Christopher Chase was an aspiring cop killer. We know this because, according to abqjournal.com, he had ‘cop killer’ tattooed across his knuckles. Wait, that’s nine letters. How…never mind. Chase apparently wanted to go out in a blaze of glory last October when he told “witnesses in southeast Albuquerque to call police and tell them he was ‘waiting for them,'” hoping to ambush the peace officers as they arrived. Before the whole thing was over, Chase shot four Albuquerque police officers (none fatally) before eventually taking eight rounds himself and rapidly assuming ambient temperature. The Albuquerque PD just released a sometimes-chaotic composite of video from the pursuit, highlighted by lapel cam shots of one officer shooting his AR through his own windshield as he drove.

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96 COMMENTS

  1. Wow. Pretty intense. I don’t know about the shooting through the windshield with the AR-15 while driving though. Haha.

  2. wait, did he shove his ar barrel through the front window and shoot at the guy while driving down the road. if so, action movie levels

  3. I concead that the AR is a superior weapon to 1 hand and shoot when you’re driving as opposed to my beloved pump shotgun.

    • Yeah, I love my lever-action rifles, but this had me thinking I need to get an AR (or maybe an AK). Not that I’m planning to shoot out my own windshield while driving, but you never know when the occasion might arise.

      That was some serious badassery right there.

      • I don’t have a great deal of love for the AR. But for a compact weapon for that very rare time when you need to hollywood out of your car the m4gery is probably best. Unless you have the time and patience to go the SBR route and all the legal work that entails.

    • An AR can shoot 30 rounds in rapid succession, long distance, with only one hand. There are a number if reasons why the AR is popular. Its ideal for self defense, patrol, hunting, and sport shooting.

  9. That was probably one of the worst things I have ever seen. Trying to one hand a AR while driving, that guy has no clue where his rounds are going.

    • ^^YES

      I don’t care how intense the fight is – the four rules don’t just go on vacation. And the end never should justify the means. Of course, this is our current militarized police in full effect. Shoot civilians while hunting a cop killer, sure why not?!

      • The cops are getting militarized all right. Unfortunately they are getting their training from the wrong parts of the military. Swat especially. No reason to be doing dynamic clearances unless it a Hostage Rescue.

      • Someone needs to drag that reckless f^ckwit cop outta that patrol and give him a serious tune-up.

        So, let’s get this straight. Bad guy gets a patrol car and has wounded a coupla coppers (slight potential for getting shot comes with the paycheck). Drives said vehicle in a non-reckless manner, lights on, according to radio chatter, no risk to innocents. Cop is one handed shooting out the front of the car.

        I’m sure his wife and kids weren’t on that street…

        • It was the passenger officer shooting out the window. bad guy just shot three officers and was a clear danger, you misinterpreted the message the supervisor was given over the radio. and you have zero evidence that the passenger officer did not check to see if the street was clear before firing…zero,.but hey, thanks for your wonderful and skilled take on the events.

        • Are you blind, you can clearly see him with one hand on the steering wheel the other rocking that AR.

        • Rydak, As noted, perhaps you should actually watch the video and tell us all who the mystery hand belongs to. Perhaps “Thing” from the Addams Family?

          Once again, just because your coworkers have been shot does in no way, shape, or form justify willy-nilly spray-n-pray in an urban environment. There’s this thing called professionalism, which means that you don’t put non-combatants at risk just because you’re pissed off. Cops I know (that work far more dangerous streets than ABQ) will tell you what an insanely dangerous bit of totally rookie Ricky Ranger BS that was. People on the street could have been killed by that idiot cop, and that is inexcusable. You don’t burn the village to the ground to save it, nor do you shoot bystanders to save them. Not to mention if he really was close enough for an offhand shot, he was close enough to catch up and PIT him. Pathetic.

          Utter disregard for the people cops are supposed to serve, that is why the general public is losing/has lost respect for the badge. If you’re a cop, that cowboy attitude will eventually do you in if you actually work in a bad hood, I’ve seen it a dozen times.

  10. I’ve always been in favor of a centerline- mounted Ma Deuce (Semi-auto model is fine) in police cars for just such dangerous chase situations. They could rig up a HUD sight at the driver’s position that corrects for the offset.

  11. This is awfull, the poor guy did nothing wrong. All he was doing was driving down the road. We must have an inquest, we must have a trial. When will the targeting of innocent civilians end? I’m sure a special persecutor was put on this right fast. Rant over, Randy

  12. there are so many things wrong with all this on so many levels. Reminds me of the famous Miami shoot out of about 20 years ago. Under armored and under gunned to deal with the situation. Luckily only the perp died.

