Mentally Absent With Out Leave

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Ron Borsch. Ron’s bio is at the end of this article.

NEVER FORGET!

This essay is dedicated to the memory of our three brothers and sister Lakewood PD WA officers who were assassinated in a coffee shop November 29th 2009: Mark Renninger, Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold, and Greg Richards. By continuing to keep this incident alive and in our memory, we can all learn lessons from variations of their final deadly error in order to avoid it ourselves. Other officers, now and in the future have been given the gift of a learning opportunity about staying alive. Never forget!

During a mandatory “Continuing Professional Training” law enforcement training class, I noticed a fellow student-officer periodically using his cell-phone under the table to Text, or E-mail someone. He was not observing the course’s PowerPoint presentation, and was unlikely to recall what the instructor was presenting in his lecture. While this student’s “behind” continuously occupied a chair in the class, his mind was very obviously absent.

MENTALLY ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVE IN ROLL CALL?

As famous gunfight winner and survivor Stacy Lim of LAPD says: “We must prepare our minds for where our bodies may have to go”. Unfortunately, during shift roll call at the station, some officers have been observed reading non-related items instead of paying total attention to their bosses briefing. This is potentially dangerous, possibly rude, and certainly not professional. Typically, if these officers were challenged, they might meekly offer a “Multi-Tasking” excuse, something, which in this case, cannot be supported by either science or any objective test. An idea struck about the lurking dangers of being mentally AWOL. Inattention, tunneling of both vision and hearing could have a serious penalty, up to and including death.

ENVIRONMENTAL REALITY

There is documented evidence of vehicular and pedestrian deaths attributed to operator inattention by the mental and physical distraction of cell phones and texting. Similarly, officers should be very aware that any mental or physical distraction at the wrong time can and has been deadly. However, over time, the experience of always being ready and prepared, but without anything happening, we tend to slip, over-relax and succumb to a variety of creature comforts. Unfortunately, it seems that evil never sleeps, striking anywhere and at any time. Most times, we respond to evil. On occasion, it comes to us.

While law enforcement training usually addresses the deadly error lessons of significant events, we have been more inclined to look at tactics and less at mental lapses. For example, the tactical mistakes in 1970 CHP Newhall CA and 1986 FBI Miami FL incidents, where multiple officers were murdered and wounded in +/- 4 minutes each. Unfortunately, on November 29th 2009, law enforcement was tragically presented with a new significant event that would come to define and confirm the dangers of being mentally AWOL both now and in the future.

ROLE REVERSAL: WE ARE NOT ALWAYS THE HUNTERS

Law enforcement is accustomed to being in the hunter mode, either for clues of a crime or a wanted person. All too often, we have been surprised by the aggressive offense of those we hunt such as in the Newhall CA and Miami FL incidents. Much worse than the aggressive offense of the hunted is a role reversal where Law Enforcement Officers are not aware of any threat, nor ready for the criminal predator when they suddenly become the prey.

All uniformed officers should realize that they are potential targets by aggressive criminals and learn to live in “Relaxed Awareness”, (Col. Jeff Coopers Color Code “Yellow”). Being relaxed but aware must certainly be required anytime we are in uniform, and should extend to off-duty and out of uniform. Our lives may very well depend on our alert perceptions and awareness!

REDUCE THE RISK OF YOUR BEING SURPRISED!

Surprise, speed and violence of action are three key factors for winning in combat that have been proven by the test of time, actually, centuries! Unfortunately, it works as well for the bad guys as the good guys. Imagine the small tight quick OODA loop of those doing the surprising, and the large loose and sluggish OODA loop of those truly surprised. Our first priority then should be to take measures to reduce the risk of being surprised. Though this may be easier said than done, it is a worthwhile objective, since the maximum penalty of failing to do so is death.

THE COFFEE HOUSE ASSASSINATIONS

Lakewood PD was a recently formed department. Some of their agency was formed with former Peirce County Jail Deputies. Early reports tell us that the four Lakewood WA officers, with cruisers parked outside, were in uniform. They were preparing for their upcoming day shift tour using their laptops, “heads down”, at a coffee house meet in a neighboring community. Using a laptop is very similar to texting, except with a bigger keyboard and screen. In that the user’s attention becomes focused on them, for all practical purposes, laptops, patrol car Mobile Data Terminals and cell phone texting are identical. Therefore, care must be exercised where and when we use them.

Was there thinking on the Lakewood officer’s part to rely on “safety in numbers” and an unfortunate assumption that four uniformed police officers together would dissuade most people from trying most anything? Assassin Maurice Clemmons was not most anyone. He was an example of evil in the flesh. Like most cowards, he had insured that the surprise odds were in his favor. Posing as a customer and then drawing a semi-auto pistol, he struck at the first opportune moment when the officer’s vision and attention tunneled in on their laptops..

