Officer Challenges Four Suspects Alone

[Chance]

I didn't put this in the law enforcement section, because I'm not a cop, and I'm not going to opine. Just curious to hear what the resident LEOs think of this.

Via LEO Affairs and WABC-TV:

A Paterson Police officer was in serious need of back-up when he walked in on a hold-up in progress at a cell phone store.

Video of the intense situation shows the lone officer trying to takedown four suspects, one of them who had a gun.

What played out is difficult to summarize, and I can't embed the video here. What do all of you cops think of this?

[41magfan]

The only reason he's not dead or injured is because the suspect's didn't force the issue. Fortunately, most bad-guys are cut from the same cloth and such serendipitous tactics often work.

[Coyotesfan97]

Everything's good until it isn't. Tombstone courage strikes again. He's not seriously hurt or dead because the bad guys didn't fight.

[LSP552]

Painful to watch. Good outcome doesn't equal good procedure or tactics, just luck. And someone (or him) in the future will get hurt or killed trying to do the same against real criminals.

[Trooper224]

He wasn't good, he was lucky and that's enough, until it's not. God watches out for fools and drunks and the officer looks stone cold sober to me.

“He’s the guy that the younger guys, the junior guys and the rookies, they look up to,”

That makes it even more tragic. How many young officers will die because they want to be like Mejia?

[BehindBlueI's]

So he went in by himself. Backup was, what, 30 seconds away? He's not an Alaskan State Trooper, help is coming. His "heroics" let a suspect escape who probably wouldn't have otherwise. He's got his gun out but isn't willing to use it, so it's just a hindrance to his ability to wrestle. He left civilians in the store with suspects who had just dropped a gun.

There was zero reason to go in by himself and it made what should have been a routine call into a clusterfuck that was less safe for everyone involved.