Police shooting Suspect high on PCP shot by police

A reasonable and prudent person follows a police officer’s orders. Angry people sometimes show reluctance to follow lawful commands, as do the mentally ill. But add the effects of PCP to an angry nut job and things can go sideways quickly for cops and suspect alike.

That’s exactly what happened in Atlantic City recently, as a police dashcam video below reveals.

Antoquan Watson, 27, led police on a multi-city, high-speed chase before emerging from an SUV with a handgun. He ignored commands to drop the gun and pointed it at officers. The cops did the only polite thing they could: they lit him up as he opened fired on them.

Mr. Watson soaked up a number of rounds before he went down. Even after he collapsed under a fusillade of bullets, lying on the pavement, he continued to hold onto his handgun pointed at police.  So the cops kept shooting him. He kept pointing his pistol at them. Meanwhile, they shot him some more.

In the end, Mr. Watson’s bullet-riddled corpse took almost four dozen hits. Thankfully, no innocents downrange were struck, even though police officers missed plenty of times before it was all over. Watching the video, viewers can see a multitude of puffs of smoke from rounds hitting the pavement near the suspect and, no doubt, skipping.

The UK Daily Mail reports that a grand jury declined to indict the seven officers involved in 2015.

Clearly this incident shows that criminally inclined people — particularly when chemically enhanced — tend not not obey laws. That’s why the law-abiding need the great equalizer to defend themselves from criminals who would do them harm.

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122 COMMENTS

  1. Well duh. If I lived in a state where hollow points are illegal I’d shoot 45 times too.

    • “If I lived in a state where hollow points are illegal I’d shoot 45 times too.”

      I may be wrong, but I think the po-po is the only ones allowed to carry hollow points outside of home in NJ. It’s only the peasants that must carry FMJ for self-defense.

      Some animals is more equal than others………..

        • That’s just a 100% guarantee that they do. As a former LEO I feel pretty safe in saying that there’s not a police officer in the US carrying round nose ammo. If there is it’s someone who’s not been trained at all and has absolutely no knowledge of ballistics. Highly, highly unlikely.

      • According to another report, the bad guy had a Colt 45 semiautomatic pistol with an extended magazine. I guess they covered up the fact that 9 or 10 of the cops died as well. 🙂

        • Now there’s a new hole in the ozone layer above NJ. Ban the .45. Do it for the environment and the children.

      • If they had .44 magnums they wouldn’t need to shoot at all. Just say, ‘This is a .44 magnum, the most powerful hand-gun in the world. It could blow a man’s head clean off.’

    • Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice….. or 45 times, as the case may be.

  2. Nobody questions dropping a true bad guy. Defining who that is, remains the issue. And as this blog has shown over the last month, that is a problem. As for the above event? It renews my dislike of anything under a 9mm para. A .380acp and other mouse rounds would be like throwing a spitball at this guy.

        • If you carefully examine the video , you’ll notice he went down due to a knee shot . A well placed 22 magnum in the head would have most likely put him down also . This is central mass training of coarse and works in almost all other cases , but this guy was like 6’5″ and 340 pounds by the looks of it and that’s a lot of central mass . Police need to be efficient enough to be able to take a more accurate head shot when called for and this is going to be better done with a flat trajectory , high velocity , smaller round , like a 22 WMR or 17 HMR . I advocate for police to carry a backup weapon in one of these other rounds and be able to hit a soup can at 25 yards . I do and I can . I actually carry my PMR almost exclusively and feel quite safe . After watching this video repeatedly I am fairly confident I could have shot this perp. in the cranial area , while he was moving forward , behind cover , with my PMR , before he went down . Not so with any of my big caliber pistols with the exception of my Ruger BH 357 with the 6.5 inch barrel , which most police officers would neither carry nor care to train with to take this shot .

        • absolutely.

          but it’s even mo betta if the “.22” is a 5.56 coming out of a rifle 🙂

    • “Only 45? The cops must have run out of ammo.”

      Sheriff Grady “Because they ran out of bullets” Judd would consider that a solid effort and offered those cops a job in Polk County, Florida…

  4. Will PCP be added to the list of decriminalized drugs?
    If so we are going to need full auto with big magazines.

    • I’m not sure I see the point of this question. It’s not like the illegal nature of PCP prevented this situation from occurring.

      No matter what anyone says or wants to believe the truth is this: People who want drugs get them regardless of the law.
      That in and of itself isn’t a reason to make them legal, but the carnage, destruction of our rights and other costs are.

