Eli Dickens shooting: lawyer interview post police press conference.

[breakingtime91]

Nvm.

[Noah]

I think it is hard to do well at a match or in a defensive encounter when you are thinking about the mechanics of shooting. The shooting, at whatever your level is, has to be done at the subconscious level, so your mind is free to solve the match or tactical challenges.

THIS is what I learned at my first 2 matches this year that 3 years of work at timed drills didn't teach me. My first match, I didn't do nearly as well as I expected, and I hadn't expected to do great. I didn't DQ, but my shooting was sloppy and not confident, making it both slow and inaccurate. I realized that ever since getting used to the timer, which didn't take long a few years ago, that range drills had involved an intense focus on my shooting mechanics. A competition or fight takes away your opportunity to do that.

[UNM1136]

While Eli didn't win the holster, sights or ammo must do's, he sure aced mindset.

Maybe, if we can get an email address, we can help him with some of that. I would pony up a P-F subscription....

Agreed on mindset and very capable shooting.

pat

[JCN]

This was my dickens inspired drill at the time.

[MickAK]

8 hits out of 10 shots at 43 to 20yds advancing, in a 2-way range. That is NOT LUCK. That’s good shooting..

I'm pretty sure if someone showed up at a range with a pistol that has sights mangled from an accident and made those hits neither people watching nor the shooter would claim chance didn't play a factor.

Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Dude did the preparation and rose to meet the opportunity. Good for him.

I would still recommend that if you get cheap stock sights mangled in an accident you replace them and verify POA/POI and I don't think it's disparaging to the guy to say so.

[medmo]

Read through the posts and see a few references to luck. Zero luck, all skill.

[Robinson]

When I say he had a great deal of luck, I mean that it was because the shooter did not see him advancing and they didn't engage in a gun battle on equal terms with unequal weapons.

Presumably, Mr. Dickens had the advantage of seeing his enemy and getting rounds on him without the motherless scrote seeing him and targeting him simultaneously.

Certainly 40 yards with a 9mm pistol is a long shot...and at 40 yards, I will say that quite a few of the gun owning public could not do that. But if you have good trigger control you can do it. Especially if you dry fire regularly.

Lots of guys can ring steel A/C zones at that distance and not even be sort of close to a B class USPSA shooter or Navy SEAL etc.

Getting that first round hit probably gave him a decisive advantage.

Sent from my SM-A326U using Tapatalk

It was brought up that he used the lid of a trash can to steady his arms. That probably helped him get a hit with the long first shots he made, and was a good move. I would assume the subsequent closer shots were unsupported. It was really good work.

[John Hearne]

The bad guy came to the mall for a one way exchange of gunfire. His first clue that it was a different game than he envisioned was taking two rounds. The ability to deliver first round HITS is crucial. If you’re going to go “surprise!” it needs to be more than a loud noise.

[Lost River]

100% my experience. Also my experience that some people, for a multitude of different reasons, perform better under pressure. I have seen guys perform tremendously in combat with very little thought for themselves and others not so much. I can say from my experience I do not remember manipulating things like the safety on my m4 or changing magazines (unless a tactical during the lull in the fight). Those things just happen, at least for me. Sounds like he had a good mindset and had good trigger control.

This is absolutely spot on.

In one situation, during the AAR, another guy involved described my actions, to include me saying something along the lines of "you mother-f-er" after the guy flung some shots at me and miss at very short range, then taking some action. I don't remember saying anything at all. (not the first time I would respond to such a threat and not even know I had done or said anything. Extreme stress is an interesting thing) I just knew I needed to not let him get away and prevent any more loss of life.

Same with fights, and pre-fight indicators. That is one of the reasons why I actually really ended up thinking the video systems that were put in most patrol cars were excellent. Things generally happened too fast for my mind to process all the details and why I did what I did after a fight/altercation. There were generally a bunch of non verbal indicators, and body language things that were happening.

Going back and carefully examining the video, I could look at what happened and see in detail what I had reacted to, since it sometimes would turn into a much bigger altercation. Those videos were absolutely critical in doing that.

[John Murphy]

The guy I REALLY want to talk to is his grand father, the man responsible for teaching him how to shoot.