Victorvill california police-involved shooting
Courtesy Daily Press and YouTube.

Dramatic video from a police-involved shooting in Victorville, California shows a very lucky man surviving his attempted murder of police officers.

Cops say Ari Young, a 21-year-old, attacked a lone female deputy, beating her savagely.  Eventually she drew her gun to repel his attack, but he disarmed her and tried to shoot her.  A neighbor caught the attack on video.

Victorvill california police-involved shooting
Courtesy Daily Press and Youtube

Moments later, at least two additional deputies arrived on the scene in their SUVs. Young, still holding the gun, fired at least one more shot before deputies opened fire.

Remarkably, Mr. Young survived with non-life-threatening injuries.

Here’s the video (possibly NSFW):

https://youtu.be/nauctv059a0

Here’s the story from The Victorville Daily Press:

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Ari Young, 21, of Victorville, in one incident that occurred at the end of Cabazon Court. Young was arrested in connection with the attempted murder of a peace officer.

Video of the dramatic altercation, which involved Deputy Meagan Forsberg, quickly spread on social media.

The video, filmed by a neighbor, shows Forsberg pinned down on the ground as she attempted to fire at Young at least twice.

The incident began when Young’s mother called authorities at 8:25 a.m., saying: “Oh my God, oh my God, send the police. I need my son removed from my home,” according to a sheriff’s department statement.

Video shows the man grabbing the deputy’s left arm as he punches her in the face. With Forsberg on her back on the ground, she pulls her weapon and fires. Although the video is partially obscured by a tree, Young is shown taking the pistol from Forsberg’s hand. As she runs away, Young can be seen cocking the handgun and shooting in her direction.

Forsberg was not hit by gunfire, the sheriff’s statement said.

At that point, three sheriff’s department SUVs pull up with lights and sirens on. Deputies get out of their vehicles, guns drawn, yelling at Young to drop the gun. He ignored their commands, the department said. The deputies then opened fire.

Fortunately the deputy escaped with her life and minimal injuries.

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82 COMMENTS

  1. He likely would have successfully executed the deputy if her gun hadn’t been fouled by her firing while it was buried in the dirt.

    • I watched this as it was posted on our local TV that same day, shortly after the incident. I could almost feel the Deputy’s fear as she realized she had lost control of her weapon and was possibly going to die. That has to be a life-changing moment for anyone who comes out of the ordeal intact. Fortunately, the Piece Of Crap missed as he fired at her.

      BTW, as the Deputy later exited the ambulance (she was treated for minor scrapes from the scuffle) to make room for the incoming Piece Of Crap on the gurney, she didn’t even want to look in his direction, even as she passed by right next to him.

      This happened in Victorville, which is out in the middle of nowhere that Los Angelinos pass through on their way to Las Vegas. Note that nobody came to the Deputy’s aid.

        • My first thought, were is the airweight j frame. As she was fighting for control one of her hands should have been pressing the barrel into his chest and pulling the trigger.

        • Aren’t that many easy options. Ankle or vest holster are the typical ones but both are tough to get to in a fight like this.

          The radio is the best weapon.

        • I guess she could have strangled him with the radio cord or bashed him upside the head with the radio until he quit screaming.

        • I was talking about backup but if her radio base unit is as heavy as one of mine was it would make a much better impact weapon than a baton.

      • We just passed through Victor-Vile on the way to Utah a month ago… It’s quite third world, they’ve been in a downward spiral for decades.

    • Kinda surprised any duty-grade firearm choked that bad after being scraped in the dirt a little. He cleared multiple malfunctions, sounded like.

      • It looks like he held the slide of the weapon which did not allow another round to cycle because she fired the weapon while she was in the ground. Thats why he had to slide the weapon back to try to execute her.

    • Stupid cops. They should have walked up to that POS and put one behind his ear. Save the taxpayers a ton of money and prevent the death of someone else when the idiot State of Mexifornia lets the POS loose again.

    • They really need to enforce strict strength and aggression response training for female police. Sorry ladies a woman just cannot beat a man very often if she’s much lighter. It’s just a fact. Larger women have not trouble because of strength/size. More aggressive women do okay due to lower female hormones.

      Women should really not be in law enforcement. My view.

    • I concur, but it might have scuffed the paint or dented the front end of the SUV. A bullet is a lot cheaper.

