Police in Charleston, IL dealt with a EIU student named Yahacov Dennis acting erratically at a gas station last week. One thing led to another and this junior rocket surgeon Mr. Dennis decided he was going to grab one of the officers’ guns and suck start it. He succeeded on all counts and left the officers looking at one another like, “What the French toast just happened?”
Now the body camera video is out, along with the toxicology report.
Our EIU student? He believed he was high as a kite on PCP ingested via some PCP-infused marijuana. Way to go ace. PCP is not a study aid. That would be Adderall, Vyvanse or Ritalin. But maybe his reading comprehension and general cognitive ability wasn’t the best in the world. Maybe he thought PCP was that drug people take for ADHD? Or was that THC? It’s confusing. Hey, that’s the best I’ve got unless he just liked walking around in the cold in an altered mental state. That right there seems stupid, but stupid people do stupid things. (Dude, you don’t need to pay a bunch of tuition to do that, just so you know. Oh wait, he’s dead, Jim.)
Anyway, they are all at this gas station in Charleston when the genuinely helpful officers both reach out to help when it seemed as though Yahacov Dennis was about to collapse while having some sort of medical breakdown.
Now, I’ll say this. The Charleston cops genuinely seemed compassionate and caring. Huge kudos to them. Trust me, I’ve seen some Champaign and Normal cops act like total jackasses towards students in their respective communities. These guys weren’t that. They just wanted to make sure this guy got home safe and sound. Never in a million years did the suspect what would happen next.
Mr. Dennis snatched one of the officer’s guns and then proceeded to shoot himself in the head/mouth, taking the room temperature challenge.
He succeeded despite the officers’ (well, two of the three) risking their lives to disarm him.
I finished watching the video. What sort of retention holster did that officer have? Was it a SERPA or something like that where even the special needs kids know how to snatch the gun out of the holster? That guy got that gun out of the holster in a fraction of a second… like a quarter second or less. His draw, while facing the officer, was smooth and FAST. Has he been to Criminal University (aka prison) where they teach officer disarms?
When I initially saw the first reports of this story I thought there was a struggle over a live gun one of the officers pulled. Indeed, that wasn’t the case at all.
What we can learn from this as everyday people carrying guns…
This case is a textbook example why concealed means concealed for all of us mortals who carry guns everyday. Don’t telegraph that you have a gun on your hip/in your purse/in your pocket to a potential bad guy. Especially if someone’s looking desperate, mentally unsound, or under the influence of something.
If you go hands on, do your best to make sure they don’t discover your gun.
Quick story time #1: While taking photos at a special needs camp almost a decade ago, I was in the dining hall having a good time taking candid photos of camp counselors lovingly helping some of the more profoundly handicapped eat and do self-care. You know, those warm and fuzzy photos that show the high quality of people the camp’s director and staff hired to take care of those with some pretty serious disabilities.
I heard some hollering next to me and saw this 5’9″ kid, maybe 16-years old (and about 175 pounds) slug this petite coed counselor in the face.
“HEY!” I shouted, but by then he already loaded another punch and hit her again. I looked around and saw two other counselors standing there but they weren’t going hands-on as that was grounds for termination.
I put the camera down and the girl, now with panic in her eyes as she backed against a stone fireplace, was about to get a third pop – one that would probably result in her striking her head against the stone behind her.
The kid loaded another punch and I used a Krav restraint hold to break down the violent “camper.”
I had him pretty good around the shoulders and neck, but his hands remained free. I didn’t want to hurt him, but he was done hurting that girl.
As usual, I had not one, but two guns on me and weapon retention was my number one focus behind control of this kid.
One of his fellow campers came over and told me I couldn’t do what I was doing and that might make the lil’ camper mad.
“That’s too bad. Go sit down please,” I told him, trying to be nice to someone else’s handicapped kid.
One of the spectating counselors came over and this kid I restrained called him a “F****** N******” Such nasty language. To his credit the counselor kept his cool.
I told the kid I was holding that that language was not appropriate and that we were going outside now. We went outside, with him still in a full restraint. (I told him if he resisted that I would take him to the ground and drag him out. He complied, reluctantly). Once outside, he started reaching back to grab at me so I put him on his butt on the ground before he found my guns. He continued to fight me so I put him on his side and held him down until camp managers could come and take control of him (and his parents could come get him… he got bounced for the attack.)
I checked on the victim female who had an icepack over her eye by now. Then I went and saw the camp director, expecting to get expelled myself for going hands-on. Instead I got an attaboy. “You probably kept my counselor from quitting. They were impressed with how you handled it. Good job. Glad you were here today.” So was I.
That could have ended very differently if that teenage autistic kid had gotten either of my guns. Or bounced that girl’s head off those stones once or twice.
Story time #2 (much shorter): At our force-on-force classes, invariably we would have untrained students “touching” their gun (“rehearsing” in the lingo commonly used) as if reassuring themselves it was still there in a high-stress situation. We quickly broke them of that because our role-player attackers would see them giving that non-verbal “tell” that they were armed and where the gun was at to pounce on them and tie up their draw. At the same time he (or she) would pull a (training) knife and stab them repeatedly.
Once we blew the exercise cold, he would tell them, “I didn’t know you had a gun until you showed me that you were armed and where you were carrying the gun.”
Keep your gun concealed. If you need it, fine. Create distance then draw and present as appropriate. But unless you’re going to draw, don’t pre-stage your draw or your bad guy might decide to go after the gun if they think they can wrest it from you. And if they are less than 6-9 feet away (as Mr. Yahacov Dennis was to the officer who had his gun snatched), they can be on that gun faster than you can react (as that officer showed). So make sure you’re cognizant of the gun and do you level best to retain it should it be discovered.
WAND has the video. (For what it’s worth, YouTube took a copy of the video down even though it doesn’t show the money shot.) WAND also has the story that was not taken down.
DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – Illinois State Police have released police video of a weekend shooting that shows a man taking an officer’s gun and shooting himself at a Charleston gas station.
The 8:19 long video shows two vantage points from Charleston police… One from a police car dash cam without audio and another from an officer’s body camera with audio.
On Saturday, Charleston police said 22-year-old Yahacov Dennis called 911 for help early Saturday morning around 1 a.m. When officers arrived at a gas station on West Lincoln Ave. near E Street, CPD said, “A rapidly evolving event took place where a CPD officer was disarmed.”
Dennis took the gun and then shot toward himself, according to the department.
Police said he was given medical help and then taken to a hospital where he died.
Dennis was later identified as an Eastern Illinois University student.
More at the link, including the video.
I have never carried on my belt with anything else but a Safariland retention holster. At times I carry a much smaller pistol in a slip holster but it is in a buttoned up pocket.