As I watched the Dallas shootings, I keyed in particularly during what we can call the pillar battle incident that has become etched into many of our memories now.





This altercation brings up several different topics that have been beaten to death over the years, but I really want to open up a dialog on.  The two main big picture things I saw in this with training mindset implications are:

A. OODA Loop

B. Instinctive action vs. reverting to training


First off, this is a really illustrative example of the OODA loop and how it works.  Let's paint a fuller picture of the scene though, since it is easy to think that we are only looking at a fight between 2 people.  In reality, when analyzing the other video from various vantage points, we see that there were several patrol cars outside of the frame to our left, as well as to the right.

The shooter appeared to be suppressing them effectively since he had a detachable box magazine-fed semi automatic rifle with optics, body armor, and obviously some relevant training.

LEOs equipped with pistols could best look for cover while dealing with incoming fire that easily ripped through their light-skinned vehicles, giving him a lot of stand-off.

As soon as officers arrived with rifles and active-shooter training, at least one of them saw fit to rush to the shooter's location in an attempt to stop the threat.

We can see that the shooter was hyper aware of his surroundings, to the point that he even detected the cameraman and aimed at him, which was visible in another video.  It is cut from this one for some reason.  Additionally, he kept most of his body behind the pillar when he aimed up at the person filming, while leaning slightly to provide line-of-sight for his optic and bore.

We see an officer advance on him and set up behind one of the pillars on the right.   The shooter appears to be shooting to the left, with his back facing this officer.  Sparks can be seen hitting the ground, right as we are looking at what appears to be shots fired at the shooter from behind by the officer.

The shooter realizes (Observes either from near miss or hit impacts on him and his position) that he is being shot at from behind from close range, and immediately re-Orients 180 degrees to this higher priority threat.

Without hesitation, he Decides to Act by advancing forward quickly to this new threat, with a path originally pointed towards the far side of the pillar where the officer's muzzle is.

Just before he reaches that side of the pillar, he makes a split-second decision and changes course after seeing something, and ends up running up on the rear of the officer.

At this time, he snap-shoots as he clears the pillar violently and guns the officer down from behind.

Starting over from the officer's side of the OODA Loop, he Observes a threat who is shooting at police.

He Orients to that threat, taking into consideration cover and concealment between him and the shooter, and..

Decides to rush closer so that he can potentially get in for a closer kill.

He appears to have surprise once he gets behind the pillar, and carefully sets up on the suspect with aimed fire.

He Acts by appearing to take the shot or shots, which get the shooter's attention, but do not neutralize him.

He Observes the shooter rushing him, and (Acts) starts to back up his position for better orientation once the shooter comes around the far side of the pillar.

Not fully cognizant of his legs coming out from cover, I think the shooter saw that, which allowed him to switch course at the last fraction of a second, leading to the unfortunate results seen here, resulting in him giving his life in the line of duty.

One of the bigger factors that I think really played an important role in the outcome of this is something most people might overlook, and that is:

* Physical fitness

The shooter was young, appeared to be in exceptional physical condition, and was able to think clearly, aggressively, while on the move in a very fluid environment where he was basically surrounded on his escape routes.

I think this incident will be debated like Miami '86 was, with a focus on weapons and tactics, and I hope mindset and training scars will serve as lessons-learned for others moving forward.

I will always argue that staying in the moment and rapidly taking in information as you make decisions quickly is better than the idea that you can simply "fall back on your training", even though the shooter fell back on things he had obviously trained for.  He could have continued pressing the attack on the far side of the pillar, or even tried to seek cover on the trashcan pillar and form a plan, but he didn't.  

He executed a very complex set of behaviors in a very short period of time, with many officers looking to shoot him from multiple vantage points, and still prevailed in the short term.

Other lessons learned are using mutual support.  Where was the officer's partner or battle buddy?  Was he or she simply out of view supporting with fire, or still back 25-50 yards away not seeing what was going on?

Body armor will also play a big role in the oncoming discussions, while the training scars above get overlooked by a culture that is fixated on things versus mindset, adaptability, and habits.  I personally like to focus on the thinking and behaviors, then look at equipment much later down the line, but definitely not overlook it, as it played a critical role in this as well.

So he must have gotten training elsewhere? He wasn't in a forward deployment in the military.

BTW, excellent review, the officer never had a chance.

I don't really want to watch the video again but the Officer was only armed with a handgun I believe. He decided to rush into the teeth of a fo who was better armed and should have assumed to be wearing body armor. I'm betting he was thinking that he could get close enough to get a head shot and unfortunately he turned the wrong way and paid with his life. Even if he had seen the bad guy coming he would have needed to be ready for a violent, close quarters confrontation. They only way he could have survived that would have been to push the muzzle of the rifle away with his non-gun hand followed by a full mag dump with his handgun... unless he could have snapped off a mag, point shooting at the charging suspect...

Shooter attended training in the private sector in Texas.

His MOS does not normally receive any type of CQM or CQB training, since he was a concrete and masonry specialist.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dallas-gunman-micah-johnson-honed-tactics-local-combat-school/

I'm still trying to get a definitive on the school he attended, but it seems to be this one:  ACWA

As far as they knew, they were training an Afghan combat vet who was described by everyone in his neighborhood that had interaction with him as very friendly.  Nobody knew about the sexual harassment case in the Army that got him kicked out.