This video from West Virginia is a reminder that armed robberies don’t only occur at gas stations and liquor stores. Everything turned out fine for the bystanders and for the armed defender in this case, though not for the robber. Here are a few of the lessons that we can take away from this one to increase our preparedness and safety if we find ourselves in a similar situation.
- Situational Awareness
It seems like business as usual until 10:30:34 (by the camera’s time, only about 25 seconds into the video) when the robber comes in with has face covered and his hands in his pockets. I don’t care if it is February, that is a pre-attack que and should have raised the level of preparedness for everyone in the pharmacy.
- Conceal the Draw
The pharmacist that is the armed defender here does a great job of concealing the draw and succeeds in getting the first shot on target despite drawing on a drawn gun which is a highly dangerous thing to do.
- Know your Weapon Condition
It appears that the robber attempts to return fire on the pharmacist but cannot because his gun either malfunctions, or because he did not chamber a round prior to pulling his gun, which the pharmacist clearly did. This is why I personally suggest always carrying with a round in chamber, but if you refuse to do so, then know your weapon is not ready to fire and chamber a round before attempting to engage.
- Training pays off
We can see that the robber and the pharmacist both exchange shots, but the pharmacist is not hit despite the close proximity. One reason for this is that the pharmacist who was fighting from a deficit in that he was ambushed, had both hands on his firearm and was better able to control it.
- Get out of the Danger Zone
It is difficult to see because of the light difference between the inside and outside, but if you look at the top left corner of the screen you will see a bystander that remains directly in front of the window during a gun fight, and remains there afterwards. If you are not actively defending, get out of there like your life depends on it, because it does. A stray round could have easily killed this man because he didn’t want to move 20 feet away and take cover, but was curious.
In the end, no one seems to have gotten hurt except the robber, let’s learn from this so that if we are in a similar situation we have the same outcome
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