      God knows this turd wasn’t worth Much

    • Absolutely. There are some excellent videos out there of officers doing just that. It’s understandable but tactically inferior when you are in a deadly encounter to stop and get out of your 3000-5000lb vehicle so you can try aiming and shooting itty bitty pieces of jacketed lead instead of just stepping on the gas and sending the bad guy across the street.

      One of my favorite videos is where one cop in a vehicle is just following a guy who is actively popping off rounds in a commercial area and then another officer who has a bit more sense just guns his patrol car and slams the guy into a wall. Situation- dealt with. I like to think the first cop was a day shift guy who mostly dealt with speeding tickets and the second cop was a night shift officer who wanted to get home.

    • This is the right answer.

      The first patrol car should have turned the perp into pavement jelly.

      If the intent was to capture and not kill, why did all the responding officers fire their weapons at him?

    • A cop in my town of Marana, AZ did that to a perp who stole a rifle out of Walmart. Was strolling down the street and the cop ran into him with his vehicle. Perp survived. Made national news even.

  3. A couple of things…..
    1. holy crap.
    2. that guy was a stone cold murderer. look at the way he calmly fires and walks towards the officer he just disarmed. If his is in fact dead then the world is a better place because of it
    3. if after all those shots the responding officers fired resulted in a body that could be arrested then thats an indictment of current police fire arms training standards as there ever could be…..

    • That was my thought after watching the video on our local TV. At least three responding deputies unloaded their weapons at a single individual standing about 10 yards from them, and the guy not only lived, but was conscious on the gurney and not screaming in pain?

      Also, the branches obscured the final actions, but the POC had his hands up in the air as the deputies targeted him. Yes, he still had the gun in his hand before the branches got in the way, but was he complying as they pulled their triggers, or did he somehow decide at the last second to point it at them? Did he deserve to be shot, or were the deputies running on adrenaline and wanting to shoot him regardless?

      • A POC (your term, I like it) with a gun in his hand is a credible lethal threat, even if the gun is pointed straight up. IMO lethal force would be warranted for a non-sworn civilian so it’s warranted for the cops too.

      • since the trees obscure the view we can’t tell but it could’ve been a feint since you hear another shot before you see officers exiting their vehicles

      • At the range or while dry firing, pickup a pistol, hold it in the air, and then see how fast you can bring it on target ahead of you and fire. Takes much less time than it would take for someone to react and fire in response. If they wanted to wait until he aimed at them they have given him at least a couple of free shots.

        Now, it’s also about context. Given his previous actions, as long as he is holding a gun- as opposed to dropping it- he is an imminent threat and it is entirely reasonable to react with deadly force.

        And if that surprises you, let’s talk mass-shooters. Say an officer responds to a school shooting and confronts and wounds one suspect in a room full of kids he just shot but there’s still shooting elsewhere in the school- presumably a second bad guy. Does the officer take the time to search and handcuff the wounded suspect? You can’t leave him there, he’s got at least one and maybe more guns and there’s kids around. But every second you spend dealing with him is another dead kid in the other room. I know the answer that came through with the training I had but I’ll leave it to you what you think is correct.

        (yes, for this example we are talking about an officer that isn’t cowardly enough to hide outside the school)

    • Most of the shooting videos i see these days are a spray and pray mag dump. I have to wonder at their training

  5. Why do we need to ban all our eeeeeevil “assault weapons” to end all the mass shootings going on, when all you have to do is disarm a cop and then go a-blazing through a neighborhood?

  6. Wait…
    It appears the perp isn’t white.
    How in the hell did he not get killed by the obviously racist police?
    I’m told the police seek out non-whites (or, is “people of color” the proper term?) to kill at random.

  9. This happened here in my town a few days ago. Followed by Gun grabbing Calvin signing a bill saying your not required to help police like the same day. The guy shot the 1st cop that pulls up in the car. Been up here for most of 10 years it keeps getting worse. Luckily DB county is relatively easy to get a ccw

  10. I like how barely a nanosecond passed between when the deputy shouted “Drop the gun!” and when they all opened fire on the suspect. I’m not challenging it or suggesting they didn’t play it right. He fired in their presence, too, after all.

    What I am saying is that as the individual of armed officers’ attention, you may be better off reading the scene and conducting yourself appropriately, rather than waiting for their explicit commands.

    In this case, those arriving deputies knew another deputy had been shot at–perhaps injured or killed already, for all they knew. They were out for blood and looking to open fire. Only their own poor marksmanship spared the suspect’s life.

