Scenario: Do you a$$ist the LEO?

[LT]

Alright Everyone,
I saw this discussion on Glocktalk and I wanted to bring it over here to see what ya'll thought. 

You are a CCW holder in a bank parking lot and you see a Police Officer roll up in a marked Police Cruiser.  He gets out of the cruiser as 4x robbers come out of the bank and open fire at the LEO.  You are in a good spot to return fire at the Bad Guys.  You do not hear any sirens or do you see any other LEO.  The fire fight is 4:1 in favor of the bad guys.

Do you a$$ist the LEO or just mind your own business?  If you do a$$ist, how so?

I know the scenario is pretty vague and leaves out a lot of information, but that is the point of this discussion.

[Sti gunner]

I would personally try to help. I think the problem is that the LEO could confuse you for a bad guy, and well that could be bad(even though most cops cant hit crap) So even more reason to help.

[JeffG]

I would help, but before I did anything, I believe a phone call to 911 with my description and location would be a wise idea.  Dispatch would relay that info to the police.  In fact I would keep my cell phone open with dispatch during the entire exchange and use them to maintain contact with the LEO.

[LT]

Here's how I look at it...if the bad guys are already shooting then a cell phone call might be too late.  I would dial 911 if I thought there was time, but with 4 on 1 odds I'm not sure there would be.  I'd try to find cover and do what I could from that position.  You run the risk of catching rounds from either end.  The LEO might take gun fire from another direction as someone flanking him, but, then again, he might have auditory exclusion and not hear a thing.  If the bad guys have tunnel vision, you might get lucky and hit a couple before the cavalry arrives.  But, if you're in the middle of the fight when they do arrive then you have a whole different issue to worry about.  If they backup orders you to put down your weapon and the bad guys aren't done shooting yet (or haven't disengaged to run) then you're an easy target if you're not behind good cover.  Then again, if you don't put down the gun LEO engages you.  So, there is a lot to think about in this scenario...not just to help or not.  There are issues at each point in the scenario that the CCW must make on the fly. 

Here's the kicker though...a lot of people talk about what they would do in the situation,but have never been in a gun fight...let alone know how your body reacts to high stress situations.  And, not everyone has enough training to actually help the situation.  So, that brings us back to square one in "how do you help"? 

I'd like to think with my training and personal experience with high stress situations that I would be able to "help" in the situation.  I just pray that I never find out.

[kronos5]

Great points LT

[ss944]

+1 on JeffG's response.  However, I suspect that if said officer is preoccupied with trying to keep themselves from getting shot, I suspect your info won't reach them.  Additionally, the officer may or may not have time to analyze exactly whom you're pointing the gun at, but support that arrives with your info from dispatch probably would.  I would go into it with the understanding that I might be accidentally shot by friendlies and because of that, I'd probably make sure I'd well a$$essed the situation prior to participating unless the officer were in very imminent threat of life and limb.  Although, now that I think about it (been writing this for two days)... "a$$isting" the officer forces them to spend awareness resources identifying you (etc) that might be more effectively spent engaging a target/keeping themselves alive.