November 21, 2012
By Timothy Janowick
“It is not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference.”
- Bear Bryant
After surviving a deadly encounter with a thief, Jacksonville Police Officer Jared Reston understands the difference between living and dying is his will to prepare for the fight. Officer Reston spoke to police officers at the annual Illinois Tactical Officers Association Conference this past week, recounting his engagement with thief-turned-killer, Joel Abner, and the lessons learned from this harrowing incident.
Not A Typical Off-Duty Overtime Detail
On the evening of January 26, 2008, Reston and his partner were working an off-duty assignment at a local shopping mall. Security notified the officers of two offenders committing a retail theft. One of the thieves was physically fighting with the loss prevention officers and the second offender fled on foot.
When Reston arrived in the area, he observed the fleeing offender, Joel Abner, standing at a bus stop near the mall. Upon seeing Officer Reston, Abner took flight. Reston, a strong and very physically fit officer, gave chase. The foot pursuit started with the westward crossing of a six-lane roadway filled with many cars in the early evening hour. Reston describes his foot pursuits as a game where he pushes the offender by hanging back a bit and letting the suspects tire.
Abner rounded the corner of a building and headed south through a parking lot. As he reached the end of the lot, he turned west again and began to walk parallel to the roadway. Reston quickly catches up with the suspect as he nears a drained retention basin.
“Stop, it’s the police. It is not mall security you’re messing with,” ordered Reston as he drew a TASER and pointed it towards Abner’s back. Abner raised his arms, turned, and started to run again. Reston pulls the TASER’s trigger and waits for the muscular disruption to take place so he can take custody of Abner.
But the TASER fails with a complete failure of the weapon to discharge. Reston quickly re-holsters the TASER and realizes he will need to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Abner. Reston resume the chase and as he catches up to Abner, Abner’s back is to him.
Violence of Action in 6 Seconds
Reston places a hand on Abner’s shoulder. Abner spins rapidly and assumes a fighting position. Reston recognizes Abner’s aggressive behavior and punched him in the face, followed by a quick head-butt in an effort to take Abner to the ground. Suddenly, Abner produces a pistol stolen during a burglary to a gun store 15 years earlier. Reston has no idea the dynamics of this fight have taken a serious and deadly turn.
The first shot strikes Reston in the chin, knocking him to the ground. Believing Abner caught him with a good punch, Reston thinks to himself he needs to amp up his actions in response to Abner’s fight. Then he comes to understand the sobering reality and gravity of the situation as he notices his teeth are laying back in his mouth and his jaw has collapsed as a result of the explosive force of the bullet’s entry into his body. The force caused teeth to fly from his mouth, shredding his uniform shirt and impacting his ballistic vest.
Reston’s radio calls for help are unintelligible. His partner is running in his direction and can hear the gunshots. The partner radios what is occurring as the gunfire fills the background of the radio traffic.
Abner stands over Reston, continuing to shoot the officer. With wounds to his jaw and elsewhere, Reston becomes angry; Abner is attempting to murder him. Abner begins to walk away, shooting back at Reston. “He was going to just walk away like nothing happened,” recalled Reston. “My will to win kicked in.”
Convinced he would not let Abner win, Reston moves to his back, raising his torso, draws his Glock 22 pisto,l and aims for Abner. Abner notices this movement and closes the distance, firing at Reston in an effort to finish him off.
As Reston rises to engage in the fight for his life, he feels the piercing pain in his buttocks and knees - he now knew he has been hit more than he thought. Reston began shooting Abner. Even though Abner was impacted by the .40 caliber ammunition, he continued the charge towards Reston, circling him as he lay in the basin. Reston describes his efforts to fire upon Abner as being “like trying to hit someone with water from a hose and he’s trying to avoid the stream of water.” Reston sees Abner wince as rounds tear into his body, but Abner continues advancing directly at Reston, firing repeatedly in an effort to end Reston’s life.
