by Ron Avery
Director of Training
The Practical Shooting Academy, Inc.
The following encounter was related to me by Sgt. George Jahant of the San Antonio Police Dept. It is all the more tragic because it involves an individual that was not only a great police officer but also a personal friend.
John “Rocky” Riojas was on patrol in San Antonio, TX one evening in a high crime area of town. He saw an individual engaged in suspicious activity and ordered the individual to stop. The subject fled and Officer Riojas pursued. During the foot pursuit, Officer Riojas drew his handgun. As the subject attempted to climb a fence, Officer Riojas grabbed him and pulled him down.
The fight went to the ground, and Officer Riojas ended up on top of the subject, chest to chest with his gun still in his hand. The individual grabbed Officer Riojas’ gun and then extended Officer Riojas’ arm and gun out away from him as he turned on his stomach. Being taller and longer of arm than Riojas, he was able to apply more leverage and got the gun away from Officer Riojas, who was physically very strong.
Officer Riojas was now on the subjects back. The subject had the gun underneath him and officer Riojas was trying to get the gun back from under the subject, reaching around and under the right side of the subject.
Meanwhile, the subject switched the gun to his left hand and extended the gun back over his left shoulder, next to his own ear and pulled the trigger. Officer Riojas’ head was on that side and he took the round through the forehead, killing him instantly.
The individual was later caught so we have parts of the story while other parts remain unanswered.
So passed a brave officer in the prime of his life, leaving behind a wife, a small baby, his friends and the life that he knew and loved.
John Riojas was a friend of mine. He was a member of the San Antonio Police SWAT unit. He was very strong, skilled with firearms and conventional hand to hand skills and a very courageous officer. He was not a stranger to conflict.
One out of five police officers killed in the line of duty with a firearm die by their own weapon. Countless others are injured during physical assaults and it is probably impossible at this time to count how many attempted disarms take place during these conflicts.
Even while weapons retention and now ground fighting skills are being taught to officers at the academy level, even with the introduction of level 2 and 3 retention holsters, these statistics are not changing significantly.
During my career as a full time police officer, I have had a few people attempt to disarm me during arrest and control situations. I was able to successfully neutralize these attempts without injury to myself. One of the things that really helped me was the early recognition of the attempt on the part of the perp to initiate the take-away. This combined with instant repositioning of the body and then application of techniques to neutralize the threat worked to my advantage.
There are many officers and other individuals who have had much the same experiences as I did during their careers.
Philosophical Shift
Close quarter survival is not just arrest and control. It is about surviving when a situation has gotten out of control. It is when your plan has gone awry and what was supposed to be a “routine” contact or arrest has now turned into a fight for your very survival. This can occur while you are contacting an individual, running them through roadside maneuvers, attempting to control a domestic situation or effecting an arrest.
In this day and age of litigation and officer and administrative fear of liability, officers are far more prone to hesitate in applying the appropriate level of force soon enough in the confrontation. Over reliance on technology such as tasers, OC and firearms does not increase officer confidence in their own hand to hand skills when that technology may not accessible.
Close quarter survival is not about teaching “a few moves” if someone tries to take your gun away. That is recipe based training and is situation specific. Technology and techniques won’t make up for a bad strategy.
What needs to happen is a complete shift in philosophy in how we handle close quarter situations and what needs to change in terms of training and preparedness.
Here are some concepts that we cover in our Close Quarter Survival Skills Courses for trainers and officers.
Close Quarter Dynamics:
Close quarter situations from 0 - 7 yards represent the highest probability of being injured or killed.
Manner of inflicting serious bodily injury or death range from shooting with firearms,(in 20% of them the officer’s own firearm was used), knives and other penetrating traumas, blunt trauma with objects, or fists or feet.
In many cases officers are hampered with training programs that are simply inadequate to deal with the realities of truly violent offenders bent on mayhem who will not succumb to a simple arm bar or other arrest and control tactic that work in a static environment with a mildly resisting partner.
While tasers and firearms represent a means of defense, they may not be immediately accessible to the officer if the offender takes them by surprise and initiates the assault with speed and extreme violence.
With the popularity and spread of Mixed Martial Arts such as Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Russian Sambo, etc., earlier systems of arrest and control are dangerously inadequate in dealing with individuals who have some level of training in these systems. Without prior knowledge and early warning of techniques, an officer may find themselves put into a choke or an armbar and sustain serious damage or die before they can successfully defend against such highly effective techniques.