First shot was +/- 12 feet. Two officers were murdered where they sat. One officer was just able to rise to his feet before being killed. The last officer, Sergeant Mark Renninger, had a deadly serious close quarter battle on his hands as he fought the assassin all the way to the door. Accounting for himself well, Renninger wounded the assassin twice, once in the stomach, and once in the thigh, (limited penetration after striking keys first). When the Sergeant fell from a face shot, Clemmons then made contact shots in each eye of the fallen officer. (It appears that all officer fatalities were from headshots). Shooting time total from first to last shot, about 9 shots, (7 rounds from the assassin, 2 from the Sgt.) appears to be in the time range of 8 to 12 seconds.

Assassin Clemmons fervor came from the same playbook used by other Muslim murderers. Had the coward reconnoitered? It is a safe bet to say he did. Did he pick up on a routine like time, place, activity and the potential victims “trusting” inattention? Like a crocodile! All that and more will probably be revealed as having been done.

In this incident, even without the laptop distraction, such a surprise violent attack would still have been a deadly serious problem for the officers, but the outcome could have been fewer officers fatally wounded. Unfortunately, combining the laptop distraction in a public place, with being surprised, proved to be an insurmountable impediment to either their winning, or even surviving. Today, our thin blue line is even thinner with the tragic mass murder loss of our sister and three brother officers.

A ONE WORD DEADLY ERROR: “MAWOL”© (“May-Wall”)

The loss of four law enforcement officers in an imagined time frame of nearly as fast as you could empty a handgun on multiple close range targets, plus a deadly physical struggle with the last standing officer is literally a nightmare for those of us who truly care. While pondering the tragedy and searching for a training aid that could possibly be used to avoid another such incident for susceptible “copycat” random actors out there, the military term AWOL kept surfacing.

Placing an “M” for “Mentally” in front of AWOL absolutely describes a deadly error of being “Mentally Absent With Out Leave”©. Certainly MAWOL©, is an acronym that makes sense, but could such a deadly error catchword or phrase help as a training aid countermeasure? Perhaps it could.

In our last “Tactical 1st Responder” course of 2009 at SEALE Regional Training Academy, the earliest student arrivals were able to watch me constructing a new slide in the PowerPoint presentation. During the presentation, I told them that the term “MAWOL”© was being dedicated then and there to our four fallen Washington Brothers and Sister. I explained that “MAWOL”© can be a combination of the “Ten Deadly Errors” originated by Pierce Brooks, or a stand alone one-word deadly error. Deadly errors that may apply to the coffee house assassinations are “Attitude”, “Relaxing too soon”, “Taking a bad position”, etc. Before the end of class, several students were already finding new examples for the MAWOL© acronym.

CONCLUSION: KEEP YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME!

A tactic that comes to mind is “Contact & Cover”. In the public environment, someone has got to be the cover officer when another officer/s is busy doing something otherwise no one is “watching the store”. When the formal investigation is complete, we may see more or less evidence of deadly errors and failed tactical considerations.

Once we are in a public use environment, in or out of the cruiser, we need to continuously reassess our environment, using common sense, experience, intuition, and our tactical training. Be receptive to and trust your intuition, as it is the totality of all your senses, experience and training on a subconscious fast track. Understand that before, during or after intuition gives you a clue, you will not be able to clearly articulate why you did, (or did not do), something. Learn to trust your intuition anyway.

A heads-up and alert example of not being caught MAWOL© is the unidentified Seattle Patrol Officer a couple of days after the Lakewood officers mass assassination. At night, while checking out an apparent breakdown, he observed a male approaching his cruiser, exited, recognized Clemmons, challenged him, and as Clemmons tried to evade the officer and draw his gun, fired first, effectively, killing Clemmons. How many of us could perform as well as Mark Renninger and the unidentified Seattle officer? They both serve as models to catching up quickly and keeping our heads in the game!

The rapid assassination of four Lakewood WA officers, in much less time than either the Newhall or Miami incidents, is destined to be an infamous low milestone for quite some time. In the future, we will see various insights on the Coffee shop assassination details analyzed by multiple experts. This can and should be done well and by the best, so maximum good can come out of the loss of four fine officers. In the meantime, and forever, we need to recognize that being mentally AWOL at the wrong time can be fatal.

Our first priority then should be to take physical and mental measures to reduce the risk of our being surprised. We can use any reasoning or explanation that works to keep our head in the game. The AWOL term is such a popular expression that even folks who have never been in the military seem to be quite aware that it means “Absent With Out Leave”.

The MAWOL © expression can be harnessed as a reminder, to avoid painting ourselves into a tactical corner and as a training aid for winning and survival. If a deadly error, one word acronym of only five letters does the job, lets use and support it. Don’t get caught “MAWOL”©! Be mentally present with all your faculties when it counts!

About the author: Ron Borsch

After a three decade police career, Ron Borsch is semi-retired. While retaining a police commission as a consultant-trainer, he manages and is the lead trainer for SEALE Regional Police Training Academy, a post-graduate facility in Bedford Ohio,. SEALE Academy has specialized in tactically training 1st responders since the year 2000. Their current evolution of active killer countermeasures is SOLO, “Single Officer Lifesaving Others”©. Ron has presented various subjects in several different states to fellow officers, national and international instructor audiences, and Chiefs of Police.

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