    • I’m not one of the anti-militirization folks but what do you think should have been done differently here? Should every patrol officer have a 50 cal mounted on his car?

      • I would have been far more comfortable with a second officer in the car taking the shots to stop the vehicle. That being said, part of the reason single officers in vehicles came about was that they were less likely to go into situations without waiting for backup if they were alone in the squad car. Sort of a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. Not sure there is a truly “good” answer.

        • so…. 2 cops going in alone is bad, lets make it so theres only 1 cop there? Was that REALLY the logic chain on that decision? Because that is literally frighteningly stupid.

        • Another part of the reason single officers in vehicles came about was that they could take them home and on errands to put a “police presence” all over town to deter crime at all hours. Or so say the unions…

  13. I saw this on CNN this morning.
    Can anyone tell what brand of AR the police were using? There is some kind of logo on the side.

  14. ah yes, lovely albuquerque. the minor city with major city crime. went to high school there. somehow graduated without acute lead poisoning.

  15. I CANNOT believe that at the end those clowns decided to light off all that ordnance in a GAS STATION!

    • If you pay any attention at all to Mythbusters you know that it is next to impossible to ignite gasoline with a bullet, even a 7.62 tracer through a gas tank.

  16. Anyone who gets “Cop Killer” tattooed on his knuckles might want to think about getting a bullseye tattooed on his forehead and a dotted-line “Y” tattooed on his chest and abdomen to guide the coroner. What a fool — and a damn violent one at that.

  17. Wow.

    Not many officers can say theyve pulled a move outta the movie “Heat” and kept their jobs. The “Neil McCauley” method , heh.

  18. Good grief. Really not a fan of one-handed rifle shooting out of a speeding car, but it did seem as if he was on a straightaway, and he very well might have thought he had a reasonably safe shot. Given the circumstances I’m not sure I can blame the guy. Hopefully the officers recovered speedily, but a “shattered femur” usually doesn’t spell anything good long-term. It’s incidents like this that really spell out what cops can sometimes have to deal with, and why sometimes they should get the benefit of the doubt unless there’s clear evidence of wrongdoing.

    • they should get the benefit of the doubt

      They should get the same benefit of the doubt that we do. And we get jack.

  19. Is it just me or at 6:47 is the guy with the pistol lasering the ass of the guy in front of him? Talk about a bad day.

    Agreed with above, 4 rules dont not eva’ go on vacation and man I bet that AR in the car rang his bell.

    EDIT: Just rewatched the end of the video and he clearly says “Hey are we good? I cant hear anything.” 🙂

    • is the guy with the pistol lasering the ass of the guy in front of him?

      He was checking for an entrance wound.

  20. If he’d just learn to shoot lefty he’d save a lot of tax payer dollars spent on windshields.
    Love the “Neil McCauley” method.
    Best regards,
    lefty-AR-Shooter with lefty upper. 8)

  21. I’m calling shenanigans. This will turn out to be a special mix of actual and reenactment footage.

    • Since most of it was actual footage of the dashboard and the audio was mostly sirens, I’m thinking it was outtakes from Cops.

  22. I love how people are bitching about the 4 rules being violated. That shows that you have never had to defend yourself/loved ones in any sort of public setting. Nobody gets up in the morning and picks when some nut will attack them. The criminal dictates the time and place and you have to deal. Is collateral damage bad? Yes Is it completely avoidable? No. Yes it sucks getting shot by accident, but it sucks worse being dead. Was it a good idea to try shooting while steering? Probably not. He should have had a partner driving, but other than that I don’t see a real issue with returning fire. People figure out pretty fast to GTFO away from a gunfight.

    People seem to have double standards when it comes to police/military vs civvies. Nobody complains about the 4 rules being violated when some meth addict is ventilated by a normal person, but when the police shoot somebody, everybody starts complaining they could have killed somebody else by accident. There is no real difference between cops/civ/military. They all put on their pants 1 foot at a time. Yes the govt. protects those who serve it, but that does not make them infallible. Everybody is human and makes mistakes. Shit happens, and today you could be killed 50 different ways by accident. Does it matter if it was a bullet vs a car? Want to be perfectly safe in public? Live in an armored bubble and don’t interact with the world. /RANT

    • They claim to be better trained, and the left sees them as the only ones qualified to have guns.

      So yes, there is a double standard.

