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Police chiefs sponsor training
CANFIELD
Detective Brandon Moore thought Oct. 21, 2010, was going to be just another day in plain clothes.
So when the deputy for Morrow County in central Ohio was called to a civil dispute about property lines, he wasn’t concerned. He didn’t remember to take his backup gun or “go-vest” which had supplies attached to it.
At the scene, Moore learned from a farmer that his neighbor was growing marijuana, and when the detective went to investigate, he was shot by the neighbor, Shane Roush, in the groin, leg, foot and chest.
“I did several things wrong ... but I fell into my training. If you train often enough, you’ll be prepared,” Moore told more than 70 local law-enforcement officers Thursday afternoon.
Moore returned fire, striking Roush, and mostly has recovered from his wounds. He spoke during a training session by the Mahoning Valley Chiefs of Police Association at the Mill Creek MetroParks Farm.
“No matter what you have to do, come home,” Moore said.
Army Master Sgt. Sean Clifton, Green Beret of the 19th Special Forces, spoke before Moore. Clifton was wounded in Afghanistan on May 31, 2009, during a raid on a Taliban compound.
He was hit in his left arm and abdomen, causing extensive nerve and vascular damage. He spent more than three months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and is now an intelligence analyst for the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in Columbus.
Clifton shared his experiences and told those attending that teamwork, readiness, training and a focus on survival — the will to live — will help officers come home.
Both Clifton and Moore noted the increasing rate of officers killed in the line of duty this year, and MetroParks Police Chief Jim Willock, who led the training, said that was the main reason the training focused on surviving gunshot wounds.
“The issue is, no matter what situation we go into, we never know what will happen,” Willock said.
This year, 80 police officers have been killed in the line of duty nationwide, up 7 percent from last year, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a nonprofit organization founded in 1996 that honors law enforcement.
Of those 80 deaths, 34 for were caused by gunfire. In Ohio, six officers have been killed in the line of duty this year.
The Mahoning Valley Chiefs of Police Association has annual training, and the cost for each participant is $35. Police departments from the tri-county area and Pennsylvania attended.