      Whenever someone says they support the 2A and then says they support the WoD I roll my eyes and wonder if they’re lying or just silly. These two positions are mutually exclusive because the a really big chunk of the “gun violence” that anti’s use to fuel their arguments is a direct result of the WoD.

      • One can get cocaine and heroin in countries where using, or dealing, is punishable by execution.

        People enjoy cannabinoids, opiates, and amphetamines. Why? Because they work.

        They work because your brain has the receptors. Your brain has the receptors because you naturally produce the chemical already. Doing the drugs is just more of what you naturally have. I know it bothers the Puritannical folks, but some people just require a bit more to get them feeling the way they want to feel.

        And that’s supposed to be their choice in a free country. All the “bad” things about drug use stem from the fact that drugs are illegal. The purity issues (ODs), and mainly the cost. A gram of coke/heroin/meth/whatever costs less to produce than a fifth of decent Scotch – and should sell for the same price. Which would keep millions of addicts alive, and living with their addiction until they decide to quit – which happens all the time. If you can afford the addiction in the first place.

        • I wouldn’t say that “all” the bad stuff comes from narcotics being illegal but I would say that the overwhelming majority of the problems stem from their status.

          Either way, your 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th Amendment rights pretty much go out the window when the word “drugs” enters the conversation. That, by itself, is reason enough to end the WoD.

          Unless of course you were to hold a statist opinion, as many “ardent 2A supporters” seem to.

        • The societal damage is from their illegal status, personal harm will absolutely come from abuse of any substance or activity. Yes, a meth addict can neglect a child but who wants to bet that same neglectful addict would probably still be a piece of shit parent without the meth. And there’s plenty of teetoataling abusers out there too.

        • Prior to 1914 and The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act, it was all legal. Your got your drugs from a drugstore (go figure) and your dealer wore a bow tie and called you sir. You could legally buy a half key of coke and then go out and buy a full auto broom handle mauser . . . and the world did not jump off its axis.

          Alot of this prohibition mentality depends on people being historically retarded.

    • Laws do not prevent crime. Laws define criminal acts, and laws allow for punishment, but laws do not, cannot prevent, a human from acting.

      In fact, the Apostle Paul argues that laws CAUSE crime.

      • Excellent Point! More alcohol was consumed during prohibition than before or after, because it was illegal. Not to mention the rise in organized crime and the rise of the FBI to fight them. The restriction on certain types of firearms is also directly related their use by organized crime. All because of regulation of alcohol.

      • Paul actually says that the Law reveals to us our sinful nature; in fact, he states that the Law, by itself, does not change how we act.

  5. I count somewhere around 19 shots fired before he fell to the ground. No way to know which ones were coming and which were going, but with 7 officers engaged in the fight, it’s probably pretty reasonable to assume that at least 75% of the gunshots were from officers, right?

    So maybe around 15 bullets fired before the attacker dropped to the ground. Not stopped, mind you, as the article says the attacker continued to be a threat even after hitting the ground.

    And that was just one attacker.

    I’m quickly losing all interest in single-stacks.

    • You need a roof hatch on your vehicle with an M2. Or you’re not serious about self defense.

    • While you are losing interest in single stacks, I hope you also lose interest in compact double-stack handguns.

      I carry a full-size semi-auto handgun with a 15-round double-stack magazine in .40 S&W (loaded with 180 grain hollowpoint bullets) for just this reason.

    • Single stack 7+1 PPS .40 S&W loaded with 180 gr. Hornady XTP with a muzzle velocity of 1250 fps with over 400 lbs of tourque at impact with decent shot placement should stop anybody. I never feel undergunned. If the caliber doesn’t start with a .4, get a double stack and a maxi-pad.

      • There were 7 cops there pouring .40 S&W’s I to this guy at a rapid pace. They fired probably 15 at him before he fell to the ground.

        That single-stack 7+1 of yours woulda been going click-click-click and that guy would have been still shooting back.

        All handguns are lousy stoppers. Including those who start with .4.

        • Hornady #: 40040 Projectiles…Starline nickel brass… 5.5 grains of Bullseye or 8.0 grains of 800X…the only way to get real performance is to roll your own and hit your target.

      • Ed,

        Are you truly getting 1240 fps on a 180 grain bullet out of a handgun barrel? Because what you quoted are 10 mm ballistics which has to be significantly over-pressure for .40 S&W. Not only is that at risk of failing the brass, it is also at risk of failing your handgun.

