Likely Radicalized

Friday, October 7th, 2016

Jason Falconer — who works part time for the Avon, Minn., police department and owns a business called Tactical Advantage — won’t face charges for shooting the “radicalized” Somali knife-attacker at a Minnesota mall:

It appears that Adan, who worked as a security guard at another business and who was wearing his uniform, appeared to have been radicalized and that the attack was premeditated, said Richard T. Thornton, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Minneapolis Division.

[...]

During a news conference on Thursday, officials showed multiple videos of the attack. The videos showed Mr. Falconer’s pursuit of the suspect and Adan’s efforts to continue the attack after he had been shot multiple times.

The city received 95 calls to 911 in the incident, which injured 10 people, including a pregnant woman stabbed in the parking lot, officials said.

During the incident, Adan asked several of the victims, including Mr. Falconer, whether they were Muslim, officials said.

Ten bullets were shot in all, and six were found in Adan’s body.

Ms. Kendall described several of the stabbings, including a father and son stabbed outside an electronics store. Adan tried to enter a Target and a candy store, both of which had already closed their doors because of the commotion.

She said Mr. Falconer had finished shopping at Bath & Body Works when he heard the commotion and screams in the hallway. As he left the store, he came across Adan, who asked Mr. Falconer if he was Muslim.

Mr. Falconer said no, and Adan turned away from him, the prosecutor said. Mr. Falconer then noticed that Adan had two steak knives in his hands. Mr. Falconer drew his weapon, identified himself as a police officer and ordered Adan to stop.

Instead, Adan ran away toward Macy’s, and Mr. Falconer chased after him, Ms. Kendall said.

Inside Macy’s, Adan ducked behind a clothing rack and then charged at the officer, who fired several shots.

Adan went down, got up and continued to try to attack the officer, first running straight ahead, but eventually turning his back to the bullets, but continuing toward the officer, the prosecutor said.

Witnesses were confused by the sight of Mr. Falconer in plain clothes shooting at the suspect in a security-guard uniform, so Mr. Falconer pulled out his badge, Ms. Kendall said.

When Adan was nearly incapacitated, he attempted to try to get up again, eventually crawling toward the officer and trying to stand up on a display rack.

When Adan finally stopped moving, Mr. Falconer stood and waited for police, who arrived within four minutes, the prosecutor said.

Mr. Thornton, the FBI special agent, said that Adan returned home from work at around 3 p.m. that day but didn’t take off his uniform or take a nap, as he usually did. He told his family he had work to do, even though he wasn’t expected back at work until 10 p.m., Mr. Thornton said. The attack took place around 8 p.m.

Adan stopped by a convenience store shortly before 7 p.m. that evening. When a worker said, “See you later,” Adan replied: ”You won’t be seeing me again.”

Any competitive shooters out there must be wondering how he hit just six out of ten times. Also, what was he shooting? And did he have more rounds?

Comments

  1. Allen says:

    I think a target that had the capability to stab you would impair your hit rate.

  2. Bomag says:

    I’m sure this will be a case study for those in the business.

    Six out of ten times under duress against a dodging target with any distance is pretty darn good in my book. Compare to the incidences in our “vibrant” areas where there are multiple shots and few hits. Most of the police shootings we hear so much about are at point blank range.

  3. Talnik says:

    I concur with the previous commenters. Competitive shooters do not shoot under duress, heart racing and adrenaline pumping, at moving armed targets with brains (or at least one hopes they don’t). Six out of ten is excellent.

  4. Lucklucky says:

    Another sign that high capacity is important.

  5. Isegoria says:

    If you want to see what practical shooters do, this video from the IDPA Nationals a few years ago shows two competent hobbyist shooters (Expert class, not yet Masters) going through a variety of stages.

  6. Isegoria says:

    Yeah, I strongly suspect he shot 10 rounds because he had 10 in the gun.

  7. Borepatch says:

    I wonder if he would have needed 6 hits with .45 hollow points. But I suspect that the shooter used his service weapon which is almost certainly a 9mm. There’s also a chance that the bullets were JHP.

    Bottom line: bullet choice counts.

  8. Isegoria says:

    Considering how he only hit with six out of 10 shots, I doubt his shot placement was ideal — which surprises me, because he sounds like the kind of guy who should be able to draw and put six shots into the A-zone (6″x11″) in two seconds, on demand.

  9. Lucklucky says:

    It depends on position he was in relation to the target trajectory/speed.

  10. Lucklucky says:

    I don’t know how that video training can be representative of several real world situations.

    I didn’t saw any target moving, running, changing positions.

  11. Isegoria says:

    That competition video focuses on the shooters, not the targets, because it’s for their own consumption, as a training aid. The targets are generally static, but some are runners, swingers, drop-turners, etc. They don’t move unpredictably, but they do move. And the whole competition is shot for time, too, not just accuracy.

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