Our lifetimes are filled with decisions. We make so many judgements on any given day it may seem we make none, as so many are trivial. Conclusions can be drawn after deliberation or made in a hurry. It’s the split-second variety that can last forever.
According to Psychology Today, you make a lot of choices every day. These folks claim you make a whopping 35,000 judgements per day, averaging 2,000 per hour.
The biggest decisions are made after careful consideration. Whether to get married, purchasing a home, what college to attend, or which job to take are situations that require time to resolve.
If you were terminally sick and offered invasive surgery that would absolutely save your life or an experimental treatment which meant you would endure far less pain and suffering but with no promise of success, which would you choose? How much time would you need to choose an option?
What if that life-or-death choice had to be made in a tenth of second or less? Could you make a good decision? Would you even try, or would you whine about the unfairness of the time constraint on which to make such a momentous choice?
The ICE-Involved shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis is the result of split-second determinations made by both parties. The shooting is the subject of an ongoing investigation to determine whether the ICE officer was justified in his actions. This is standard procedure in an officer-involved shooting.
As a former police officer, I worked in an environment where decision-making often couldn’t be delayed. Where choices must be made now or you, your partner, or the public aren’t going home tonight. Situations that require you to act without having every detail, piece of information, and intention known beforehand.
As an exercise in fast decision-making, I offer you three real-world examples that I experienced.
In each case you must decide whether the circumstances presented would cause you to fear for your own life or that of others, and if you would be justified in using deadly force to stop the behavior.
You may assume nothing beyond the details provided. In each situation you will have to decide on the appropriate action independent of any knowledge of the suspect’s thinking or intentions.
To be more than fair give yourselves two full seconds to decide.
Scenario #1
You are dispatched to a robbery call at a nearby hotel. When you arrive, you see through the glass door the suspect lying on top of the night manager holding a hammer in his right hand. As you enter the premises and identify yourself the suspect raises the hammer in a menacing manner above the manager’s head.
Scenario #2
You are performing a felony car stop of a stolen vehicle. Three occupants have exited the vehicle in compliance with officers’ commands. The driver remains in the car ignoring those commands. As you approach, you see she is searching in the center console for something. You can’t see her hands; your training taught you that those unseen hands are where the greatest danger lies. She continues her actions even though you’ve ordered her to stop and show you, her hands.
Scenario #3
You are dispatched to a burglary alarm at a Burger King. As you arrive you see the suspect standing at the glass front door which has been broken out. The suspect, who is facing the door, turns to face you, and when he turns you can see a .45 caliber semi-automatic gun in his hand. Despite orders to drop the weapon he does not. The gun is raised above his head, but it would only take a fraction of a second for him to lower and fire the weapon.
Hopefully, considering these scenarios gives you some insight into how tough decisions of this type are and how quickly they must be made. If so, you understand that in action or inaction a life can end or be saved.
Neither the law, nor department policy, required that I know the mental state of the suspect. Justification for using lethal force is based on the threatening actions of the suspect that lead me to believe my life, or the lives of others, are in imminent danger.
It is in what you don’t know where the danger lies. It is in the unknowing where fear for your life or for the lives of others exists. It is in this unknowing that the basis for use of lethal force, legally and appropriately exists.
Draw your own conclusions about the justification of Ms. Good’s shooting by ICE, based on the evidence available to you. Remember, you’ve had days to consider the matter without the urgency of an SUV barreling toward you.
This is one of those split seconds that last forever.
Stephen Piccirillo © 2025