        • 1210-1240 from a Beretta 96. Never had a split or bulged case…nothing even overstreched. I’m sure that the velocity is a bit less from a PPS, and these are not plinking rounds. This was load data from someone I know who has been reloading for almost 50 years. All modern load data is weak by design. Federal LE 180 gr. Hydra shok is advertised at only 1000 fps. Thats weak anyways, but its more likely to crono around 950-970….thats garbage. They should be 1100 fps, but then the limp wristers and girls will cry about recoil.max load data is actually .3 grains over both powder weights I listed.
          Do you even load, bruh? SMH.

        • Ed,

          If loads are available that develop an extra 200 fps without being overpressure, why are no ammunition manufacturers offering such a load? I can guarantee you that many people want such a load, are not concerned about additional recoil, and will buy it if available.

        • They don’t produce it because if you put that stout a load in a shitty constructed pistol ( hi point, jiminez ect) bad things WILL happen.
          People have shot boatloads of 9mm surplus that was constructed specifically for use in sub-machine guns that are WAY hotter than a normal 9mm, where are all those horror stories?
          I also can get 250gr. .45 Colt to move at almost 1100 fps from a 4.5″ Vaquero….you gonna tell me theres something wrong with that too?

      • Watched tnoutdoors9 video of XTP 10mm load out of a G20, a little milder than Ed’s loads. Tnoutdoors9 says of the nine inch wound channel “it’s nasty stuff”, moved the gel block when it hit, held together for the most part there were a few fragments, expanded well and went 17+ inches.

        • The only factory 10mm worth a damn is Buffalo bore…that stuff you can get 1300 fps from a G29. Every other big name cartridge company downloads their 10mm close to how .40 S&W was originally designed to perform.

        • Doesn’t know the difference between torque and energy. Must be a gear head with a gasoline high.

    • cops tend to hit their target under stress only a tiny percentage.

      most likey, the majority of the rounds fired were misses.

      • Unless your in Texas. Texas cops hit what they are aiming at. The attack on the comic drawings of Mohamed are a perfect example. terorist shows up with rifle and we end up with one dead terorist and a wounded officer.

        • You claimed that Dallas police hit what they’re aiming at….

          That shooting in downtown Dallas last year determined that statement was a lie.

    • This is the reason for a failure drill. Any hunter will knows body shots often take time to incapacitate regardless of caliber. A single stack should be enough to handle a single attacker or a pair for that matter.

  6. Apparently, they just didn’t want the guy to survive. Defense was over after his handgun was empty and he was on the ground.

    • Except the guys handgun wasnt empty, you can see he still squeezes off rounds while on the deck.

    • I’m sure the police knew exactly what kind of handgun he was carrying, how many rounds were in the magazine, and kept a close tally of how many times he shot at them. Yep, they sure should have known the guy’s gun was empty. It’s so simple. [/sarc]

    • Chito,
      I suppose that when you’re in the middle of a gun battle, you will have the presence of mind to count the number of rounds the other guy has fired?
      Most people don’t know how many THEY fired, much less the number of shots the bad guy fired. And if your vision is good enough to tell they bad guy’s gun is empty, after you’ve suffered the effects of the massive adrenaline dump that is sure to come when he gets out of the vehicle with the gun, much less points it, then you are one cool and collected dude!
      Perhaps you’re unaware of the FBI shootout in Miami many moons ago. One suspect that appeared to be dead, wasn’t and that didn’t bode well for the agents.
      One another note, I looked at the article in the link and the bull spouted that this idiot fired back at the cops is just one more reason I’m damned glad I don’t reside in the UK!

        • IF. That’s a hell of an “if” in such a situation where you are literally in a fight-or-flight adrenaline-fueled response (except you’re paid not to flight)

    • Alright mr badass. Next time you’re in a firefight with a PCP’d up crack head let us know how a real man like you handles it.

  7. There were a ton of people downrage that are very lucky they didn’t get shot by the cops. At 00:18 you can see the shot hit the snow right by somebody.

    That’s totally unacceptable. The bystanders all deserve to go home at night.

    • don’t worry. cops tend to have difficulty hitting the the people they are aiming at, so people they aren’t aiming at are probably fairly safe.

    • I looked it up. The Atlantic City P.D. carries full-size Glock 22’s chambered in .40 S&W.

      Most of the shots on that guy were from handguns, but one officer fired FOUR shotgun blasts at him too!

      Quoted: “A total of seven officers, three from Pleasantville and four from Atlantic City, fired their weapons at Watson. One Pleasantville officer fired four rounds from a shotgun as well as his department-issued handgun. The other six officers fired only their department-issued handguns.”

      They thought he must be wearing body armor. In some ways, being lardy is kind of body armor, as bullets only penetrate a certain distance, and huge sheets of lard would probably keep at least some of those bullets from reaching deep enough.

