On Sunday, February 11/24 at approximately 1700 hrs, Las Cruces Police Department Officer Jonah Hernandez was brutally murdered in the line of duty. He was working alone and had responded to a trespass call at a place of business in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Once Hernandez arrived on scene, he observed and approached a lone male subject on foot. The male subject then suddenly attacked Officer Hernandez with a kitchen butcher knife and was stabbed multiple times. He was survived by his loving wife and two sons. The oldest boy is ten years old and the youngest is two.
A male civilian witnessed the attack and after retrieving the pistol he had secured in his vehicle, he approached the suspect and ultimately neutralized the threat he had encountered. The civilian then used Officer Hernandez's police radio to call for emergency medical response.
Our deepest sympathies go out to the Hernandez family, his wife, and most certainly his two sons who will never again hear his voice, feel his reassuring touch, or navigate life with ...
Who we are, why we are here, and what you can expect from us. Welcome to the community.
WARNING: This video contains graphic violence.
"On Friday The Las Cruces Police Department released body worn camera footage of Officer Jonah Hernandez being attacked which led to his death
Hernandez was responding to a trespassing call at 355 South Valley Drive at the intersection with Amador Avenue, and was stabbed to death by 29-year-old Armando Silva.
It is about this moment that Silva notices another individual approaching him. On Thursday, LCPD identified 29-year-old Isaiah Astorga as the man who intervened in the attack killing Silva."
Debrief Commentary:
There is always something to learn when we debrief an incident. While we want to be cautious not to criticize, we do want to evaluate the actions of others so we can learn from their experiences.
When we are called to deal with someone, we really never know what that person is going through, what they are dealing with, how they are doing at that moment, whether they are armed, what their intentions are and so on. Even if we know ...
TSG Protection just completed an Executive Protection assignment protecting Riley Gaines, the keynote speaker at a recent event in Florida. Riley came to prominence when she raced Lia Thomas, a biological male that identifies as a woman in an NCAA national level swim meet. She was credited with the NCAA making a ruling prohibiting biological males from competing in women sporting events in the NCAA.
Riley has become a target of liberal extremists and her being booked for this event, resulted in threats being received.
This podcast is about how we prepared for the assignment and what we look for in an executive protection agent for high risk or high profile clients.
The two weeks leading up to Holy Week and the Easter Weekend there was a constant flow of security concerns. Russia experienced a mass shooting and Isis claimed responsibility. France, Sri Lanka, and many other countries talked about beefing up their security for Good Friday and Easter Sunday due to the volume of "red flag" activity being ten times higher than it was prior to the 911 attack on the World Trade Center.
The information and warnings were wide spread globally as well as across the USA so many working security teams as well as law enforcement agencies stepped up their defenses.
Outside of some fireworks being thrown into church in Las Vegas, Easter weekend played out like almost any other weekend. No major attacks, no jihad, just the remembrance of Jesus Christ being crucified on the cross then celebration of his being resurrected on Sunday.
So did we over-react?
And how will we approach the next rumors of threats?
I share my thoughts in this episode of the ProtecTraining ...
I wear a Security uniform and exposed weapon when I protect our church and school, and because of that I have some iteration of this conversation at least once a day.
Protected Person: Why are you here and what do you wear all that for?
Me: Hello. I help protect the school and church.
Protected Person: Did something happen that you have to wear all those gadgets?
Me: No Sir/Maam, I am here to prevent something from happening. I am here to protect you and your family, the kids that go to school here and the teachers, and anyone else that may need it.
And from there, the conversation can go in any number of directions but I always do my best to turn it into a positive and friendly experience while giving them some measure of peace.
Our world has changed and having armed agents serving is a necessary component to any house of worship or school in our country, and around the world.
In this episode of the ProtecTraining Podcast I discuss the issue and offer some suggestions on how to ...
I had the honor to be the primary agent protecting a great American man tonight at a fundraiser in Vero Beach, Florida.
This was my loadout. Not a lot of extras, just the important stuff if things hit the fan. This was the kind of event the most wealthy and successful citizens attend and local law enforcement had site security, I was only responsible for the keynote speaker.
If something were to go wrong and I needed to respond, it would most likely have been a very serious threat.
So, I carried a backup firearm, and a knife and given the circumstances I chose to run without body armor, however, I should have worn it even though there were no active threats on the principle. My job is to be a human shield if neccesary and I can’t absorb many rounds and still be an effective protector without body armor. It was hot, and I had significant distances to move if attacked so I opted to be more agile and not overheated. I chose to take a risk but it was an unnecessary one and a bad decision on my...
