Body armor saves lives. Yes, it’s hot and uncomfortable, but it stops bullets sent in your direction by bad guys. A Denver cop learned that first-hand earlier this month when a lunatic named Nicholas Lendrum opened fire on the officer as he worked in his squad car outside a Quality Inn hotel. The armor soaked up three rounds, allowing the officer to do the only polite thing: return fire.
The body armor-less Lendrum, 35, absorbed several rounds of the 17 the wounded officer fired back at him.
The video is pretty graphic and shows the officer bailing out of his car and using cover and concealment long enough to mount a counter-attack on his would-be killer.
The perp fired 18 rounds and was carrying a spare magazine and a second gun. Fortunately the cop’s shots found their mark enough that suspect Lendrum was unable to bring the additional gun and ammo to bear. Lendrum died of his wounds.
Here’s the local CBS News report . . .
The Denver Police Department released new information Wednesday about two separate officer-involved shootings that occurred on June 7.
In the first incident, an officer was patrolling the Quality Inn near Zuni Street and Speer Boulevard early in the morning. A man who has been identified as Nicholas Lendrum allegedly walked out of the Quality Inn and without hesitation began firing at the DPD officer. The officer was struck three times in his bulletproof vest and returned fire, striking and killing the suspect.
“All of the rounds apparently were stopped by the bulletproof vest that he was wearing,” said Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas.
That didn’t stop the officer from suffering some nasty bruising and potentially cracked ribs or similar injuries. I’ve seen images of cops shot in their body armor and the bruises are big and ugly. However that beats gunshot wounds.
The Police Activity YouTube channel has several videos of late of officers being shot, sometimes while engaging bad guys and other times getting ambushed like this instance.
In another Denver incident, another officer was wounded while pursuing a fleeing felon.
Another officer suffered a gunshot in the arm and arterial bleeding during an extended shootout in Ogden, Utah.
And a Border Patrol officer was beaten senseless with a club before his attacker was neutralized by other agents.
And an Arizona State Trooper shot during a traffic stop.
These were all from the last few days.
Hopefully this isn’t reflective of a sharply increasing trend of cops being wounded or killed by criminal suspects in today’s world.