      Coroner ruled that it was a shot to the head that killed him, and that didn’t happen until he was already on the ground.

      • No doubt, taking a shotgun blast and/or pistol rounds on his nugget ended all functions. But something hit him beforehand that definitely cut his spinal cord, turning a sweaty lumbering meatsack into twitching bulletbait.

        Though he may not have expired outright, whatever came after were spasms, hand/arm contortions, & further strikes, with a few heavy impacts that appear to have travelled longitudinally once he was on the ground.

        Having had to slab the slain beast & count so many leaky holes; the coroner, bless his heart, just picked the most obvious (00-buck cranially FTW) and took an early lunch.

        • Go back and look carefully at the video , just before he goes down his knee buckles backward . I contend it was a knee shot that brought the giant down , but as David taught the world 3000 years ago , a head shot works too .

  11. And remember when your life is on the life make sure trust that latest new super duper we totally got it this time 9mm loads. I mean, it’s not like there’s a problem with people on PCP here in the US.

  13. Killing drug users who don’t comply with police commands will continue to happen every after the libertarian utopia becomes true when you can legally shoot up heroin or crystal meth in public.
    And drug users will also be killed when they break into homes to steal for their habit or when they mugg a person on the street. The police in this case did an outstanding job.

    If you think to many bullets were used I suggest you watch Active Self-Protection videos on You Tube.

      • If libertarians supported drug testing then I might believe what they say. But they only want the protection of discovery that an intrusive government law would give them. The welfare industrial complex in destructive to families. But libertarians are against drug testing welfare recipients.

        Libertarians are enablers of slavery to the welfare system. And its interesting how they support discrimination in job hiring. But they are against drug testing when hiring.

    • The point of legalization is multi faceted. First, it takes money from the illegal traffickers and places the industry under the regulation of whatever agency is appointed to monitor it. The products are made in the US to higher quality standards, meaning no money funneled over the border illegally. It also means far less ER patients showing up with the effects of buying a bad batch.

      Furthermore, by decriminalizing, the jails are not filled with lesser non violent offenders, who then meet and associate with more hardened criminals. The recidivism rate bears this out. It should be treated as a public health issue. Users of hard drugs should be pushed into recovery, not a jail cell. Users of some of the weaker drugs wouldn’t require treatment unless they’ve committed a crime while under the influence, exactly how alcohol use is treated.

      • Legalization has done neither. The dealer’s instead change product. Plus the regulations increase the costs.So the street dealers still have a market to serve. Even today, there is a Moonshine demand long after the end of Prohibition. As for so called, “non violent” offenders? That is a myth. I yet to meet a nice drug dealer. And non violent only means they have yet to shoot someone. That can change in a trigger pull.

        • How many drug dealers do you know personally? I betcha you’ve met many many drug dealers and users and been completely unaware because -shocker- you CAN do drugs responsibly and be a productive member of society.

          Too many people think that just because the government has declared something illegal for whatever specious reason that use=abuse.

          “And non violent only means they have yet to shoot someone. That can change in a trigger pull.” Gee that sounds an awful lot like a anti-gunner argument

        • “And non violent only means they have yet to shoot someone. That can change in a trigger pull.”

          Sniff Sniff….. smells like a lefty anti-gun argument

      • Back to my original question. Will PCP be legalized?

        Will clean good quality angel dust be sold and taxed ? At least we won’t be locking people up for having it I guess. We’ll wait until they kill people while flying high and not even remembering the act.

    • Libertarians aren’t trying to create a Utopia. That’s the socialists. Libertarians are fully aware that the world is full of imperfections, and since the world will always be imperfect and dangerous, it is better to err on the side of individual liberty. The War on Drugs has been a decades long failure that has done far more damage than the drugs themselves ever could.

      • Logical, with an emphasis on personal responsibility and only being punished for thier drug use if a person fails in being responsible, and injures or kills an innocent by stander while under the influence of their habit, just like alcohol.

        Every conservative and/or Republican legislator will obviously fight to stop the War on Drugs, since they always make their laws based on these fundamental conservative principles.

        Oh, wait, I guess they can base some of their decisions for supporting laws based on irrational fears and prejudices, just like the regressives, even when it completely violates their core beliefs.

      • Libertarians who support decriminalization of drugs want people to make their own choices. Fair enough. How about the inevitable costs? Not my problem they say, but it will be. They don’t give a shit about the others around drug users, especially if they want to get high themselves.

