When news breaks of another police officer shooting someone multiple times, many of us wonder: Why doesn’t the officer shoot in the leg and take the other person down? Why do they have to shoot multiple bullets instead of just one?

Although I saw many wounds from high-powered rifles while in the military and the great tissue destruction done, I did not remember the damage done with low-velocity handguns, even though this was demonstrated to us in basic training.

I recently read the book “Shots Fired” by Joseph K. Loughlin and Kate Clark Flora. Loughlin is a past deputy chief of police in Portland; many of the shootings described in the book took place in Portland, while others are well known to us, such as the Boston Marathon bombing. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the bombers, was hit nine times and was still fighting the officers! Pistol shots do not necessarily immobilize a person.

Parts of the book perhaps get a little redundant, but overall, the information and the insight given are important and helpful to understanding the problems of a police officer. Read the book – I highly recommend it.

Lawrence M. Leonard

Falmouth

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