Training
Training programs should expose the officer to the dynamics of close quarter situations. Learning how officers can get hurt or die and then teaching effective strategies and technical skills to defeat the attacks must be understood and trained effectively. This would include utilizing effective principles of personal defense that are optimized for the individual based on their body size, strength, age, physical condition and skill level.
Utilizing correct body positioning relative the offender, movement and footwork to neutralize the offender’s advantage, effective penetration to takedown and control or disengagement while using tools available to defend must be taught until it is automatic.
Recognition of common, high threat attacks and effective means of defense must be a major component of training. One must be prepared to deal with the reality of being taken to the ground and having to defend from there. Situating your tools and backup weapons so that they are available from different positions and then deploying them successfully must also be drilled in a realistic fashion.
Close quarter shooting techniques while simultaneously moving, defending against weapons or take-away attempts are part of the reality of close quarter engagements. Drawing and firing rapidly and precisely are essential life saving skills.
Critical Decision Making under Duress
The officer has a statutory right to use the level of force appropriate to effect an arrest or defend against force used against him. An officer is justified in using a higher level of force when the level of force that is being used is insufficient to control the situation.
Officers should be put in situations in training when they recognize they no longer hold the upper hand. Officers must learn, through judgmental training scenarios, exactly when that moment has occurred and make the decision to escalate then, using correct timing and technique so that the offender cannot successfully counter the escalation.
Struggling uselessly in an inferior position, fighting someone who may be younger, bigger, stronger than you and is striking you in the face or choking you while you lie on the ground, choosing the wrong tool to deal with the situation, having a firearm in hand and not being prepared to use it are all ways to get killed.
Officers must learn their mental and physical limits in training and understand how fatigue, differences in personality, skill levels, mindset, weight, strength, age and stamina will lead to a different decision making process from their peers.
Options should be available when the plan you are using is not working. This would include getting back to a better position of defense, protecting vitals, working into a better position, conserving energy while letting the offender wear themselves out, defending the weapon or accessing backup weapons and using them successfully.
Critical, close quarter decision making under real world stresses must be a part of training.
To be successful in close quarter situations you must be able to:
• Defend and counter spontaneous assaults using the tools you have immediately accessible to you.
• Assess what level of force is being used against you and immediately choose the correct level of force.
• Have well drilled, immediate action drills and techniques in place that require a minimum of time and effort to perform. Strong techniques geared for real world fighting and not Hollywood style fighting is what is needed.
• If, while attempting to arrest or control the situation, you find yourself starting to lose, you must recognize that fact and be able to immediately escalate the force used successfully.
• Have options available in the form of alternate defenses, strategies and weapons placed strategically.
I believe most officers get hurt or killed because they either don’t assess the situation correctly when put under pressure or they go in with the wrong mindset and find themselves taken by surprise without options to defend successfully once the initial defense fails.
Close quarter survival entails the integration of all force levels, from presence and verbal skills all the way to deadly force. There should be a true integration of skills and not different systems taught independently of each other. Typically courses are segmented into blocks of instruction. Arrest and Control Tactics, Baton, Pepper Spray, Taser and Firearms. Some add some folding knife work into the mix.
Integration of force means that you have to blend all these systems together to be able to flow from moment to moment in an encounter and make a correct choice and execute immediately or have a backup option instantly available if the one you are using isn’t working. You don’t want to get stuck repeating a failing strategy or only having one option available to you.
If you only box or kick then you will be vulnerable to takedowns, control holds and ground techniques. If you only practice your ground-fighting skills using competition rules then you will be vulnerable to other forms of attack or concealed weapons. If you only practice with firearms at a distance then you may not be ready for a sudden physical assault where your hands are neutralized and then you are out before you can even get to your firearm.
Learning how to integrate these systems requires that they be taught together once the individual, technical aspects are learned. Only then will you learn how to flow through the different levels of force and choose the correct means to defend or control under duress. Your life depends on your successful execution of these vital skills.
Notice of Ron Avery Copyright - No part of this article may be published or reproduced in any training manual, course material or other medium without the expressed, written permission of the author. Violators will be prosecuted as per copyright statutes will full penalties.
