armed with automatic weapons capable of firing off a 30 round magazine in no time flat. Adrenaline pumping at high levels.

 

110 rounds doesn't strike me as excessive, especially when fear and adrenaline take over.