    • Seriously? I am a trained professional, I hold myself to better standards than civilians, and I hold people who’s job it is to protect people to a higher standard. Shooting a AR one hand while pursuing a criminal at what looked like pretty high speeds is unprofessional and pure hollywood. You realize how far bullets can fly? That dude had no clue where his rounds were going to end up. That is pure lack of training right there. I have shot off moving vehicles going what looks like half that speed and it isn’t easy. Much less trying to one hand a AR while driving. That is the point of being professional, not making amateur mistakes. Getting somebody killed cause you didn’t follow the four rules is not acceptable for people who live be the gun.

      • Not agreeing with his choice to try shooting and driving with an AR. I agree it is unprofessional and he should be held accountable because he should have known better. If anything, he should be held more accountable by the courts instead of less, but that is not how things work out. I doubt most people (trained or untrained) would think its okay to shoot and drive 1 handed at the same time in a populated area.

        Regarding the 4th rule, every gunfight violates it since there is no way in any gunfight to know 100% what is behind your target. You have to try your best to avoid accidentally shooting something or someone, but it still happens. You could shoot some crack head in an empty yard and somebody a couple of houses over behind a few walls can catch a bullet, that’s life.

        • Every gunfight doesn’t violate it. I have been in plenty of tics in villages, and one of the jobs of the officer and team leads is to ensure we are not shooting at each other. Are when we are flanking, you just don’t keep shooting forward unless you know the limits of the guys flanking. And it is also kinda one of the most important things of CQC which every swat team disregards. That is the point of being professional, you don’t lose your cool when bullets start flying.

        • Preventing friendly fire is not the same as being able to 100% ensure you don’t plug an innocent civilian with stray fire, which is mainly what i’m referring to.

      • Real professionals don’t criticize the man getting at shot at from a video on the internet. You’d be so lucky as to have succeeded at what he did.

        • Really you believe that somebody should not be critiqued cause they got shot at. That is how you get better. Every op I have ever did, when done we do a immediate hotwash to go over what we did right and what we did wrong . Calling out your mistakes and others lets people know what they did wrong and how they can improve and how you can improve. And I have shot from multiple moving platforms, it is incredibly difficult. I would never attempt to try and shoot one handed with a AR while driving. It is straight amateur. Defending something like is asinine. Just cause somebody gets into a gunfight doesn’t mean that they can’t be critiqued.

        • seans,

          Thanks for a sane tactical understanding of what it means to be a professional, not just a petulant child with a hard-on and a permission slip.

    • You know what happens when a citizen that’s not a cop accidentally shoots a bystander? They go to prison and get sued.

      You know what happens when a cop accidentally shoots a bystander? The department gets sued, the guy takes paid vacation while the police union defends him and he eventually goes back on the force.

      There is a double-standard and there shouldn’t be. We agree on that.

    • @Kyle, if you try to do away with the double standard, every cop in America will have you in his sights. It’s the double standard that keeps a lot of them on the job and out of prison.

  23. Wow! Dirty Harry-esque.

    Am deferring to the real LEOs here, and just wondering if this is part of tactical training these days, or one guy free-lancing.

    I wasnt there, so I’m defering judgement on how bad it was and why he had to go this route- but shooting the 5.56 light weight easily destabilized round thru glass means less accuracy, no?

    Interesting that the ABQ PD released this in advance of the official records.

    • Shooting thru glass in not as bad as people think. I have done it in training for soft skin vehicles, it isn’t fun. Even with peltors on, but it can be done, but definitely not by the driver while driving. Glass is really one of those urban myths of shooting. Now a sloped front windshield will adjust the point of impact depend on which way the bullets are going. I believe you want to aim high if you are shooting out, and aim lower if you are shooting into the car, but I haven’t done that in years, so I could be backwards.

  25. He’s just doing it the same way the New York cops do. Just wasn’t as many people on the street.
    That looks cool in a movie but has no business on any city street. It is pure luck that no innocents were shot. You want to stop a bad guy? Take aim, then shoot. Nice reload though.

  26. Just my two cents – The Four Rules are highly appropriate for training, at home, and at the range.

    When the real world SHTF it becomes a question of judgment on the part of the shooter whether or not the seriousness of the situation warrants bending or breaking any of the rules.

    I will not fault ANYONE, cop or not, who is faced with possibly being shot and killed, who pulls his trigger without being certain of what’s behind his target.

    I am willing, based only on this crappy lapel video footage, to giver the “Hollywood” badass the benefit of the doubt that he was very cognizant of what was in front of him and beyond his target. We have no view whatsoever of the terrain surrounding him at the time he fired.