    You won’t always know what information responding officers will have. If you’re a good guy with a gun, you might want to holster that sidearm before the cops arrive, if possible,. Don’t give some amped up officer an excuse to commit murder. You might not want to get involved at all, if it looks to you like police response is sufficient and timely.

    • “I’m not challenging it or suggesting they didn’t play it right. ”

      “They were out for blood and looking to open fire.”
      “Don’t give some amped up officer an excuse to commit murder.”

      Your 3rd and 4th paragraphs contradict your 1st paragraph.

    • “You might not want to get involved at all…”

      ****
      That’s exactly why Joel Persinger of GunGuyTV says he likely won’t help anyone in trouble, even though he’s a CCW holder in San Diego. Even with the supposed protection of our state’s Good Samaritan laws, an adrenaline-pumped cop or an eager D.A. might give you a very bad day.

      • When last I checked here in CA it’s perfectly legal, sans permit, to take your firearm out of your home to come to the aid of another person under threat on the street.

        Would I want to be the dude with a gun in my hands when the cops showed on a 911 call? Hell no. If for whatever reason I did take my gun to the street I would drop it as soon as the first cruiser rounded the corner.

        Sitting right here at the keyboard I can only think of one reason I’d leave my home openly armed. A child under threat. That would be the only time.

        • Agreed. An innocent person under immediate threat of harm or death. Otherwise, adults can take care of themselves, or go through the consequences of their own making, such as getting drunk and mouthing off to a neighbor.

        • Jwm
          As far as I know it is illegal for a person to come to the aid of another one in distress with a firearm in the state of California. That is an argument that was made about the Pitchfork murder case many years ago. When children ran next door to ask for help while their sister was being murdered. And the neighbor said that he was afraid he might be arrested. If he intervened with his gun based on current California laws.

          I know the gun storage laws in California prevented the children from accessing the weapons when the two parents were gone. Even though the oldest I believe was 14 or 16 years old.

    • “drop the gun” is in training and popular culture enough that they probably yelled it without even thinking about it, to be honest. If he had dropped it at that moment he might have had a chance but the synapses that controlled trigger fingers had probably already fired. He was a deadly threat from before they arrived.

  11. When the police SUVs come rushing in, even having read the article, I felt sure the lead vehicle was going to smash that guy.

    Honestly, I’d probably have just run him over.

    • Agreed. A vehicle makes a great weapon. It probably would have caused a lot of extra drama about how the scum bags rights were violated or something.

    • There is precedent of an officer using his patrol car to ram a bad guy who was on foot and armed. That actually happened in Marana, AZ, which is north of Tucson.

      Mario Miranda Valencia, 36, stole a rifle from a Walmart and was walking down a residential street shooting into the air. . He was already being sought in a string of crimes including arson, home invasion and armed robbery,

      Police were following him but keeping their distance when Officer Michael Rapiejko sped around another officer’s vehicle and rammed Valencia, tossing him in the air.

      The video:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOp2jjXT9Aw

      Officer Rapiejko’s actions were later found to be justified, if somewhat unorthodox.

      • Used properly a vehicle can both be more effective at incapacitating and less likely to kill that shooting someone. After all, shooting someone enough to stop them usually requires either a head\spine shot or enough of a drop in blood pressure to cause death. But it you hit someone with a car you’re almost guaranteed to stop them but very well might not kill them if they suffer massive head trauma.

  12. I don’t feel like it should be a legal requirement to aid an Officer in a situation like this, but I will say that it’s unfortunate that this was just a video recording and and not a good guy going to the Officer’s aid. Not that I would want to be armed anywhere near that mess with how the rest of the Officers rolled up hot and lit the guy up. I’m glad that the only one with major holes in him is the bad guy.

    • I wondered why someone was video’ing it instead of helping…

      I’m not some super-hero wannabe but damn someone could at least jump on the guy and choke him for awhile.

      • Of course, it is hard to say what any of us would have done unless we had been in that very situation our-self. If he would have run out there at the time he started recording instead, I suspect he would have been at great risk of being shot to shit by the police. Last time I saw something like that it was very confusing for several seconds and those seconds seemed like minutes.

      • Perhaps the person videoing doesn’t have that physical ability or know-how. More likely they just don’t want to get involved, though. I can’t really blame them- I don’t expect someone to risk their life and the family’s welfare to come help me in a struggle that could get them killed (although if they’ve got a gun that might make things easier) although I would certainly appreciate it. I’ve heard stories of cops who have been helped not only by bystanders but people they’ve locked up before.

