America has had its share of bad asses. John Wayne, Stallone, James Dean, Clint Eastwood, Chuck Norris. Yes, those are all actors, but we don’t always get to hear about everyday people like we do celebs on the big screen. One who comes to mind is Eli Dicken, the good guy with a gun that stopped the carnage at an Indiana mall with a single shot. Another is the Waukesha hero Kyle Rittenhouse.
Of course, law enforcement and first responders are constantly laying their lives on the line without fanfare or much appreciation. Their heroism and good deeds often get overlooked with the media instead focusing on the tiny percentage of officers that are corrupt or make mistakes. Recently in Tacoma, Washington, an officer with nerves of steel and steady hands showed up to the scene of an active shooting and shut it down right now! And we got the bodycam footage to marvel at as a result.
Officers responded to a domestic violence call at the 6700 block of South Monroe Street after a man called 911 and reported a relative of his assaulted him.
Video released by the Pierce County Force Investigation Team shows Peter Collins yelling at someone, which was captured on a Ring video camera, before cutting to body camera footage from a Tacoma police officer instructing Collins to not get in a car.
Then, shots were heard coming from the house and the officer returned fire.
The video cuts to another scene taken from an officer’s body camera where shots are heard while the officer said that Collins has a long gun over his radio.
Investigators said Collins fled the area with two semi-automatic rifles, two handguns and a large amount of ammunition.
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— Cernovich (@Cernovich) September 29, 2022
Having family in law enforcement, I know that domestic violence calls are some of the most dangerous an officer can take. The emotions are already high, there are usually weapons involved, and officers are often going into a house where someone armed could be lurking ready to open fire. They are a powder keg waiting to ignite. This time it ignited, but this officer was there to douse the fuse and put the shooter down.
The video then shows another officer driving to Collins’ location on South Madison Street and pulling a rifle out of his trunk.
After multiple shots from Collins’ location, the officer fired once in return, then reported that Collins is down.
More impressive was the calmness that the officer exuded. No panic, no fuss, he knew exactly what needed to be done. While everyone else was chattering on the radio about the suspect reloading and what direction the shots were coming from, the officer calmly put down his coffee, retrieved his weapon from the trunk, braced himself on the vehicle, one shot and a radio message that the suspect is down, all before the coffee got cold. Just a day’s work for this sharpshooting officer.
Loss of life is unfortunate, but if you shoot at cops, you are going to get what you get. Sometimes what you get is justice in the form of a single shot from a steady hand of a bad ass officer. Chuck Norris would be proud!