THE FIGHTING FIREBIRD The authorized newsletter of Action Fighting Arts
- By - Harry Wigder, President, Action Fighting Arts

THE SILVER BULLET

“They say there is no silver bullet. I say we can train and train some more---”
Harry Wigder, Founder, Action Fighting Arts

THINKING LIKE THE BAD GUY. A TRAINING CONCEPT THAT CAN TURN PREDATOR INTO PREY.

The First of a Two Part Series. Taking a Hard, Painful Look At Officers Killed By “Friendly Guns.”

By Harry “The Hammer” Wigder, PPCT IT,
Director, AFA

“There is no such word as “routine” in any law enforcement interaction---“
Harry Wigder, PPCT IT

THIS March I was finishing up a (PPCT) DT Instructor Seminar in Eighty Four (Yep. You read that right), Pa. – as a matter of fact, I was teaching the Weapon Retention block – when a prisoner – a man with a history of violence – overwhelmed a lone, Atlanta, Georgia courthouse female deputy, took her firearm, and eventually assassinated a judge, a court stenographer, another deputy, and, of course, escaped. Not too long after that (July, 2005), a man with a history of violence was being fingerprinted in the Fayette, Alabama police headquarters after he had been arrested on a stolen car charge, when he disarmed a nearby officer and calmly blew away two police officers and a dispatcher. Not too long after that, I concluded another DT Seminar, this one at Harry McCann’s Bucks County Law Enforcement Training Center, and, within hours, an officer with a small Bucks County Department was disarmed in a local hospital by a seemingly cooperative motorist being given a “routine” blood test ( to assess blood alcohol level). Tragically, the officer, his partner and a hospital ER worker were shot. The disarmed officer lay dying on the hospital floor as the motorist calmly shot him twice more at point blank range.

NOT surprisingly, the motorist turned out to be a man with a history of violence. Matter of fact, I had him On Paper when I was a State Parole Agent working the Bucks County area. He was the kind of guy who had a nice smile, and, if you didn’t know him like I knew him, you might have considered him cooperative, too. But, one thing guys like him taught me was that a smile is the greatest mask for hostility and violence. And I took experiences and insights like that with me when I transitioned from the streets to the training room. Which is the theme for this article. We can train officers to survive a disarming encounter by thinking like the bad guy.

IT is crucial that we train officers to always be aware of their weapons. To anticipate a disarming attempt and to retain the gun no matter what. I always start off any retention program with a list of how and why officers get disarmed ( a list you will find later on in this article), followed, of course, with the survival techniques to retain both a holstered gun and a drawn weapon. No doubt, these are crucial. Officers need at least 200 repetitions @ year to at least superficially ingrain these skills into the muscle and psychic memories---

BUT, it is my ardent belief that officers need something more. I see so many cases of this Deadly Equation: Officers who take their guns for granted versus Bad Guys who thing of nothing else but getting the officers’ guns. We in law enforcement love our guns. Don’t get me wrong. It is just that Bad Guys are obsessed by them. It is not love of guns that drives them. It is what a gun symbolizes and what it can do to carry out a mission most of them don’t even know they are on until the moment the sight of an unprotected, loaded gun carried by the authority figure they despise becomes the center of their universe.

You will never interview a Bad Guy who will articulate what I am about to tell you, but the Officer’s Gun to a True 2-Percenter Bad Guy (A true two percenter is a Bad Guy who can and will attack and kill an officer or a citizen without hesitation, and, of course, without afterthought) is synonymous to a military kill mission of a Navy S.E.A.L. A SEAL on a “Special Operations Target Mission” is a pretty determined and dangerous guy. And there is an acronym SEALS use to evaluate the target they are determined to destroy. It is the same acronym I like to encourage officers to be aware of at all times. That acronym is CARVER

I suggest that instructors encourage officers at all times to be aware of this mentality. Create A Need For the (Survival) Skill of weapon retention thru CARVER.

