Critical incident stress:

The personal impact of a police
shooting incident
By Rick Parent

A

recent study of more than 400 fatal
police shootings that took place, over
a 20-year period in the United States and
Canada highlighted the need for police to
be aware of the dynamics associated with a
police shooting. In many cases, the surviving
officer and his or her family were unexpectedly lefi: to come to terms with a life.:threatening event that was complicated due to the
controversial death of the assailant.
Interviews with 40 of these police
officers who had been involved in a fatal
shooting revealed the personal impact that
the event had on their lives and their families. Without exception, all of the officers
involved in a fatal shooting in this sample
indicated that they had, to some degree,
been subject to the physiological, psychological, physical and emotional factors
associated with critical incident stress.
The most commonly cited physiological factors experienced by these officers
included difficulties with perception of
time and visual and auditory distortions. As
the incident unfolded, individual officers
noted that the deadly force encounter
appeared to occur in slow motion. Ofi:en
their vision was focused upon the perceived
threat with minimal awareness of the events
taking place around them. Finally, when
shots were fired, they were generally heard
as muffled sounds, even though the officers
were not wearing ear protection devices.
Most of the officers also stated that they
experienced a loss of fine motor coordination upon conclusion of their deadly
encounter. Typically their hands began
to shake or their legs went into uncontrollable spasms. After the fatal shooting
incident concluded, the majority of officers

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The Tactical Edge

Fall 2007

The most commonly cited
physiological factors experienced
by these officers included
difficulties with perception of time
and visual and auditory distortions. As the incident unfolded,
individual officers noted that the
deadly force encounter appeared
to occur in slow motion. Often
their vision was focused upon the
perceived threat with minimal
awareness of the events taking
place around them. Finally, when
shots were fired, they were generally heard as muffled sounds,
even though the officers were not
wearing ear protection devices.

interviewed stated that they faced a wide
variety of psychological and physical effects
associated with critical incident stress. The
physical effects included a loss in appetite,
sleeping pattern changes and a marked
decrease in their sex drive, resulting in an
absence of sexual relations with their spouse
or partner.

The psychological effects reported
included depression, guilt, nightmares,
flashbacks and a heightened sense of danger and fear. One of the officers related
the flashbacks as a "video going on in
your head that you can't control; it just
keeps playing the video over and over
and over again and you've got no control
to turn it off."
Another officer reported that his near
death event became a religious experience
and a turning point in his life. The officer
had been dispatched to a report of shots
fired. Upon arriving at the location the
officer noted a male subject standing on the
sidewalk. The officer maneuvered his police
vehicle directly beside the male and lowered
the driver's window, asking the male ifhe
heard the reported gunshots.
To the officer's horror, the male subject
produced and leveled a loaded shotgun
against the officer's head. As this occurred,
a police helicopter suddenly flew by, distracting the shotgun-toting male. When the
male subject turned to look at the helicopter, the officer discharged his pistol while
still seated in the police vehicle.

I see the first round hit his head and his ·
head splits open. Then I see my second or third
round as his head turns. I see his hair blow
apart to the back ofhis head. As he hits the
ground, he was in a sitting position, still holding onto his shotgun. I wasn't sure ifhe was
alive or not. Then he fell down and hit the
ground, flat out.
The whole thing took 57 seconds; from
the time that I hit the emergency button (in
my police vehicle}, when he put the gun to
my head, until the time that I'm on the radio
requesting emergency backup. Calm!J, I got

on the radio and said I need an ambulance,
I need back up, get me a supervisor. As I am
doing this he is lying there and I think he's
dead. Twice I thought that he had packed in
but he never died. ·
In reflecting upon the incident and
the thoughts that were racing inside the
officer's head at the time of the incident, he
stated:

Ifyou 're gonna die, you re gonna die.
He was gonna kill me so you gotta take your
opportunity. I figured I was gonna take him
with me. IfI'm going down then he's going
down too. As I'm saying this, that I'm gonna
die, I hear this voice imide my head, the
Holy Spirit is saying, "No, you're not. You're
not going to die. No. "I kid you not! just as
I am hearing this voice in my head, that's
when he suddenly turned to the left and was
distracted. That's when I knew it was time to
do something.
After it was all over I lost it! I couldn't
sleep. I couldn't even close my eyes for 48
hours afterwards. It became a real religious
event. Since then I've gone on to speak to
youth about the power of God, leadership
and making a difference whenever you work.
I think this incident was in God's plan. It
changed my life and was a real humbling
experience. I learned that I'm not the be all
end all There's more meaning to life than just
being a cool cop. To this day I sit to the rear
ofmy seat, with the seat.all the way pushed
back. I keep my head tucked in when I'm
driving a police vehicle.
Suicide-by-cop and CIS
In some instances, the factors associated with critical incident stress are further
intensified when the shooting incident is
characteristic of a suicide-by-cop. In these
particular cases, the officer is faced with
the additional impact of killing an emotionally distraught individual who is, in
essence, seeking help from the police in
doing something that he or she could not
do - the taking of his or her own life. For
some officers, this situation results in the
additional impact of personal feelings that
include anger and confusion for "being set
up," manipulated and tricked into using
deadly force. In this regard, one of the officers stated:

I was angry. There was no reason for him
to kill me. He was gonna shoot me, he would
have killed me. Ifanything, I waited too long
(before I shot and killed him). I was lucky.

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The Tactical Edge

Fall 2007

In other instances, the officer felt responsible for the surviving members of.the
deceased. The officer reasoned that he had
taken away the life of their loved one and
was now responsible for the grief that the
family felt.

No matter what I think about this
guy and what he did, I can 't help but feel
respomible to his mother and father. I know
that every Christmas, for the rest oftheir lives,
it will never be the same for them because of
me. I took away their son's life, and they will
never have Christmas with him again. It will
never be the same for them. No matter what
you think, he was still a person.

tions for the shooting incident, particularly
during suicide-by-cop incidents in which
the deceased was later found to have an
inoperable or imaginary weapon.
Upon conclusion of the public disclosure of evidence, many of the interviewed
officers reported that they were finally able
to get on with their lives and leave the
tragedy of the shooting behind them. Even
years after the fatal shooting incident had
taken place, all the officers reported that
they considered the shooting incident to
be a significant event in their life, one that
they will never forget.

Long-term post-shooting effects

The media frequently intensified
the situation and were cited by
most of the interviewed police
officers as one of the greatest
sources of stress immediately
after their fatal shooting incidents.
The added stress was a consequence of the continual coverage
that surrounds many of the fatal
shooting incidents. Particularly
painful was the speculation by
many journalists who were
impatient about the release of the
official police investigation.

The media frequently intensified the
situation and were cited by most of the
interviewed police officers as one of the
greatest sources of stress immediately after
their fatal shooting incidents. The added
stress was a consequence of the continual
coverage that surrounds many of the fatal
shooting incidents. Particularly painful was
the speculation by many journalists who
were impatient about the release of the
official police investigation. Issues such as
racism, inadequate training or improper police procedure were often cited as explana-

In the months and years after their
fatal shooting incident, many of the police
officers in this sample reported a variety
of personal life changes, attributing these
changes to their fatal shooting. Some officers suffered post-traumatic stress to such a
degree that they required extensive counseling and a lengthy time away from work.
In these few cases as well as in a minority
of other instances, the shooting incident
had a profound negative impact upon the
officers and their family. Many reported
marital or relationship changes shortly after
the life-threatening event. Roughly half
of the reporting officers stated that their
relationship with their significant other was
satisfactory prior to the shooting, but once
faced with the stresses that accompany a
fatal shooting, their relationships crumbled.
One officer stated, "I went through two
marriages after the shooting incident." Another officer reported, "My marriage ended
within a year or two after the shooting. I
became distant from my wife and I didn't
talk about the shooting incident with her."
Noteworthy is that an equal number of
police officers spoke highly of their spouses
or significant others, emphasizing that their
family helped them endure the negative
aspects of a police shooting. These officers
reported that they tended to have a good relationship with their spouse or partner prior
to the shooting incident. Upon suddenly
being confronted by the emotional and
psychological impact of the life-threatening event, established positive relationships
served to support the police officer during
challenging times. Often these established
relationships were strengthened as a result
of the shooting incident.

