By Jacqueline Koch
Chattanooga Times Free Press
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Jim Brock knows what it’s like to point a gun at someone and pull the trigger. Mitchell Moore knows what it’s like to be saved by an officer’s bullet.
The two lethal incidents happened 17 years apart, but both police officers say sometimes use of deadly force is necessary.
“You never want to forget that ever,” said Fort Oglethorpe police Officer Moore, who was shot twice in the back by John Curtis Coates on June 24. “You want to remember that.”
His computer’s background provides a daily reminder -- an image of Mr. Coates pointing a handgun at him a millisecond before he pulled the trigger twice. Mr. Coates then was fatally shot by Walker County Deputy Terry Miller. The case has been closed, the death ruled justifiable.
In the aftermath of several officer-involved shootings this year, it’s easy to forget about officers who end up as victims, Officer Moore said. People often focus on suspects, chalking up officer injuries as part of the job, he said.
“They’re thinking about Mr. Coates in relationship to (Deputy Miller),” said Officer Moore, who returned to work four days after the shooting. “What they’re not thinking about is the relationship of Mr. Coates to me. We rarely get put in the role of victim.”
In Chattanooga police Officer Brock’s case, the incident lasted just 11 seconds.
He swears he had more time to storm a gas station with another officer, attempt to wrestle a pistol away from a murder suspect, watch the suspect point the gun at his partner, jam a submachine gun into the suspect’s ribs, angle the suspect away from his partner, fire five rounds, slam the suspect against a counter, watch the suspect come at him and fire several more rounds with other officers.
“It just seems like forever. It just kind of slows down,” he said of the 1992 hostage incident at a BP gas station on Lee Highway. “I guess that’s your body reacting to stress, slowing down a dangerous situation like that.”
Incidents ‘unique’
How officers deal with the aftermath of a critical incident, including public criticism, is unique to each of them depending on their characteristics and the circumstances surrounding an event, said Dr. Laurence Miller, a clinical, forensic and police psychologist in South Florida.
“In general, the more mature and healthy coping mechanisms an officer has and the more justified the shooting is from point of the investigating individuals, the less severe the reaction is likely to be,” Dr. Miller said.
So, too, the after-incident counseling differs depending on the individual. In 90 percent of cases, officers lose psychological symptoms from the event in two weeks at most, Dr. Miller said. Some, however, suffer post-traumatic stress disorder.
It is possible to err on the side of being too cautious or too eager, he said.
Dr. Miller advises departments to assess officers individually before determining them fit for duty.
After Chattanooga police Sgt. Todd Royval’s first officer-involved shooting, the department didn’t have a paid-leave policy. That was instituted in 1998, according to Chattanooga Times Free Press archives.
So after Sgt. Royval and other officers were involved in a car chase and gunfire exchange with a suspect, “we handled everything and came to work the next day,” he said.
Things have changed since then. Officers now are debriefed and give statements to investigating agencies. They also undergo psychological treatment and are placed on at least seven days paid administrative leave or until the officer has been cleared to return to duty by the department’s psychological services adviser, according to the department’s policy manual.
And paid leave is not a prize, said Officer Brock, who’s been in three officer-involved shootings, two of them fatal. Officers need time off to regroup before returning to their jobs. That’s for their safety, as well as the public’s, he said.
“It’s not a reward. It’s a precaution,” Officer Brock said. “Because we’d hate for them to still be wound up and have something happen to them or them cause something to happen.”
Shooting details
On June 24, Fort Oglethorpe police Officer Mitchell Moore responded as back-up to Walker County Deputy Terry Miller, who was serving a warrant to John Curtis Coates, a man officers knew to be troublesome.
The officer didn’t get the suspect’s name from dispatchers -- something he later said would have changed how he handled the situation.
When Officer Moore arrived at the Chik-fil-A restaurant, he saw that Deputy Miller had no success persuading Mr. Coates to get out of his pickup. Mr. Coates reached into his glove compartment and pulled out a .40-caliber handgun, a review of the incident shows.
Officer Moore fired his Taser, its probes striking Mr. Coates near his left elbow and left shoulder. But the Taser shock didn’t limit use of his right arm. He pointed his handgun at Officer Moore, who deployed his Taser a second time as Mr. Coates fired. One shot grazed Officer Moore’s bulletproof vest and ricocheted. Another lodged itself inside the vest over the middle of his lower back, according to the investigation.
Deputy Miller then fired twice at Mr. Coates, hitting him once in the back left shoulder and once below the left ear, records show.
An investigation showed that Mr. Coates had methadone in his system, which likely numbed the pain from the Taser shot. He also was wearing his shooting glasses and ear plugs -- an indication he was up to no good, investigators said.
Mr. Coates’ ex-wife was working a few blocks from the Chik-fil-A, and authorities had provided security there a year earlier during the initial stages of the couple’s divorce. Mr. Coates previously had made statements about killing law officers.
Officer Moore said if he had known the suspect’s name, he likely would have drawn his gun before his Taser.
“You don’t bring a Taser to a gunfight,” he said.
Copyright 2009 Chattanooga Times Free Press