Video: Black Panther leader undergoes shoot/don’t shoot training

By Police1 Staff

MISSOURI CITY, Texas — An anti-police protest leader was invited to undergo use of force training at a Texas police department.

The head of Houston’s New Black Panther Party, Quanell X, participated in shoot/don’t shoot training scenarios to experience what it is like to be in the shoes of a police officer, KHOU reported.

The vocal critic of use of force incidents left the simulations with a deeper understanding of how quickly a situation can turn deadly.

In one training scenario, a man carrying an infant lunged at Quanell with a knife. When a KHOU reporter asked Quanell when he saw the knife, he answered, "To be honest with you, I never saw the knife. I never saw the knife, but I saw him come out of his pocket with something like this. If he would have pulled a lollipop out of his pocket, the same way he just did, I still would have used force to stop him and then somebody could have said well all he had was a lollipop, but you don't know when it's happening so fast like that."

Quanell reportedly plans to call on people to comply with orders when interacting with officers, but will remain a critic of certain police use of force incidents.