Cops in a shootout - help? Not help?

alx

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Been thinking. Fictitious scenario:

You happen to be in a place when a police- involved shooting breaks out. It appears the cop is alone and engaged with a perp(?) who might or might not have a tactical advantage. You have a clear drop on the "bad" guy. Your intervention could save cop's life. For simplicity lets assume the situation is such that collateral damage is very very unlikely.

Do you engage? Do you look/ run the other way? Do you pull your phone and call 911 and/ or start recording?

I know there is no right or wrong answer here, but what would _YOU_ do?
 
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Should be a no brainer, but In MA?
Definitely not.
In fact I'd have to leave. I know someone who was dragged into court for months on a traffic accident.
I wouldn't even testify as a witness.
I saw nothing. I wasn't there.
I feel bad saying it, but I have a family, if the gov't is going to set things up the way they do where I have to put my family at risk, no thanks.
The way this state is, you'd shoot the perp, and the cop who's life you save would arrest you, either on his own or by order of his superiors.

Best I can do is offer some kind of distraction to give the cop a window in order to exercise his own 'duty to flee'
 
There's a few things to consider.

- Cops aren't legally required to help you out if you are in the same situation (!)
- Expect to get sued by the person you shoot and/or their family
- In the scenario above you have no idea of the circumstances. The cop could have the wrong guy for all we know; or the cop could even be an imposter.
- @Toast 's point as well--his backup arrives, sees you armed and takes you out.
- If you and the cop are white the the "perp" is black, be prepared to become national news regardless of the circumstances

That said, there's definitely some moral quandaries.
 
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As a cop, I would absolutely want you to help.

As a person giving you advice on how to protect yourself, I'd advise you to GTFO of the area as quick as possible.



So, to sum it up.... If I'm the cop in the shootout, please help, then GTFO and I'll do whatever I can to make sure you come out ok after helping. I would absolutely not arrest you or even consider it.

Thanks in advance for the help!
 
First rule is to make it home to your family. Engaging a random perp to help out can lead to breaking rule #1. You don't know if that person is alone and at first the LE under fire may not realize your shooting to help. He could just as easily shoot you thinking your perp #2. I would feel bad for the LE, but overall I can't afford to be sued to death or not be able to make it home because some overzealous prosecutor wants to make a name for themselves by screwing over a legal gun owner. Unfortunately my answer is to get out of dodge.
 
Depends on the situation, out in the sticks with my local PD that only has maybe one other officer and a Sgt. for backup that could be 15-20 min away on the other side of palmer, yea I'm gonna drop the f***er like a bag of rocks, because I know a lot of the guys on my local PD and Palmer's. If I was in Springfield or Holyoke and some dindu was in a shootout with the city pd or staties, sorry but they're on their own unless the bad guys becomes a direct threat to me or my family and I can't just get out of dodge.
 
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Maybe, and that’s a big maybe, only if the cop is incapacitated somehow and I don’t hear any sirens on the way. Don’t want to spook him or others into thinking I might be a bad guy too. But I’d probably be long gone already before that situation would happen.
 
Not all that fictitious--the exact scenario happened in TX to a Vic Stacy, who made a handgun shot at some considerable distance to take out a suspect.


"The incident began when Charles Ronald Conner shot and killed two neighbors and their dogs in an quickly-escalating argument over excrement found on his property."

Damn. They should have thrown their dog poop in some neighbor's trash can.
 
Are we to assume that the cop is a good guy and the other party is a bad guy, without knowing what had just transpired? Could this be a dirty cop trying to kill his off-duty partner who's going to expose him? Is he serving a red flag confiscation and someone's standing up for their rights? This is all far-fetched but my point is that you have no idea what the situation is.
 
Lol. No.

Good luck not getting shot by the storm of officers he most likely called over the radio.

Good luck not getting in the way.

Good luck having them want you to “help”

Good luck actually being helpful.

For some cringe watch this video. This is probably best case (cop yells at you). Worst case you are dead
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-MRV230C44M
 

that being said....MA isn't the bastion of freedom as is Mississippi. Shoot a guy trying to kill a Leo there and they'll buy you a new gun!
I would have to be an actual party to it before I could answer hypothetically

I'm just going to say this:

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A Good Samaritan statute is different from the common law or statutory defense of others doctrine. Good Samaritan statute = e.g. stopping on the side of the road to give a heart attack victim CPR. Defense of others = e.g. shooting a rapist in flagrante delicto.
 
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