    I want cops to be professional and to be concerned about collateral damage, but IMO it is a judgment that has to be made at the time, in the place, and with knowledge of the perp being pursued, if it is more important to ensure that he is stopped or let him escape in order to prevent ANY possibility of collateral damage. Keep in mind that they KNOW he is an active shooter. He has shot at least two police officers, and eventually four, while proclaiming to the world that it is his INTENTION to kill police. We do not know what his prior arrests/incarceration were for or how dangerous he was considered even without the cop-killer theme.

    We do know that he shot cops, stole a police car, drove recklessly through the town firing at pursuing police. It is VERY possible that in the judgment of the police his escape would result in more potential collateral damage than any that might occur in stopping his rampage.

    And by the way, is it okay to ignore Rule #4 and fire when they guy shooting at you is also ignoring it and any innocents who may be behind you? It could be said that if you had a shot to take out the bad guy and you didn’t take it because of these rather arbitrary rules EVERY person that BG shoots, injures or kills after that point in time is ON YOU.

    The rules are for safety. Learn them, practice them, live by them, but understand that they are not a straight jacket that requires you to absorb incoming rounds rather than fight back when it is appropriate.

    I am not a cop or a lawyer or a trained operator. YMMV, as may your opinion.

    • Thank you for some sense. For some reason people seem to believe that only the cop’s bullets are going to hurt anyone.

  28. Reminds me of the video I saw once of a Sheriff’s deputy back in the old days stopping a pursuit by using a twelve-gauge with his left hand out the driver’s side window of the patrol car to take out the bad guy’s tire.

  29. Edited/produced by Pat Vasquez-Cunningham.

    There is a guy who should never touch any recording, editing or playback device. Not under any circumstances. None at all. No siree.

  30. Can’t tell for certain from the images, but from the sound I’d say the persuer was within 100′ of the target – based on the loudness of the other engine. ‘Course, that other engine could’ve been much closer and behind, but I don’t think so.

    A cruiser presents a pretty big target at that range, and I suspect that most of those rounds found it.

    This doesn’t speak to rounds going in and out through glass and continuing as free spirits through shop windows and toddlers, but it might not be quite so reckless as it appears.

    Glad I wasn’t on that street, though.

  31. A lot of the AI swear by their AR’s and prefer them to shotguns as house guns judging by the couple of years worth of comments I’ve read since finding TTAG. I always have championed the shotgun as a house gun and still do.

    I live in a densely populated urban sprawl. Unless you live in the country with a minimum of a mile and a half between you and any neighbers or public roads you violate rule 4 at the very least when engaging with a rifle.

    • Hmmm… It depends on the direction, ’round here.

      Anyway, should (Gods forbid) I ever have to engage bad people in my home, it’ll be with a pistol – and I’ve damned few neighbours and NatureMade® berms 200′ and more thick for the most part.

      • Let’s hope that most, if not all, the folks planning on defending their castles with rifles have your set up.

        Actually, in your case Russ it wouldn’t surprise me to find out your home defense setup included a 9 pounder with grapeshot. And a cutlass.

  32. Too bad none of the officers were properly armed. If one of them had the sense to fire a double barrel shotgun into the air, problem solved. Cops have a tough job.

  33. These are not peace officers. These are thugs with badges. These guys are part of the larger domestic army in America composed of police/federal agents. Period. They’re not lawful nor do they have any kind of legit authority or ability to act in the capacities they do because what they do everyday is violate the Constitution by enforcing & upholding unconstitutional statutes/codes/other non-laws. Revolt 2.0 is coming & better train, arm & prepare yourselves for it.

    • This was probably this guy’s own personal Revolt. He only targeted cops. I have a really hard time feeling sorry when this happens to police after seeing how many times they target innocent civilians for execution. Sad but true. I don’t applaud this guy’s actions but I am not really that broken up about it either. I mean, if you watched your neighbors kick puppies almost every day for years on end are you going to feel bad when one of them gets mauled by a pack of dogs? I have a feeling we are going to see more of this shit and I really have a hard time caring about it. You reap what you sow.

  35. It’s obvious that “lapel cameras” are an absolute WASTE of taxpayer dollars. They show virtually NOTHING of what is actually happening. If that’s the best you can do just go with a cheap mic and
    record the sound.

    As for the “badass cop” shooting through his windshield…FIRE HIS IGNORANT STUPID TESTOSTERONE FUELED ASS NOW. That action had virtually ZERO chance of actually
    hitting the subject but it DID launch a magazine full of 5.56 rounds out into the public with the
    words “to whom it may concern” on them. It’s a flipping miracle Mr. BadAss idiot didn’t kill
    a citizen with that insanity,.

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