CRITICALITY. How vital is the officer’s gun to my overall mission, which is
To kill and escape?

ACCESSIBILITY. How easily can I get to this target (the gun). (This Bad Guy thought should be a key to the officer/student. If the officer can make the weapon inaccessible, the disarming thought ends right here).

RECOGNIZABILITY. How easy is it for me to recognize the things I need to
Do to get to the gun and take it?

VULNERABILITY. What is the degree of force needed to take this firearm
And destroy this officer? (Once again, this is a key mind set of the two-
Percenter that the officer/student needs to confront. If the officer and
His/her weapon is not perceived to be vulnerable, the disarming attempt
Stops before it even begins.

EFFECT ON THE OVERALL MISSION. To what extent will the taking of this
Weapon affect my enemy? (In the case of an officer, the disarming, if
Successful, will have a totally destructive affect in view of the fact that
Research shows that 98% of those who disarm an officer either seriously
Injure, kill, or say they wanted to kill the officer but luck or a lack of skill
Intervened on behalf of the officer).

RECUPERABILITY: Can my enemy recover from this (the successful taking
Of the officer’s gun)?

Fact is, whether you believe in CARVER or not is not terribly important. The important thing is, once an officer begins to slide into the Mind Set of the Bad Guy, he or she can get a feel for the mission the two-percenter is on and what he or she (the officer) risks every time complacency sets in and the officer commits an act that places his gun in a position of vulnerability in the presence of a Bad Guy.

But before I go into the litany of factors for officer disarmings, I have to say one more thing. And this may be more important than a barrel full of Carvers. Exactly who is the Bad Guy who is on a mission to take our guns? Who is the Bad Guy I am urging officers to think like? That’s the trick right there. The Bad Guy could be damned near anybody. Most officers don’t have the advantage a parole agent who has file cabinets full of case folders detailing the evils and tendencies of each predator has. The fact is – and I have bored officers with this for decades – in order to influence us to close distance, or, to allow them to close the distance on us, and, more importantly, in order to influence us to be distracted by something he is doing, or saying, or smiling at, the Bad Guy MUST mimic a Good Guy.

Think about it. Would you allow a suspect or a subject to walk to the edge of your Reactionary Gap, or worse, to step inside it, if that person was eyeballing your gun, or screaming profanities at you? Hopefully not. Teach your officers to cue into the fact that almost all the disarmings and shootings I have described started with a smile or some sort of distraction. I would also bet if I researched disarmings like I had in the past, I would find what I found before: That the officers considered the interaction routine and the subject cooperative andeven friendly a heart beat before the violent disarming suddenly exploded and destroyed that officer.