  13. The tactics advantage of keeping a firearm in a latched retention holster instead of brandishing it in your hands is underrated and underutilized.

  15. There are times when a citizen has stepped up to rescue an officer in distress. There was one in Arizona a couple of years ago. Here’s a follow-up story on it:

    Trooper says man who shot, killed his attacker saved his life
    https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/trooper-says-man-who-shot-killed-his-attacker-saved-his-life

    Here’s another example:

    Armed Citizen legally carrying a gun provides “critical” help to wounded Missouri Police Officer
    https://crimeresearch.org/2019/06/armed-citizen-provides-critical-help-to-wounded-missouri-police-officer/

    So it does happen. Shame it doesn’t happen maybe as often as it is needed.

    • Thank you for posting the stories about armed citizens helping LEOs in distress.

      These stories are exactly what we need to help Joe public understand how armed citizens can be a benefit to society.

      Don’t scream and whine about your rights, show folks how responsible gun owners could be an asset in our communities.

  17. Golly this chick cop is a media star with sexy pics and “muscles”…but hey we’re supposed to jump in when a gal is in trouble😫

  18. I’m going to guess that deputy Megan is about 5′ and 120lbs soppin’ wet. That turd saw an easy mark when he saw her. I’m thinking he wouldn’t have tried that crap on 6′, 200lb plus dude.

  20. The First responding officer should have run his ass over..

    That female Deputy should have ejected that magazine out of that gun..she should be fired for her own good.. she just can’t cut the mustard..

  21. If female officers only have to shoot suspect dead then they shouldn’t have any problem. However a police officer’s job involves wrestling and hand-to-hand fighting skills. And women can’t cut it. Honesty hurts I understand.

    Every female in uniform should be at the gym daily. If she’s not pushing weights she’s failing her responsibilities as a good police officer.

    She can’t help herself or anyone else if the bad man takes her gun and kills her with it.

    • I forgot to add a strong powerful muscular bad man.
      One of the departments in South Carolina that has ordered all the tasers be turned in. The chief instructed his officers to use physical fighting skills to subdue suspects instead of shooting them. Because he considers this more humane.

      No comment from the female staff at this time.

  22. sad, the response, the lack of shooting the target(perp), the helping of another person, the lack of souls in people. its a mad mad world.

  23. This is what happens when you hire instagram models as LEO’s. She is too physically weak, and looks to have little to zero hand to hand skills. That punk is a skinny, little dude and he easily overpowered her. She should be working at a desk or at least be rolling with a partner.

  25. Ram the Adam Henry with the vehicle, done.

    Quickest, easiest and probably safest option at the time. Deadly force is already justified. Police vehicles are in direct proximity.

    The cops were lucky the asshole didn’t rush them suddenly within the reactionary gap and start shooting at contact distance. Not to mention it’s presumed that police bullets are ending up in a lot of places other than the perp, which could have caused collateral damage.

    Force options include anything at their disposal to mitigate the threat with the least amount of danger to the public.

    Punch the bastard with the grill. Patrol Vehicle at that distance and relatively low speed would have ended it right there with minor damage to front end. End of story.

  26. The fact that this guy survived with non-threatening injuries means these officers need more training.

  27. Have a friend with a fractured neck and he can no longer do lifting needed for his job so he hires muscle to do it for him. This is what woman cops should do.

  28. Not to mention that the Governor’s Office rewrote the law on Use of Force for Police in California, which just creates more doubt if not hesitation in the minds of LEOs when to employ defensive tactics/force options.

  29. Lack of training, failure to follow procedure, and a piss poor dispatch call. Never send a lone officer, “especially a small one”, to a domestic.

    • That’s why we need UNIVERSAL background checks. To universally keep guns out of criminal hands. Just ask AOC how that is supposed to work. (she claims UBC would keep a certain Republican congressman from hypothetically loaning a firearm to his allegedly prohibited misogynistic friends).

  32. Another in a long line of EEOC/AA failures, she never should’ve been hired, she lacked (she’s probably resigned from the force) the necessary upper body strength and overall size required to perform her duties (and I’m not talking protecting the public the SC says she’s not required to do THAT, I’m talking about retaining possession of her duty weapon). Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-slit/anti-mammary, no male under 5’11” and 175lbs should be hired either.

    • I remember when my family called the police for my mentally ill grandmother. And the two officers that showed up were County deputies one was a male 6 ft 3 and the other was a female 5 foot tall. And as a teenager I wondered how in the world this woman could have made to become a cop????

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