  14. Only 45 hits?? How many hundred misses? No property damages?? Bullets probably skipped clear into Manhattan.
    After the shoe came off don’t you think enough is enough?? Maybe not. Im sure Jersey City cops needed the target practice.
    Good thing its only Jersey City. Nothing of much value there. Ive been through that town a time or 2.

  16. The only reason he fell to the ground is because someone kneecapped him, probably the guy with a shotgun. That’s quite a distance he strolled while getting lead filled, Terminator shit right there. 😀

  17. Good thing I didn’t run into the guy, I live in CA. i’m only allowed 10. i guess my choice is simple, i get to die.

  19. Anyone else also notice the idiot Volvo driver that speeds off after it’s all over and lets his car roll to the sidewalk, potentially striking a pedestrian? 😮

  21. PCP is an animal tranquilizer. If he was on PCP, he probably didn’t feel nuffin until enough rounds hit him to crash his circulatory or CNS system. Still seems rather much overkill to keep shooting him while on the ground.

    • Neither the legal standard nor any ethical or moral standard I can think of cares whether someone is ‘on the ground’ when it comes to determining if they are a deadly threat. You may be thinking of Queensberry rules for boxing. Easy mistake to make.

      Because if you’ve got a gun and you hit the deck you’ve just going prone and are not less dangerous.

  22. If I remember correctly, Terence Crutcher was on PCP when he was shot by Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby. Antoquan Watson was what she feared she was facing.

  23. If pcp becomes more popular, maybe I should invest in an old Ithaca Roadblocker (10ga semiautonomous) and a few more 10mm Glocks.

    • Fuck yeah, semi-autonomous 10 gauge area-denial weapon!

      I kid, I know you meant semiautomatic. I want one of those now, but they came with only a 2 round tube!? C’mon gimme 4, at least.

      • That’s what I get for typing on the phone. Those three rounds of 10ga can throw 1/3 pound of lead. Also, should be too hard to fab an extended mag tube.

  24. I really think police have a hard job and I really want to have their back but damn!!!

    I count over 30 shots after he hit the ground. Not to mention the 8 or so rifle or shotgun rounds that make him jiggle like jello after everyone else has stopped shooting…..

  25. After Mr. PCP exits the vehicle his SUV collides with another SUV at 0:21 that vehicle doesn’t move until 0:49 which is after homeslice has been turned into a bullet trap and firing has ceased.

    1) I probably wouldn’t hang out in that situation.

    2) On the other hand they got one hell of a show.

    • Looks to me like the person in the other car , the one the SUV hit , ducks down into their seat when the shooting starts then drives slowly away only after the perp. is down and gunfire is slowing or has stopped . Probably had to clean up their upholstery .

      • Obviously didn’t get the cover vs concealment memo. Should have just watched the show, not really in any greater danger.

  26. not sure there is a real lesson here. no cops were injured in the filming of this movie. the BG died. BG would have died whether on PCP or not, all the PCP did was delay the inevitable by about 2 or 3 seconds. put enough holes in anyone on any drug and they are going down forever.

  29. Anyone else notice the driver in the Volvo SUV waits until AFTER the gunfight is over to drive away from the scene? Also, I noticed the people in the tour bus didn’t try going anywhere either because I saw a camera flash from inside the bus. I know if I was caught in the middle of a shoot-out I’d be getting the F out of there!

  30. This is a gun blog, so maybe the writer can do a little reporting and confirm the caliber for readers. Too much to ask? 9mm?

  32. Let’s be clear here. The (Movie) phrase, “You talking to me?” was first used in the greatest Western movie ever made, Shane, in 1953.

  34. Shotgun with slugs would do the job easily. He did go down like a sack of concrete.

    Agree too many rounds being fired, PO at :15 got a shot off quickly but had to retreat.

  35. For all those discussions, debates, and arguments that ensue about over penetration take note here. A whole bunch of shots missed completely. We can fight over the exact number but its more than one. It does not matter if they are hollow point or solid/fmj, if they hit a bystander damage will be done.

    Those missed shots are more dangerous than a plow through shot. They are more likely too. If a person chooses to shoot he/she chooses to miss. Thinking you will land every shot always (especially under stress) is a fantasy.

    The point is the fear of over penetration is way over blown. It is real but not near the threat people make it out to be.

  36. Well done officers! This guy was able to absorb a lot of punishment – keep firing until the threat is neutralized.

    I can’t help but laugh at all the armchair quarterbacks here.

  38. If people wouldn’t give their kids weird names like Antoquan (or Choeurlyne, or Quintonio, or Quashawn Jones) the kids might be less likely to grow up feeling different from others, maybe wouldn’t start using drugs.

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