Hubbard cops conduct some real-life training, with a Vindy reporter on board

HUBBARD

The police cruiser followed the dusty blue Chevrolet Blazer through the parking lot beside the empty industrial building on Myron Street.

The lot was narrow and deep. Slowly, the Blazer made its way back, until finally, the blue and red flashes started pulsing from the Crown Victoria’s light bar.

The Blazer stopped in a small spot of desolation. A tree line to the left hid the two vehicles, and to the right, the parking lot L-shaped over to the back of the building and some overgrown property behind it.

Marcus Coonce got out of the Crown Vic. He’s been a part-timepatrolman for Hubbard since January. It’s his first job in law enforcement. He approached the Blazer, where the driver also was getting out.

He was clearly agitated.

“What did I do?” he yelled to Coonce as Coonce approached. “What did I do? I didn’t do anything!”

“Get back in the car!” Coonce told him.

The driver turned toward the open car door and bent over. As he stood back up, an automatic rifle was visible in his hands.

Coonce’s Glock was up.

Before the driver knew what was coming, Coonce shot him seven times.

But the only wound the “driver,” Hubbard Sgt. Chris Moffitt, had to show from all that semiautomatic Glock fire was a nickle-sized piece of raw flesh on his arm, its missing skin dangling uselessly beside it.

“He engaged me first,” Moffitt said. “That’s what he should have done.”

Thursday, Hubbard police began two days of Simunition sessions — training exercises that give the officers a chance to think on their feet in scenarios staged by Moffitt, their trainer.

They use semiautomatic Glocks and automatic rifles exactly like the ones they would use on the job, except the bullets have soap tips. They don’t penetrate so they don’t kill, but they fire just as fast and as hard.

Hence, the missing skin on Moffitt’s arm. He and the other two officers who were at the 10 a.m. training, Coonce and Joe Marando, a full-timer who’s been with the department two years, didn’t see the need for long sleeves.

But Vindicator reporter Jean Starmack did.

Read how she did in the training exercise, and whether she decided to be a 'bad guy' or a cop in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.