Simi Police Are Armed to Not Kill With New Riot Gun

In a city where folks fiercely guard their rights to own guns, Simi Valley police took up a new weapon Thursday that is meant to bridge the deadly gap between baton and bullet.

The six-shot Sage riot gun fires a blunt, inch-and-a-half thick polyurethane slug that is designed not to kill, but to knock down an armed, violent or suicidal suspect.

And Police Chief Randy Adams said the gun will allow his officers to defuse volatile situations without deadly force, or getting injured themselves while using close-quarters weapons such as batons or pepper spray.

“More and more, police departments across the nation are encountering suicidal subjects who want to take their own life or want the police department to take their life,” said Adams, after firing a few booming rounds from the Sage in a demonstration at the Shooter’s Paradise pistol range. “This is an effective tool to allow us to neutralize those subjects and take them into custody.”

The gun could have helped police in December in a confrontation with Mark Pedersen, a mentally ill man who lunged at officers with a knife. In the ensuing chaos, an officer shot Pedersen and a fellow policeman, said Sgt. Gordon Weeks.

Weeks said the weapon is perfect for incidents that “aren’t clear-cut deadly force situations . . . but those things that fall in the gray zone where you’d be an idiot to approach the person.”

Simi police became the first agency in the county to put the $1,700 guns out on routine patrol--the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department arms only its SWAT team with Sages.

As of Thursday, one Sage began traveling in the trunk of each of the two patrol sergeants’ cars on all shifts, and a third with the SWAT team.

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Councilwoman Sandi Webb, known for her outspoken pro-gun views, said that if Simi Valley police feel they need the riot guns, the purchase is “fine by me.”

“I won’t try to even attempt to second-guess the police as to what equipment they feel is necessary,” Webb said Thursday. “They’re the experts. That’s what we hire them for.”

Every Simi officer from the rank of sergeant on up has been trained to use the gun, said Lt. Neal Rein, pointing out the gun’s yawning black muzzle.

“As you could see, if you were on the receiving end of this weapon, it would look pretty intimidating.”

Officers are trained to fire the Sage at the suspect’s center of mass, from no closer than 15 yards if possible.

Any closer, and the slug can break a rib. Nor should officers fire it at a suspect’s head--a shot to the temple could kill.

“We don’t want to hit anything vital,” Weeks explained. “We don’t want to hit the head or neck or throat or groin.”

But Weeks said he has handled many confrontations where the Sage would have been better--and safer for himself--than using a baton or pepper spray at close enough range.

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The gun can be used to stop anyone who is too violent to get close to, yet who is not dangerous enough to require deadly force--from people who barricade themselves inside houses to raving men jacked up on drugs, Adams said.

“Sometimes the subject will strip naked, they’ll have superhuman strength, or when we turn the K-9 dogs on them, they actually pick the dog up and throw it.”

While the guns will be loaded and carried with new rounds costing $20 each, the shells can be easily reloaded for about $3 apiece--although reloads are less accurate, Rein said.

Rein cracked open the fearsome-looking weapon’s fat 8-inch-wide breech to reload it with 5-inch-long shells.

“The suicidal subjects are the most common scenario,” Rein said. “You can use this if they’re cutting on their wrists with a knife or if they’ve got a gun to their head. The question is, do we allow the person to kill themselves or do we inflict a slight amount of injury and basically save them from themselves?”

Then Adams stepped up to the counter, shouldered the Sage and squeezed the trigger.

With a savage pop, the muzzle spat out a thick, black 2.5-ounce slug that whizzed downrange and thudded into a protective pad at 120 mph.

“This is less than lethal force,” he said appraisingly. “But it has extreme knockdown power. If it saves even one life, it’s worth it.”