Reston makes it to his knees, continuing to fire. The impacts of the bullets on Abner’s body cause him to fall on top of Reston and the men drop to the ground together. Reston must win this fight and he is forced to end the attack in a very close and direct way: Reston places his pistol at Abner’s head and fires three rounds.
The Aftermath
To create distance and cover, Reston uses his feet to roll Abner into a culvert. Reston pushes himself away and maintains cover until his partner arrives. Upon arriving, he crosses over Reston’s body, searching for the offender. Reston indicates Abner’s location and his partner checks Abner for signs of life. Abner is dead.
The focus is now on Reston and his care. In addition to the gunshot wounds in his jaw and hips, Reston has two gunshot wounds in his thigh and three rounds impacted his ballistic vest. Medics are summoned to the scene and buddy care begins. Another officer arrives on scene, grabs Reston’s hand, and offers words of hope: “You’re going to be alright.”
He then looks up and says, “Where’s rescue? He’s going to die.”
An autopsy of Abner indicated Reston’s rounds struck him in a number of places. Two non-fatal rounds entered his center off mass in the right abdominal area and remain in the body. Two of the contact wounds on Abner’s head only caused massive structural damage - they were non-fatal. Two wounds proved fatal: one round entered his back, pierced a lung, and traveled upwards through the body into the neck severing the vertebral artery; and the third contact head shot.
Lessons from the Fight
Officer Jared Reston and police officers everywhere learned valuable lessons as a result of this deadly encounter with Joel Abner.
First and foremost, Reston’s personal and professional philosophy are worthy of emulation by all law enforcement officers. He takes training seriously, and he credits the training as “what helped me win that fight that day.”
“Seek out additional training,” Reston advised the officers in attendance at ITOA. “Set time aside to go to the range. Spend some of your own money on training. Train: do not just go through the motions. Ramp it up.
If you are worried about getting sued, you are behind the curve. Know your agency’s use of force policies and your state’s statutes on use of force. When you know you are righteous, everything will come much quicker.”
Mindset was key to Reston’s survival. “Mindset is about getting the job done professionally. Your mindset must be honed and trained.” Mindsets are not just about surviving the fight, but winning it. Winning minds mentally rehearse the event of being shot and how you will react prior to having such an event. Reston prepared himself for the unspeakable violence he would need to do to those who wished to do him harm. Mental preparation is key to winning. Reston encourages officers to mentally rehearse every scenario they can imagine.
“My ballistic vest saved me that day. To not wear body armor is inconsiderate, selfish, and lazy. It sucks, but that suck is our job. Think about family, friends, and other people in your agency. Put it on.” Reston stated with firm conviction. Always wear body armor (one of the tenets of Below 100). Wearing body armor increases an officers chances of surviving a gunshot to the torso threefold.
Reston learned important points about using an electronic control device such as his TASER:
- •Be prepared for any weapon to fail. What are your contingencies for a weapon failure? Have you trained and tested your contingencies?
- •Train to re-holster your TASER because windows of opportunity open and close quickly. Fumbling through an unpracticed action takes valuable time. Practice re-holstering all your weapon systems.
Officer Reston reminds us mental preparation does not just include rehearsing what we will do in our own deadly force situations, but also how we will help other’s in the most critical moments. “Don’t be that guy,” he warned ITOA attendees. That Guy is the officer who told him he would be okay, then asks where rescue was.
Finally, Reston recalled the lessons he learned as he fired upon Abner. “I focused on my front sight. I never had a perfect sight picture, but I placed my front sight on Abner. I saw the suspect wincing in reaction to being hit. I had center of mass hits on the suspect, but he did not go down.” Most gunshot wounds are survivable; suspects will be struck and keep coming.
“I always took training seriously; it is what helped me win that day,” Reston commented.
How seriously do you take your training? How do you prepare yourself beyond your agency’s training program? What personal and professional philosophy will you adopt to answer life’s most important question: What’s Important Now? How will you W.I.N.?
Bear Bryant said, “It’s not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference.”
Just ask Jared Reston.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArDRg5SkuT0