When Is Shooting at a Car Justified?

The shooting last month of a 21-year-old Vista man by a sheriff’s reserve deputy brings attention to an issue that is seldom addressed in written policies governing the use of deadly force: When--if ever--is it appropriate to shoot at a suspect inside of a moving vehicle?

Reserve Deputy John S. Wickham and regular Deputy William C. Fewell had followed Jeffrey Bray into the parking lot of his Vista apartment complex, believing--erroneously, it turned out--that Bray was driving a stolen vehicle. The deputies turned on their emergency lights, Bray stopped his pickup, leaned to his right and, almost out of view of the deputies, sat back upright and then abruptly drove backward, into the front of the patrol car some 20 feet behind him. Bray was shot in the head and killed instantly by Wickham at just about the moment of the collision, witnesses have said.

A witness said he yelled out to Bray as Bray drove by, and that Bray merely stopped his car and backed up to respond. The man said Bray probably never knew of the deputies’ presence.

While the deputies’ statements have yet to be disclosed, other officers say they assume Wickham, who had exited the patrol car, probably believed Bray was trying to ram them to evade escape or perhaps win time to grab a weapon and resist arrest, and that he shot because he believed either he or his partner was in physical jeopardy.

The district attorney’s office will review the Sheriff’s Department report of the shooting and make its own ruling on whether the killing of Bray was justifiable. The FBI is also investigating, and the new county grand jury is expected to take up the matter when it is seated July 1.

But law enforcement officers elsewhere say it is unlikely that Wickham will be criminally punished for the shooting, since driving a vehicle toward officers is typically considered an “assault with a deadly weapon” justifying a lethal response.

The Sheriff’s Department’s policy on the use of firearms reads, in part, that “officers shall use deadly force only as a last resort and only after the officer reasonably believes that the force used is necessary . . . in defense of human life, including the officer’s own.”

There is no specific reference to how to react when a vehicle might appear to be a threat to the officer; training officers in San Diego and elsewhere in the country say that, in the end, it is the officer’s own discretion, judgment and decision that will lead to a shooting, no matter how specific or how vague the guidelines are.

Indeed, shooting at vehicles by San Diego County lawmen is not uncommon; the very deputy assigned to train new recruits to the use of deadly force says the first person he shot was a suspected kidnaper trying to flee arrest by driving over him.

Unlike the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, the New York City Police Department makes specific reference to shooting at cars:

“Discharging a firearm from or at a moving vehicle is prohibited, unless the occupants of the vehicle are using deadly physical force against the officer or another by means other than the vehicle.” “A bullet won’t stop a vehicle coming at you,” said Lt. Daniel Mullen of the department’s legal office. “You’re better off to take action to get away from the car. And there’s the problem, too, of a ricocheting bullet.”

New York Police Lt. Frank Geysen, who teaches firearms use and tactics to new cops, elaborated:

“What happens to the vehicle after you hit the person? Shooting the driver doesn’t stop the vehicle. And you might end up allowing even more damage after the person is killed.”

“Our general instruction to recruits is, if you’re being rammed, get out of the way--and you’re not getting out of the way if you’re standing there shooting.”

But there’s an exception in the New York policy as well, Geysen said.

“It can end up being a judgment call. How fast is the car coming at you? How quickly can you get out of the way? You can probably analyze the situation later and have come up with lots of answers. But in the end, we have to leave it up to the officer’s judgment, and everyone will handle it differently. We just hope they make the right decision.”

The Houston Police Department says officers should not fire at moving vehicles “unless it is absolutely necessary” to protect someone.

What kind of a threat is a ramming vehicle? “Hmmm. That’s a tough one,” said department spokesman Al Baker. “The bottom line is, we tell the officer to do whatever he thinks is safe and necessary.”

The Miami Police Department tells its officers not to shoot at vehicles, for a variety of reasons, including the difficulty of shooting accurately through glass. (In the case of the Bray shooting in Vista, the back window had no glass.)

Again, there are exceptions. “It’s a grey area, and it all hinges on whether the officer genuinely believes his life, or the life of someone else, is in danger,” said spokesman Raymond Lang.