REASONS OFFICERS ARE DISARMED

• Failure To Index The Gun. A large percentage of surviving officers reported that they didn’t realize the subject even was attacking the gun until it was too late.
• Failure To Mentally Prepare For A Disarming: No mental preparation.
• No WR Training and/or Inadequate Training.
• Immediately Incapacitated as He/She Entered A Building, Room or Situation. Ambushed.
• Letting the gun lead the officer through a doorway Instead of the Officer Protecting the Gun Entering An Establishment.
• Poor Equipment. Ill fitting holster, frayed and weak construct held on by a thin, weak belt.
• POOR TACTICAL POSITIONING: Officer allows a family member or unknown person in his “6” while he/she is distracted by another subject, or allows Bad Guy too close.
• Officer Displays Weapon. Plain clothed officer throws back his jacket to show the suspect the gun to imply that “this is what you will get if you don’t cooperate.” Unwittingly, they inspire and challenge the Bad Guy to go on a CARVER Mission, and, of course, tell the BG where exactly they can find the gun.
• Bad Guys Practice and Practice and Think of New Ways To take Our Guns, In Jail and On the Streets: I know this to be true. Bad guys are perfecting the HANDSHAKE DISARM and other gun takeaways. I demonstrate the Handshake Takeaway at many of my trainings. The officer reaches to grab the BG’s wrist (to handcuff) and the BG shoots out his hand, as if trying to handshake the gun, unsnaps the holster with the little finger and reverse draws the gun, firing it at the officer, the gun upside down but still effective, deadly. The Folsom Roll is another ingenious Disarm and Kill Mission. Bad Guys have come up with after observing how officers conduct a combat cuffing interaction. The Folsom Roll works like this:
  • THE FOLSOM ROLL: The suspect has been proned out, face-down, hands out to the sides, palms up. The Contact Officer moves in from Level I to cuff while the Cover Officer is covering the suspect from the other Level I. The Contact Officer handcuffs the dominant side hand, but makes a mistake by raising the cuffed hand above his/her knees. Suddenly the suspect rolls under the cuffs and leg whips the officer, who, knocked off
    balance and surprised, tumbles toward the suspect, who, with practiced speed, sweeps the gun out of the officer’s holster, and, in one motion, pulls the officer close to him so the covering officer will hesitate to shoot, not wanting to hit his/her fellow officer, and shoots the Contact Officer in the head, rolls and shoots the Cover Officer, too. Good PPCT training can prevent the Folsom from happening by keeping the cuffed hand below the officer’s knees, and, if the officer errs and raises the cuffed hand too high, the officer drops the hand below his knees as soon as the BG begins to roll. The point is, though, the Bad Guys are practicing disarming. Are we practicing retention? It is my contention that the guys who came up with the Folsom Roll and the Handshake Takeaway knew something about CARVER.
  • Officers who get disarmed often direct their attention at counterstrikes rather than centering on protecting the gun. Keeping the gun in the holster must be the focus of any weapon retention effort
    
    __There are, of course, other reasons why officers are disarmed. Unfortunately, this is a newsletter and not a novel. I hope I made my point: Bad Guys take Disarming You Seriously! WE must think seriously – and I mean seriously - as in My Life Depends On It Seriously - about weapon retention. This means more than just training this survival skill mechanically; it means running Dynamic Simulation scenarios and putting officers in the mind set of the Bad Guys, the so-called two percenters or predators who are on a deadly CARVER Mission.

PA. STATE TROOPER SLAIN DURING VEHICLE STOP.

DISARMING SUSPECTED.

December 13, 2005

I had just put this edition of The Silver Bullet to rest and was about to send it out to the mailing list when it happened again. During the early morning hours of December 13, A Pennsylvania State Trooper was slain during a “routine” vehicle stop on a highway just outside of Pittsburgh. More information is being revealed as the days pass, but the facts that relate to the above story is that there were several passengers in the car, a violent struggle ensued and, tragically, the trooper – who friends and associates tell me was a wonderful family man, active in his community, and generous almost to a fault - was assassinated with his own gun. He was shot several times, evidently the last time in the back of the head at close range. I reiterate, these grisly and almost unspeakable murders of our officers must be stopped. The Predator Prey Principle must be reversed. Dynamic Simulation training and an understanding of the predatory mindset – by itself – isn’t going to staunch the killings. But, damn it, it’s a start.

ACTION FIGHTING ARTS TRAINING PROGRAMS ROLLS INTO 2006
By Harry Wigder, PPCT IT, Director, Action Fighting Arts

Since its inception in May of 2004, Action Fighting Arts has successfully completed almost thirty PPCT Instructor Seminars as well as several courses at the Northampton County Community College, including Self Defense For Women, Advanced Fighting Arts For Women and a new concept, known as S.T.I.C.K., an acronym for a course that is desperately needed in the community – Survival Techniques and Intervention Concepts for Kids/Parents. More central to the theme of Action Fighting Arts, though, are the 20 or so instructor certification trainings I have been privileged to have conducted for excellent and committed law enforcement officers, since the last newsletter, such as:

• PPCT GAGE Instructor Seminar, Allegheny County Police Academy, Pittsburgh, Pa. (June, 2005): Sixteen officers graduated from this ground fighting training, including Perry Harris from North Carolina; Gary Osterrieder and Chris Zevola, Perry Twp. Pd.; Ryan Wooten, Guy Collins and Keith Miles from the Pittsburgh Housing Authority PD; Adam Fencil and Fast Jimmy Grippo of the Butler County Probation Dept.; Greg Willig, Christine Lisko and David Mink, Allegheny County Probation and Parole; Michael Miller, North Strabane Twp. PD; Duane Brucker, Cranberry Twp PD; John Henson and Jasonn Orlansky, Allegheny Co. Probation and Parole and Berwick Twp. Police Officer Kenneth Strish received GAGE Instructor certificates. Zevola and Harris registered perfect scores on both the Practical and Written Tests. This seminar was hosted by PPCT Staff Instructor Jack Leonard, a high honor for me considering that Leonard is a highly reputed PPCT Systems luminary who took me under his wing years ago and taught me much of what I know today.
• PPCT DT INSTRUCTOR SEMINAR, DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS TRAINING ACADEMY, SEA GIRT, NEW JERSEY (8/15 TO 19/05). An exciting experience for me, working as a co-instructor with Daniel Solla and teaching this comprehensive subject control course to 34 instructor candidates, all of whom graduated.
• PPCT DT INSTRUCTOR SEMINAR, Bucks County Law Enforcement Training Center, Doylestown (9/19 to 9/23/05): Another class of inspiring law enforcement officers made this a motivating teaching experience for me. Prior to this class, I was considering retiring from instructing at the end of the calendar year. Michael Gifford, a Wilmington, Delaware officer, lifted me off the ground with one of the best Angle Kicks I have experienced when I held the kick pad during his Practical Exam. Warrington Twp. Officer Quentin Fuller, Big Q to me, drew spirited applause with his impressive and unscripted body slams and long vertical tosses of the compact and wiry John Schlotter, Host Officer from Warminster Twp PD. Dan Clements, a Washington County Juvenile Probation Supervisor, represented the world of probation and parole well by being the only officer to earn a free PPCT Instructor Shirt with a perfect score, and Warminster Twp. Officer Andrew Verderame came back from what appeared to be a mental stun during the warm-ups for the Practical Tests with a great comeback performances when it really counted to easily earn his DT certificate.
  
  Other graduates included Michael McDonald, Springfield Twp PD, who missed a perfect score by one point; Easton Police officers Thomas Beiser and Robert Weber; Big John McKenna, Jr., a Warminster Twp officer who was technically perfect during both this and the following GAGE seminars, and David A. Prado, an accomplished martial artist from the Wilmington, Delaware Police Dept.
• PPCT GAGE INSTRUCTOR SEMINAR, BCLETC, DOYLESTOWN, PA (9/26 to 9/28/05). Quentin Fuller and Michael McDonald transitioned well from the previous week’s DT course with perfect scores and the following officers received their instructor certifications: Bernie Mikulski, Northampton County Adult Probation; Joseph F. Leary, Jr. and Michael Gifford, Wilmington (Delaware) PD; John Schlotter, Andrew Verderame and John McKenna of the Warminster Twp. PD. Josh Kilgore of the Warwick Twp PD. An accomplished grappler, assisted me in this training and added several innovative drills and exercises while Mikulski displayed astonishing skills and expertise in ground fighting.
• PPCT SKD INSTRUCTOR SEMINAR, Lititz Library, Lititz, Pa. (11/15 to 11/17/05): Josh Kilgore; Jason Zahm and Michael Gerace, Lancaster PD; Phillip Groff, Manheim Boro PD; J. Mark Rettew and Fran Presley of the Lancaster County Adult Probation and Parole Dept. graduated. Mark Rettew earned his second consecutive PPCT perfect score (Previous 100%, GAGE).
• PPCT SHARP INSTRUCTOR SEMINAR, EPHRATA Recreation Center (12/12 to 12/14/05). LANCASTER ROCKS! All four Lancaster Probation and Parole Officers registered perfect scores on the Written and Practical Exams, a feat I have not witnessed or heard of in my 20 years as an instructor. JENNIFER WALKER, J.MARK RETTEW, FRAN “THE MAN” PRESLEY AND martial Artist RODNEY BROWN scored perfect scores. Mark Rettew has pulled within two perfect scores of my record of 5 consecutive 100% test results. Not that the others in the class suffered by comparison: Host Officer, Sgt. Chris McKim of the Ephrata Boro PD, and fellow Ephrata Officers Tim “Bag Cutter (Ebersole sliced up one of my kick pads during a PPCT Impact Weapon class in September of 2004)” Ebersole, Michelle Krizan and Paula Bright excelled as did Raymond Lucas of the Federal Air Marshal Service and Michael McDonald, Springfield Twp. PD and Jennifer Larsen, a Martial/Fighting Arts Instructor from Lighthouse International of Stanford, Connecticut. Truth be known, McKim, who now owns certificates in GAGE, DT and SHARP, Larsen and Krizan taught me the Inverted Finger Lock and the Hip Check better than I taught the skill and, without exaggeration, Bright nailed McKim with an Angle Kick that staggered the 6’4” officer, and, during another drill almost knocked me over with a brutal angle kick delivered from Level 2 12. This was one outstanding class of officers, or, better put, was a seminar filled with officers with outstanding class.
  

