Remember the shooting in Colorado back in December? Nut job kills people at one location, travels to a church, kills some more in the parking lot, security guard takes him out:

http://www.newser.com/story/13689.html

Since this a LEO forum, let's skip the commentary about the church, religion, etc. as my post is about the person who engaged the active shooter.

I just watched a DVD of the security guard, Jeanna Assam, speaking about the events of the day. She is a new Christian and the details relevant to that are inspiring, but I thought her overall character as a LEO was remarkable.

First, believe it or not, the media was incorrect on some of the details. Yeah, I know, hard to believe. Here are the basic elements:

  • Ms. Assam is a certified police officer in Colorado volunteering her services.
    Ms. Assam was armed with a Beretta 9mm.
    The gunman was armed with a Bushmaster AR-15 (.223) with over 1600 rounds of ammunition and wore a flak jacket.
    Ms. Assam engaged the gunman at 21 yards striking him at center mass and in the carotid artery with her initial volley.
    Ms. Assam fired a subsequent round when she observed the gunman reaching into his vest as he was thought to be carrying explosives.
    The gunman simultaneously, or shortly before, fired a round into his own mouth.
    Due to the loss of blood, his trigger pull was flawed and the round was not completely effective and the gun stovepiped.
  • Although those facts are impressive, that's not what impressed me.

    What impressed me was when she was asked on the video "What's the biggest myth the media is stating that you would like to correct / clarify."

    The media dug up her file and found out she was disciplined for lying in an IA investigation several years ago.

    The media stated that she didn't kill the gunman, he committed suicide.

    The media stated other derogatory things about her, including mocking her faith.

    The media stated that she was a hero but that some of the other guards had ran from the scene, didn't take a shot, etc.

    Guess what her one clarification was?

    Her one clarification was that she wanted to make sure that everyone knew "all of my fellow officers acted bravely and performed their duties. There was no cowardice shown by any of my team that day."

    Of all the lies / exaggerations quoted, the most important thing to her was making sure that she upheld the reputation of her fellow team members. In her "moment in the spotlight" she made sure that others received credit.

    Kind of like Officer Jurjevich did in this thread:

    http://forums.leoaffairs.com/viewtopic.php?t=46000

    People like that are why I volunteer, I like being in the company of yesterday's, today's, and tomorrow's heroes. The kind of heroes that make mistakes but at the end of the day would put their life on the line for people they usually don't even know.

    I have the DVD available for anyone that would like to see it. I can make you a copy or loan it out to you. Just send me a private message and I'll get it to you.