Blue Sheepdog

Some of you may be sick of hearing this, but I don’t know if I can stress this enough: carry your gun off-duty. Heck, carry two or three.

Saturday, an off-duty SWAT member with the Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida, shot an armed robber, ending a robbery attempt at a Winn Dixie supermarket. The would-be robber, who was out of prison on early release for armed robbery, had already fired his shotgun to make entry into an office to obtain money. According to the press, the SWAT officer had walked in on the robbery, returned to his car to obtain his firearm, and then confronted the robber.

A few key points:

1. Excellent job by the officer to end this situation. An argument could be made to have let this dirtbag go, rather than try to stop him while off-duty. However, the officer on the scene made the decision to intervene, and accomplished the mission. Good work!

2. Carry your gun(s) on your person. If the officer encountered the subject before he had time to return to his car, he would have been facing a shotgun-toting felon unarmed. Keeping a rifle in the car isn’t a bad idea (see the next point), but if you can’t get back to the car, you’ve got to fight with what you brought.

3. The felon was wearing body armor. Plan and train for this eventuality. Police officers should train with the “failure to stop” drills (you know… put a bullet in the head/brain box/cranial vault). If you have a handgun, chances are your rounds will not penetrate body armor. A rifle in the car is your best bet, but it is very unlikely you will have the time to get to it.

Again, good work to the KSC officer for excelling in the most difficult encounter any of us is likely to face.

Stay safe!

Police hold robbery suspect in custody

Off-duty KSC SWAT member shoots man in mask

JEFF SCHWEERS
FLORIDA TODAY
An off-duty Kennedy Space Center SWAT member is being hailed as a hero today for shooting a shotgun-wielding man in the chest as he was running from a Titusville Winn-Dixie.

Police began receiving calls from local businesses about 9:22 p.m. Saturday that a man was standing in the Winn-Dixie parking lot, 1535 Singleton Ave., wearing a mask and holding a shotgun.

Within seconds, police said, customers from inside the store began calling police on their cell phones to report that a robbery was in progress.

The masked man fired a shot at the office door to get inside and grab the money, police said, then fled to the back of the store and left through an emergency exit.The KSC SWAT member walked in on the robbery, ran out to his vehicle and got his firearm, police reported. He went around the outside of the building to the back of the store, where he ran into the masked man with the shotgun and shot him in the upper chest. The masked man was airlifted to a local hospital in good condition.

Barry Allen Noetzel, 33, has been charged with armed robbery, aggravated assault, possession of a short-barreled shotgun, use of a firearm in commission of a felony, wearing body armor and mask while committing a felony and shooting within 1,000 feet of other people.

Noetzel has a prior criminal history and is on early release for a 1994 armed robbery conviction, Titusville police said.

After being treated at a local hospital, Noetzel was to be taken to the Brevard County jail and held without bond.