Historical perspective
It is important to emphasize that there
have been significant changes in the manner in which most police agencies respond
to a police shooting incident. This study
noted that during the 1980s through to the
mid-1990s, several police agencies tended
to leave the officer and their family largely
on their own to cope. Many of the officers
in this study's sample who were involved in
a fatal police shooting that occurred during
the 1980's and early 1990's stated that their
supervisors typically provided them with a
"police prescription" of alcohol, a brief time
away from work and a voluntary visit to the
police psychologist. As one officer stated:

After I shot and killed the guy I was told
to report to the chiefand my supervisor. We
talked about the shooting incident and then
a bottle ofwhisky was pulled out ofa drawer
and put on the desk. They basically told me
to go out with my buddies, have a few drinks
and get drunk. When I sobered up and had a
couple ofdays offI was expected to report for
duty, as if nothing had happened. In hindsight, this probably wasn 't a good way to deal
with the shooting.

In the past ten years, most police
agencies in North America have adopted
progressive responses to officer-involved
shootings. Typically, a police agency response includes a critical incident debriefing process involving both the officer and
their family. In addition, a wide range of
support is often available and may include
a lengthy time away from the work site,
psychological services, employee assistance
and chaplaincy programs: Distinct from
the past practices of 1980s and early 1990s,
significant in-roads have occurred in how
police officers and their families are treated
when an officer-involved shooting occurs.
Honig and Sultan (2004) did a detailed
confidential survey of 982 police officers
from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department who were involved in critical
incidents between June 1995 and March
2004. More than 90 percent of these
incidents were officer-involved shootings.
Their study found that a significant majority of these officers did not have long-term
devastation to th~ir careers or personal lives.
These authors observed the resilience that
officers can have under fire when provided
with support and proper intervention.

Conclusion
A police shooting incident will likely
have an enormous impact upon an officer
and his or her family. This study noted the
physiological, psychological, physical and
emotional impact that has a.ffecteq many of
the police officers who have taken the life
of another or who have faced a lethal threat
during the course of their duties.
Operational police personnel must be
made aware of these dynamics prior to encountering a lethal threat. Further training
in this area may reduce the effects of stress
when facing a life-threatening situation.
Additional training may allow the officer to
seek alternatives to deadly force and to better cope with the aftermath of a life-threatening situation.
Finally, this study also emphasizes that
police managers and peers must reach out
and support individuals during the challenging times that often follow an officerinvolved shooting. This is especially important when controversy or the dynamics
associated with a suicide-by-cop surround
the shooting. Departmental support and
established relationships are key factors in
allowing officers to move forward after a
police shooting, an event that will likely be
one of the most significant that will occur
during their police career. ~

I

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About the author

I

Sgt. Rick Parent, Ph.D. is the Manager of Research and
Academic Development at the Justice Institute of British
Columbia Police Academy. He can be contacted at
rparent@jibc.ca.

References
Geller, William A. and Scott, Michael S. (1992) Deadly
Force: What We Know - A Practitioners Desk Reference on
Police-Involved Shootings. Washington, DC, Police Executive
Research Forum.
Griffiths, Curt and Parent, Richard and Whitelaw, Brian
(1999) Canadian Police Work. Scarborough: ITP Nelson.
Honig, Audrey L. and Sultan, Steven E. (2004) Reactions and
Resilience Under Fire: What an Officer Can Expect.
The Police Chief, vol. 7, no. 12, December.
Klinger, David (2001) Police Responses to Officer-Involved
Shootings. U.S. Department of]ustice. St. Louis.
Manolias, Mary and Hyatt-Williamson, A. (1986) Study of
Post Shooting Experiences in Firearms Officers. London, UK:
Home Office.
Parent, Richard (1996) Aspects of Police Use of Deadly Force
in British Columbia: The Phenomenon Of Victim-Precipitated Homicide. Burnaby, BC: Simon Fraser University.
(Master's Thesis).
Parent, Richard (2004) Aspects of Police Use of Deadly Force
in North America: The Phenomenon Of Victim-Precipitated
Homicide. Burnaby, BC: Simon Fraser University. (Doctoral
Dissertation) .