VIDEO OF SHOOTOUT WITH POLICE: How a quick trip to Walmart can turn violent

A video released yesterday by police in Arizona shows how suddenly things can go sideways in a Walmart store.  Police responded to a man, Mitchell Oakley, 24, trespassing at a Walmart store.  In an instant, all hell broke loose as Mitchell Oakley drew a gun and fired on the two officers, wouning both.

One of the officers did the only courteous and proper thing to do:  He returned fire.  Mitchell did one thing well for a change in his life.  He absorbed those hot lead supplements and they helped him assume room temperature, ending his felonious assault.  Yes, the officer cut short this aspiring rap artist's career.  Yes, the would-be cop killer was white, but who says white folks can't rap?  Just look at Vanilla Ice!

Anyway, police released the surveillance footage.  Three Four things stand out to me as I watched it a couple of times:

1.  The one officer who returned fire, killing his would-be attacker, fired while wounded, while on his back and then while sitting himself upright against the recoil of his pistol.  His techique, while clumsy, looked darn impressive.  Technique degrades under stress.  Getting shot and engaging someone who has already shot you under the threat of taking additional hits would qualify as "under stress". 

2.  The cop's mindset and tactics looked flawless. He wasn't going to give up.  He kept moving and kept engaging.  He put his would-be killer into the dirt, face down.

3.  The people in the McDonalds "store" inside where the whole thing began stood around without any sense of urgency to getting themselves out of the line of fire.  Sheep.  One and all.  People, don't be a sheep.  Sheep get fleeced and/or slaughtered.

4.  Can't Walmart afford High Definition surveillance systems?

I googled the name of the murderous, convicted felon a-hole killed by cops and found this story about what his family had to say.  His father said he was just misunderstood.  And turning his life around.  Gosh, where have we heard that before?  From an ABC15 story (caution: annoying video autoplays):

Mitchell’s father says his son was very different than the initial picture painted by police and media reports.

He says, despite a previous past and arrest, his son was a hard worker and was in the process of turning his life around.

"We probably won't know [what led up to the shooting], from what I know, he wasn't there with the intentions of harming anybody,” said Mitchell’s father.

Those cops might well have saved the life of whomever this Mitchell clown was harassing.  Obviously, he didn't carry that gun because he had a license.  Not with his prison and arrest history.

And if he was so darn hard-working, he would have been at work instead of unlawfully carrying an unlawfully possessed handgun unlawfully trespassing and unlawfully harrassing someone at that Walmart.  … Before unlawfully trying to kill two cops while unlawfully fleeing them.

Good riddance Mitchell Oakley.  You won't be missed.