It’s a split-second decision officers go through every day: shoot or don’t shoot?
In the first three months of 2018 there have been eight officer-involved shootings in South Carolina, according to the State Law Enforcement Division.
Nationwide, these incidents have been in the spotlight as more people record them on their cellphones. That includes the 2015 videotaped fatal shooting of Walter Scott, a black man shot and killed by a North Charleston police officer.
The Horry County Police Department invited News13’s Maggie Lorenz to their headquarters Wednesday to learn more about the tense situations officers go through. There, different footage was projected on a screen, and it updated in real-time based off how users reacted to each situation.
In the simulation, you have to decide whether or not to use deadly force in situations such as domestic violence calls, a suicidal person and routine traffic stops that during violent.
In those few seconds deciding whether or not to use deadly force, officers examine if the person has the ability and opportunity to cause great harm in that moment and if they or someone else is in jeopardy at that moment.
“It is easy to ‘Monday-morning quarterback’ and look at a situation,” Sgt. Mick Kathman said. “And until you’re in that situation, and that split-second decision needs to be made, it’s a very difficult decision to make.”
The first scenario involved a man threatening to kill himself. Maggie aimed the gun but did not shoot. The HCPD officer participating next to her shot him when the man slid behind a car and moved his hands down. “Once I saw he wasn’t listening to me, I had to go ahead and make that judgment call,” the responding officer said.
“Whatever decision is made,” Kathman said, “That officer needs to be able to articulate and justify the decision that they made.”
Pulling the trigger is a last resort, but sometimes officers have no choice. In a domestic violence scenario, both Maggie and the officer next to her shot a man who lunged at them with a knife as his wife hid in a bedroom.
But the situation quickly escalated when the wife pulled a gun on them. The HCPD officer shot the wife, but Maggie failed to react and got shot in the simulation.
“I think there’s just an expectation of accountability,” Kathman said. “And that’s the way it should be. And if that has not been the focus in the past it is definitely the focus now.”