It's been a long time coming and many wondered if those responsible for slow rolling the law enforcement response to the Uvalde, TX school mass shooting two years ago would be brought to justice. It took a while, but ex-Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo and officer Adrian Gonzales were charged with Child Endangerment last week. News story below.
Monday morning quarterbacking done by armchair warriors who have never been there and have never done the work provides nothing of value beyond inflating the speaker with a false sense of value and importance.
Careful evaluation by those who have done the work and chose to make a study of it for the benefit of others, however, can add value if approached with the intent to learn rather than criticize.
With that in mind, we offer you Debrief, a new section in our ProtecTraining Locals channel this week where we evaluate events experienced by others to learn what works, what could be done differently, and why. The sole purpose is to learn how we can be more effective and safer in our chosen profession.
Look for the first video and debrief coming this week.
It was over twenty years ago now when I first started boxing. Initially it was about learning fundamentals, which is a good place to start. I was taught stance and positioning and then we moved to throwing punches. I learned how to throw the jab was first, then the right cross, or what was called one’s and two’s. For two weeks I would show up at the gym and for the next two hours he had me throw one’s and two’s over and over again. I hated every second of it because it was boring and monotonous but I kept showing up each day and did the work.
After two weeks of throwing one’s and two’s for two hours a day my punches were crisp, accurate, smooth, quick, and seemingly effortless. I had literally thrown thousands of punches in that time frame, employing the techniques he had taught me, and I was starting to look like I might know something about boxing. Everything I learned since then was built off of the foundation, and discipline I established in that first two weeks. Twenty years later I still begin every boxing workout with drills focussed on fundamentals. I like to establish my fundamentals first to ensure I am doing everything correctly, then I progress to whatever I choose to train that day.
I approach my firearm training the same way. When I go to the range, I like to start off by establishing solid fundamentals before I move into more advanced training. When I check and then drill my fundamentals I can identify problems and make any corrections if needed. I walk through each element of drawing then firing my weapon checking to make sure my fundamentals are solid. The more repetitions I can do focussing on fundamentals, the more smooth and accurate I will be when shooting under stress or in less than optical conditions.
I also like to practice both tactical and combat reloads as well as malfunctions. I want to be confident that under stress I will be able to smoothly and quickly clear malfunctions, or reload if neccesary. I also spend time training one-handed shooting and shooting one and two handed with my support hand.
These are things very few shooters practice because they are not fun, but if you are in a gunfight there is a high probability that you may need to shoot single handed or with your support hand. You want to be accurate and confident and the only way to do that is to train over and over and over again until you are just as proficient and confident one handed or with your support hand as you are with your regular two-handed grip.
As an NRA Certified Law Enforcement Firearm Instructor I most commonly see men and women that only train their strengths and their primary goal is to shoot the best score they can with the tightest groups that they can on a static paper target. Training with a grip they never use means less accuracy and can be a blow to the ego. What I do my best to instill in my students is that as an armed professional our only focus should be learning how to win a gunfight in the event we are ever forced into one.
In boxing you can look like Mike Tyson when you are working the heavy bag but when the thing you are punching starts punching back, it’s very different. The same can be said for gunfighting. Paper targets don’t shoot back so while they can indicate problems with your fundamentals, a high score while shooting a qualification has little correlation to how you will perform in a gunfight.
Train your fundamentals tirelessly. Smooth is fast and strong fundamentals make you smoother and more accurate.
Train the things you are not good at far more than your strengths until you have no weaknesses. Your weaknesses may get you killed or the wrong person killed due to your inability to be accurate and effective. Don’t accept weakness, train it into a strength.
Create your training regimen based on what you need to train most. For example, this is my most recent training day.
Dry firing done at home before I go to the range:
- Draw and dry firing right handed two hand grip - 5 minutes
Draw and dry firing left handed two hand grip - 10 minutes
- Draw then switching from right to left hand two-hand grip and then back - 10 minutes
- Dry firing one handed left and switch to right then back - 5 minutes
- Tactical reloads - 5 minutes
- Combat reloads - 5 minutes
- Stage One Malfunction clearance (tap, rack, ready) - 5 minutes
Range training to drill fundamentals looks like this:
-
Load 4 magazines with 2 or 3 rounds each - change up strong and weak hand practicing combat reloads
- Load 4 magazines with 6 rounds each - change up strong and weak hand practicing tactical reloads
- Load 4 magazines with 6 rounds each - substitute one or two rounds per mag with snap caps to simulate malfunctions - change up strong and weak hand
When I identify a weakness - problem with accuracy, speed, smoothness, draw etc, then I will repeat that drill until I solve the problem. Once I am confident with my proficiency, I work to increase the speed in which I draw and shoot.
