Troopers in Monroe County shoot 75-year-old man

[michaelchica]

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/brea...ppspbcs_1.html

Pennsylvania State Police at Swiftwater shot a 75-year-old man five times early this morning, inflicting serious wounds, after he pointed a gun at two troopers.
Robert J. Hagen is in surgery at Lehigh Valley Hospital after the confrontation at his home at 4103 Manor Drive in Hamilton Township, the Pocono Record reports.

Police went to Hagen's home shortly after midnight for a report of shots fired. They spoke with Hagen's roommate, whose name has not been released, and learned Hagen was recently diagnosed with dementia and displayed erratic behavior during the past few days.

Hagen was in his bedroom with the door closed, and police said they could hear him calling out different names. When police entered the room, Hagen was holding a shotgun. He refused orders to drop the weapon and instead leveled it at two troopers.

Troopers William Skotleski and Todd Tolan fired 11 shots, hitting Hagen in the leg, arm, hand, head and shoulder. Hagen did not fire his weapon. The officers who were at the scene are on desk duty until an investigation is complete.


5 out of 11 shots hit?

[mikepro8]

5 out of 11 really doesnt sound too bad when someone suddenly has a shotgun pointed at you... how accurate do you think you would be just after a MASSIVE adrenaline dump?

Im guessing around 50%.

[ChrisF4i]

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/brea...ppspbcs_1.html

Pennsylvania State Police at Swiftwater shot a 75-year-old man five times early this morning, inflicting serious wounds, after he pointed a gun at two troopers.
Robert J. Hagen is in surgery at Lehigh Valley Hospital after the confrontation at his home at 4103 Manor Drive in Hamilton Township, the Pocono Record reports.

Police went to Hagen's home shortly after midnight for a report of shots fired. They spoke with Hagen's roommate, whose name has not been released, and learned Hagen was recently diagnosed with dementia and displayed erratic behavior during the past few days.

Hagen was in his bedroom with the door closed, and police said they could hear him calling out different names. When police entered the room, Hagen was holding a shotgun. He refused orders to drop the weapon and instead leveled it at two troopers.

Troopers William Skotleski and Todd Tolan fired 11 shots, hitting Hagen in the leg, arm, hand, head and shoulder. Hagen did not fire his weapon. The officers who were at the scene are on desk duty until an investigation is complete.


5 out of 11 shots hit?

I don't see anywhere where it says that they hit him 5 times. Several shots could have hit him on each body part that was stated.
Good point from the last poster

[K-9_Unit]

take into a consideration what weapon they are using too...45GAPs, not the most agile gun to be shooting rapidly

[michaelchica]

actually in the morning call it says they hit him 4 times

[DaveM55]

50% is real good for an actual shoot. I think the average is around 17%.
http://www.theppsc.org/Staff_Views/Aveni/OIS.pdf
http://www.policeone.com/writers/col...ticles/117909/


http://article.nationalreview.com/?q...k0MDJkNDU1Mjg=

Even within a range of 6 feet or less, the police miss more often than they hit — 57 percent of the shots at that distance miss and 43 percent hit.

As you might expect, there are even fewer hits at longer distances. At 75 feet — which is less than the distance from first base to second base — only 7 percent of the shots hit.

Moreover, just because a shot has hit does not mean that it is now safe to stop shooting.

First of all, this is not like an arcade game, where lights go on when you hit something. Depending on where the shot hit, the policeman who is firing may have no idea whether he has hit the criminal or not.

With the adrenalin pumping, the criminal himself may not be aware that he has been hit, if it is not a serious wound.

Even if the policeman knows that his shot has hit the criminal, the real question is whether the hit has rendered the criminal no longer dangerous. If the bad guy is still capable of shooting back, it is no time for the cop to stop firing, because his life is still in danger.

When there is more than one policeman on the scene, there is no reason for any of them to keep track of how often the others have fired. After it is all over, it may turn out that 30 or 40 shots were fired at the criminal.

But so what? It is very doubtful that the criminal has been hit 30 or 40 times.

Only part of the problem is that many people have no idea of the capabilities and limitations of different kinds of guns, much less how much difference it makes if the shooter is in the safety of a firing range or in the stress of a life and death battle.

[Dredly]

Actually I think the way it read in the pocono record was the suspect aimed the shotgun at the troopers so they ran out of the house and he came out afterwords and aimed the shotgun at them again while they were in cover forcing them to fire on him... so the distance was much more then 5 - 10 yards.