DEFUSING AND CARING. AN OFFICER’S WORDS MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Lancaster Police Officer’s Words Defuse A Young Girl After Parents Murdered

This is probably why I will keep on training until they drag me off the training mats and put me away somewhere. I get to teach great officers survival skills. Me. Training warriors like the officers of the Warwick Twp. PD and the Lancaster County Special Response Team. Me. Training formidable men who respond without hesitation to calls against violence and mayhem, like the double slayings of a mother and father during the early hours of November 13.

Although there were many brave and resourceful officers who responded to the double killing by the 18 year old boyfriend of a 14 year old. I am focusing on Mike Gerace, a police officer with the look of an athlete, a warrior. It wasn’t Gerace’s muscle or gun that made the difference this day, though. It was his words, his calm and poise under pressure.

“I responded to a S.E.R.T. Activation for a double homicide. But when we arrived, we had no idea if anyone was hurt, dead, alive, a hostage, whatever. I was immediately assigned to evacuate a juvenile (aged 14) girl. This was the daughter of two murdered parents. Parents she had witnessed being killed,” Gerace told me.

“She saw it happen, and, after hiding in a closet in her house for a while, she fled on foot in her pajamas to a neighbor’s home. When I arrived at that neighbor’s home, I was all geared out. Balcalva, M-4, the whole nine-yards. I was met by the homeowner, a father of two teenaged daughters as well.” Gerace paused for a second. “I don’t want to use her name. Poor kid has been put through enough media already. But, when I found her, she had obviously been crying. Swollen eyes and all.

“Before I left the Command Post, I had asked about her age, name, other vital facts. I now pulled my balcalava down, took off my gloves, extended my hand and told her my name was Mike. I asked if she was ok and she shook her head and said yea. I told her that she probably didn’t know it, but she was the most important little girl here. Maybe anywhere. I told her she knew a lot of information that me and my friends really needed.

“She asked me how her sister was. I didn’t know. She asked about her little brother. I didn’t know. She then asked me about her parents and again I told her I didn’t know – even though we were pretty sure they were gone – and I suggested that we go and talk to my friends so they could learn what she knew.