The grouping I shoot on the target then becomes an indicator of my skill level as well as proficiency with strong or support hand, one or two hands, standing, kneeling, shooting around obstacles, and how speed impacts accuracy which translates into how well we adhere to our fundamentals when we add speed to the equation.
Setting up to shoot your best qualification score with your most common grip with no distractions or challenges other than hitting the target is not an indication of your ability to win a gunfight. Being accurate while facing challenges with grip, challenges with speed, changing mags, simulating malfunctions, creating challenges with obstacles, and so on is more indicative of how you will perform when you face challenges in a gunfight.
On June 15/24 LAPD recieved a call about a woman carrying a knife and threatening her sister in an apartment in Panorama City. The caller said her sister was high on Methamphetamine and she was clearly afraid for her life.
LAPD arrived on scene and after attempting to get someone to open the door, they forcibly opened the door at which time the armed suspect later found to be Joanna Lua was in the room and holding a larger knife in her right hand. As she advanced toward officers she raised the knife in a threatening manner while officrers directed her to drop her weapon. The officer on the left had his pistol drawn and pointed at the armed uspect while the officer on the right side of the door had his Taser deployed and pointed at the armed suspect. When the suspect failed to respond to commands and continue to advance toward them, the officer with the pistol fired his weapon striking the suspect and the officer with the taser fired his weapon and struck the suspect as well.
The suspect was transported to hospital where she was pronounced deceased.
The question is whether or not the use of the pistol was excessive force as one officer chose to deploy and fire a less lethal weapon option. LAPD will spend a good deal of time investigating this event before they make their determinations, as their media spokesperson stated in another interview.
The simple answer is the situation contained the core elements to justify the use of force to defend. The suspect was armed.
The suspect ignored clear commands to drop her weapon.
The suspect moved toward officers while raising the knife in a threatening manner.
The suspect was well within a range that would allow her to quickly accelerate forward and successfully attack the officers causing death or serious bodiy harm to one or more officers.
There was another female inside the apartment that called police that was also in potential danger so going away and negotiating a resolution was not an option.
All of the required elements to justify use of deadly force - the pistol - are present in this scenario.
The use of Less Lethal force - the taser - is also justified for the same reasons.
The reality is that the Taser is not a guaranteed option to neutralize the thret as tasers have been proven to be innefective in some instances where the suspect is high on drugs like Methamphetamine as well as instances when the suspect is not high on anything.
Use of the deadly weapon is no less justified just because one officer decided to deploy a less lethal weapon. We can opt to question the decision of the officer with a pistol but that arguement to question his motives and justification is based solely on the choice made by the officer that deployed a taser. So if one officer's decision can be questioned, both then must be questioned. Why did the officer with the taser not deploy his firearm to defend what was clearly a potentially lethal threat at very close range.
The case must be judged by the law and whether or not there was a justification for use of deadly force present, which there clearly was based on this bodyworn camera video.
This is a tragic event. This woman's life was lost, a family torn apart, but it was her choice to threaten armed law enforcement officers with a potentially deadly knife. The officers involved will go through a living hell for the next year while the investigation takes place and beyond. But they were left with no other option than neutralize that threat.
This is the challenge we face. We must know the law, train tactics, train under stress, visualize encounters, and prepare ourselves mentally for what we may potentially face on the job.
Just so you can see how quickly someone with a knife can end your life, review this case
https://protectraining.locals.com/post/5713664/debrief-las-cruces-new-mexico
This week we are presenting this PrepMedic video to demonstrate how to treat a bullet wound. This is not a substitute for certified training, it's just us sharing information from an experienced and credible source. I strongly urge you to do your own research and preferably get some qualified training from a certified instructor.
Disclaimer
Prep-medic is a popular Youtube channel created by a working critical flight care paramedic, reserve deputy Sheriff, and tactical medic and he shares his knowledge and experience to help "first responders and civilians alike."
I will be presenting some of his videos here for the purpose of sharing his knowledge. I am not reccomending you take his advice or do what he reccomends you do and I am not suggesting that you will be competent to treat yourself or anyone else by watching this video. My hope is that this video inspires you to seek professional certified instruction. The advice he gives is his own and he is in no way affiliated with ProtecTraining or me personally.
