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Step 3: Do Not Touch Evidence
This is the last thing you want to do after a shooting. For the same reason you don’t put your gun in the glovebox after this kind of event, you do not touch evidence. It could appear that you are hiding your guilt if you tamper with evidence. Worst case if you lose the justifiable homicide battle that is certainly brewing, you will also be convicted of tampering charges. Again, turning to Texas Penal Code (PC Chapter 8 §37.09), a person commits an evidence tampering offense if:
…knowing that an investigation or official proceeding is pending or in progress, he:
(1) alters, destroys, or conceals any record, document, or thing with intent to impair its verity, legibility, or availability as evidence in the investigation or official proceeding; or
(2) makes, presents, or uses any record, document, or thing with knowledge of its falsity and with intent to affect the course or outcome of the investigation or official proceeding.
Your best course of action here is to take pictures without touching the evidence. Many cell phones these days come with cameras built right in. Take pictures of the cars in the parking lot including the license plates. Take pictures of anyone who may be witnesses to the event. If your phone does not have a camera, use the old fashioned pen and paper. Write down the make and model of the car with the license plate number. At the very least, take note of where the evidence lies and make certain that nobody touches any of it. Where did the brass fall? Can you remember how many shots you fired? How did you approach the combatant? Did you have to shoot on the move, and if so, is it possible that shell casings fell down a storm drain? If a potential witness is trying to leave the scene, ask them to stay until the police arrive, or ask them to contact the police when they feel safe enough to do so. All of these will assist the police in finding the very objects that will keep you out of jail. It will also help you provide necessary details to law enforcement, and perhaps, your attorney.
Step 4: Anyone Injured? Dial 9-1-1
In our lead story, you told your significant other to dial 9-1-1. Confirm with them that they are still on the phone with emergency response, and are unhurt, then see if anyone else needs help. Remember, you are in a potentially crowded parking lot and you cannot be certain that every bullet you fired hit the bad guy. In fact, it’s likely they did not. Listen for the cries of wounded and offer assistance if you can. You know that the person you were protecting was being assaulted, verify that she is safe; be careful though. In domestic violence situations, the domestic partner could violently turn on their protector.
Be certain to keep your eye on the assailant. Most of us are not doctors, and while the bad guy may look like he has expired, he may get up and run. Make note of which way he goes and let law enforcement take it from there. As a civilian, your responsibility to stop a threat ends when the threat does. During your search for the injured, this is a great time to be on the phone with 9-1-1. You can describe what you’re seeing, they can give you instructions, and since it is a recorded conversation, there is evidence of your actions after the shooting.
Step 5: General Is Better…For A Season
Most citizens want to be as helpful to the police as the possibly can. When you are pulled over for speeding—as badly as you don’t want a ticket—you are respectful to the officer. You may ask for a warning, but if the LEO writes out a ticket, you take your lumps and move along. The desire to be helpful after a shooting may cause you problems later on. As bad as this may sound, it is a good idea to answer general questions, but when they turn specific, uncertainty will help you.
What does this mean? The investigator will want to know everything that happened that would cause you to not only draw your weapon, but fire it and kill another human being. Questions such as, “What were you doing this evening?”, “At what point did you see the assailant?”, “What was he doing?, “Did you feel threatened?” Give the investigator the facts so that he can build a picture of what happened. The problem will come when the answers change to specifics. “How many shots did you fire?”, “Where were you standing when you fired your first shot?”, “What was your position when you ceased firing?”, “How long did it take for you to identify the threat and shoot?” Remember, the officer is going to want to trace angles of attack, bullet trajectory, ballistics, and all other evidence related to the crime scene. Unfortunately if you answer these specific questions, and a video surveillance tape contradicts your story, you may wind up in front of a grand jury.
The human mind reacts in mysterious ways in high stress situations. Recent studies in human memory have shown that some “facts” may be askew. The high stress causes significant physiological changes in the body. Tunnel vision and the feeling that time slows down are some of the results of the fight or flight experience. In 2008, The British Psychological Society published Guidelines On Memory and the Law: Recommendations from the Scientific Study of Human Memory. Among other’s, the researches made the following notations as “Key Points” to human memory:
- Memories are records of people’s experiences of events and are not a record of the events themselves. In this resepct, they are unlike other recording media such as videos or audio recordings, to which they should not be compared
- Memory is not only of experienced events but is also of the knowledge of a person’s life, i.e. schools, occupations, holidays, friends, homes, achievements, failures, etc. As a general rule memory is more likely to be accurate when it is of the knowledge of a person’s life than when it is of specific experienced events.
- Memories for experienced events are always incomplete. Memories are time-compressed fragmentary records of experience. Any account of a memory will feature forgotten details and gams, and this must not e taken as any sort of indicator of accuracy. Accounts of memories that do not feature forgetting and gaps are highly unusual.
- People can remember events that they have not in reality experienced. This does not necessarily entail deliberate deception. For example, an event that was imagined, was a blend of a number of different events, or that makes personal sense for some other reason, can come to be genuinely experienced as a memory, (these are often referred to as ‘confabulations’).
We mention this simply because it is possible that your memory will fill in details that never existed in the heat of battle. Answer questions, but be wary of answering too specifically. In fact, it may be better to say, “I think I did…” rather than definitively suggest the event happened if you are even slightly uncertain. Do not avoid questions, but it is perfectly acceptable to say you don’t know, are unsure, or you “think” the events played out a certain way.
Finally
As shooters, concealed carriers, law abiding citizens, and community loving people we spend hours every year at the shooting range. Some of us include various drills in our firing range time so that if the unthinkable happens, we are prepared. While all this is good, we very rarely practice the aftermath and many times, that can lead to trouble if not handled correctly.
One recommendation is to attend a force-on-force training class. If you can muster the expense, Sig Sauer offers one such course in Epping, NH. The AirSoft Operator course allows you to experience high intensity close-quarter-combat. They also offer a course entitled Self-Defence Law & Basic Threat Management Seminar which includes an aftermath module. These two courses would be worth attending as a supplement to your firearms training. You can read further details on Sig Sauer’s web site.
The moral of this story is that we need to be prepared for as many situations as possible. Consider all the options that you will be confronted with. Whether or not you carry a gun (a burglary needs the same kind of action post-shooting), we can not neglect the aftermath.