‘We have to go outside?’ she whimpered and she began to shake and cry. I told her we needed to, but, I told her, she was the safest little girl around because it was my only
job to get her to my friends safely and to keep her safe. ‘You can hold onto my belt and I will stay in front of you and I will protect you,’ I told her---

“ We ran from the front door to a home about 100 feet away---Along the way, I tried to prepare her for what she was about to see. Experience. ‘There will be a lot of friends waiting to talk to you. Some of them will be dressed like me, others in regular uniforms
and others dressed in jeans, you know—‘ I said that a lot of people would be excited to talk with her and that it might be a little scary. I knew we would be walking into controlled chaos and that is exactly what we walked in to, her and I---"

****** ***** *****

There is more to Michael Gerace’s dialogue with this young girl. Much of what he helped others learn from the girl very well could be used to convict the 18 year old double murderer. Maybe figure out how to prevent such tragedies from happening. All I know that I have been saying for eons that a true warrior often proves his strength by his calm in the face of chaos, in his profound understanding of what a child who has witnessed what horrors this girl had seen, and his words and ability to listen, more so than with a gun or a fist.

UPCOMING TRAININGS

• JANUARY 23 TO 27, 2006, PPCT DT INSTRUCTOR SEMINAR, EASTON, PA. 18042.
• FEBRUARY 7 TO 9, 2006, PPCT VIOLENT PATIENT MANAGEMENT INSTRUCTOR SEMINAR, BUCKS COUNTY LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING CENTER, DOYLESTOWN, PA.
• MARCH 20 TO MARCH 24, 2006, PPCT DEFENSIVE TACTICS INSTRUCTOR SEMINAR, HARRISBURG AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE, HARRISBURG, PA.
• APRIL 18 TO 20, 2006, PPCT GROUND AVOIDANCE AND GROUND ESCAPES (GAGE), EASTON, PA.
• SEXUAL HARASSMENT ASSAULT AND RAPE PREVENTION (SHARP) PPCT INSTRUCTOR CERTIFICATION TRAINING, PITTSBURGH AREA. SPECIFIC DATES AND LOCATION YET TO BE DECIDED.
• FEBRUARY 25 TO MARCH 11, 2006, SURVIVAL TECHNIQUES AND INTERVENTION CONCEPTS FOR KIDS (STICK) AND PARENTS, NORTHAMPTON AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE, BETHLEHEM, PA.
• MARCH 7 TO MARCH 28, 2006, THREAT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES FOR WOMEN, NORTHAMPTON COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE, BETHLEHEM, PA.
• VIOLENT PATIENT MANAGEMENT, EASTON HOSPITAL, EASTON, PA. NO DATES SELECTED YET. SITE WILL BE THE EASTON GENERAL HOSPITAL.
• APRIL 4 THRU MAY 2, 2006, ADVANCED FIGHTING ARTS FOR WOMEN, NORTHAMPTON COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE, BETHLEHEM, PA.

Look for the January/February issue of the Bullet. Another outstanding article by contributing expert Bill Haslego, plus features on the life-saving potential of R.A.M. during vehicle stops, plus, a feature article on Off-Duty Survival. As always, readers are invited to submit relevant articles and training tips to The Bullet thru E-Mail at harrywigder@rcn.com. Help us all Beat Bad Guy Tricks in 2006!

DO YOU HAVE A STORY, AN IDEA, A CONCEPT THAT CAN HELP OTHERS GO HOME EVERY DAY?

Action Fighting Arts and the Fighting Firebird invited you to contribute a story, article, feature or advertise your training in its monthly newsletter. The Firebird personally knows a lot of you out there who have innovative ideas and/or field experience when PPCT and/or other training programs have either worked or failed. Our readers (and I) can learn a great deal from those experiences. Plus, writing about your experiences and ideas can be fun and fulfilling, just as can seeing your thoughts in print can be.

Send those articles and features to harrywigder@rcn.com, or, Shana Lee Albert, my web master, at www.ActionFightingArts.com.

Thanks to Rachel Goldstein, the founder of Artists Helping Children, for her help on art work and other features.

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AFA Newsletter Archive

• INAUGURAL EDITION - November, 2004
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• April, 2005 Edition
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