“Officer Involved Shootings are the Worst Things That Can Happen to an Officer”

CHATTANOOGA, TN (WDEF-TV) – We’ve heard a lot in recent months about "officer-involved" shootings.
And we’ve learned they can happen in any community at any time and under different sets of circumstances.
But one thing that doesn’t change is the training officers get in dealing with these incidents.

NAPOLEON (DONUT) WILLIAMS, RETIRED, CHATTANOOGA POLICE DEPT. "You just can over react sometimes…just use common sense sometimes."

Retired police sergeant Donut Williams knows about violent, possibly deadly encounters.

NAPOLEON WILLIAMS "I was telling about a situation I had down on Martin Luther King. Two guys was a code 19 burglary in progress..they came out the back of a building and I came on the scene…I could have shot both of them…I just shot up in the air."

Those men quickly surrendered.

CHIEF MIKE WILLIAMS, SIGNAL MOUNTAIN "No body gets into this job hoping they have to use force..especially deadly force..but unfortunately as part of this profession occasionally it does happen."

Mike Williams is a police chief these days..but for many years he was in charge of the Chattanooga police department training academy.

CHIEF MIKE WILLIAMS, SIGNAL MOUNTAIN "When an officer feels threatened..or if he feels that a civilian is threatened or another officer’s life is in imminent danger…that’s when they would use and apply deadly force."

Why would an officer handcuff a wounded suspect–especially one who is already lying on the ground ?

CHIEF MIKE WILLIAMS "Secure the person’s hands in handcuffs..so that they can’t obtain another weapon if there is one…and then make sure they got medical attention. "

DONUT WILLIAMS "You don’t know..he might have a weapon in his sock..you can’t never tell."

Can officers really be mentally prepared for using deadly force?

MIKE WILLIAMS "It’s probably the most traumatic they’ve ever been through in their life. And. we try to prepare them for this."

Chief Williams says it often leads to post traumatic stress disorder.

We should point out that Chief Williams and retired sergeant Napoleon Williams were speaking about "officer involved shootings" in general, and not about the incident now under investigation in Chattanooga.