A recently released body cam video out of Florida has been making the rounds on social media. Why? Because a cop seems to lose his mind and starts cranking rounds into the back of his own patrol vehicle. Inside is a man who he had already arrested and placed in the vehicle, and he thinks that not only is the man shooting at him, but that he had been hit.

According to media sources, the officer lost it when an acorn fell on his vehicle (you can barely hear it in the video if you turn it up), which he mistook for a gunshot.

If you don’t want to watch the whole long video, you can skip to 12:55 on the video below (or click here to start a little before he loses his crap). After the video, I’ll discuss some things we can all learn from it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVNnxr2SGFg?si&t=776

Lesson #1: Wellness Is Key

The biggest thing we can take away from this is that your own wellness is of paramount importance.

Some people are saying it looks like the acorn set off PTSD, but I can’t find any information to confirm that, so I’m not going to assume that’s what happened here. But, if it was, we have to keep in mind that PTSD is treatable. There’s literally no reason to walk around with a gun (especially if you’re going to be a cop) and have untreated PTSD.

No, they won’t take your gun rights away for seeing a therapist. The only way that happens is if you get committed to a mental health facility against your will or if you get red flagged in some states. Seeing a therapist and getting guidance on processing past trauma can only improve your rights situation, because if you do what this guy did, you may end up losing your rights.

It’s also important to keep in mind that you don’t have to be someone who ran over an IED in Iraq to get PTSD. Childhood abuse, car accidents, and many other things can put you in a bad spot mentally, and you’re not a “faker” or a “weenie” for getting that help. 

If it wasn’t PTSD, I still think this looks a lot like somebody who was walking around on the edge for other reasons. We don’t know what those are in this case, but we do know that life is hard and it’s easy to start carrying too much stress around, even without PTSD.

After all, we’re all in a country that seems like it’s teetering on the edge of civil war, and there’s no shortage of bad imagery of warfare and death on social media and mainstream media. No matter where you are on the political spectrum, there are people who tell you that the bogeyman is out to get you, and sometimes it’s easy to believe.

So, we all need to get out and touch grass once in a while. The gay couple down the street probably isn’t trying to destroy western civilization and turn your kids into freaks. The guy with a Gadsden flag across the way probably isn’t planning to fight for Dictator Trump in November. Russia doesn’t have nukes in space (yet). PLA agents haven’t crossed the border with your name on some kill list (unless you’re some kind of VIP, and you’re probably not).

No matter what narrative has you on edge, or whatever else might have you stressed out, it’s a good idea to relax and take a few deep breaths. Nobody can ride around with that stuff in their head and not make dumb mistakes. Being mentally, spiritually, and physically healthy can keep you from losing it.

To Be Fair…

Another thing that must be mentioned is that the idea of a guy in handcuffs shooting you isn’t totally insane. It’s a real problem in law enforcement that departments and agencies of all kinds are trying to fix through better training.

The sad fact is that all too often cops get lazy and don’t do a thorough search of people getting arrested. It’s not common, but jails sometimes find guns during a second search before putting someone behind bars. Others (like the guy in the video above) try to ditch their gun in the back of the car so they can claim it isn’t theirs. Sometimes they shoot the cop through the back of the seat so they can escape.

But, this guy may have taken the wrong lesson from the training videos and let a scary fake scenario live rent-free in his head. Instead of being confident that a thorough search was conducted (the point of such training), his first thought was that the guy could have come up with a gun and that the falling acorn meant he had been shot at. So, he lost it and acted based on that assumption.

So, if you’re in law enforcement, be double sure to be mentally well and triple sure that you’re doing thorough searches, and you won’t have to worry about resigning in shame or far worse.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

85 COMMENTS

  1. Just stay away from LEOs. They are dangerous and being around them is hazardous to your health. This is nothing new. They have a higher criminality rate than the average concealed carrier, a MUCH higher rate of domestic abuse, and are held to a much lower standard while enjoying qualified immunity when they stomp all over you and your civil rights. Avoid contact with or speaking to them if at all possible.

    • You are in as much reactivity as this police officer was. How many police sentinel risk events do you notice over the course of a month compared to the millions of arrests across the country during the same time?
      I am not defending the officer in this video. But I am disarming your exaggerated generalization as false. As a licensed mental health worker I ride with police officers on duty and see that your beliefs are distorted. The malevolent situations that officers are placed in would cause you to crumble. I see them maintaining their composure under the most difficult and risky situations.
      Better training and screening is always needed. But I’d appreciate it if you get off their backs and respect them. These people would risk their lives for you. So grow up.

      • I had a five paragraph rebuttal to your post but I realized you’re not worth my time. I will say that as a head shrinker, you doing a ride along with cops altered their behavior. They actually had to be polite in front of you but they would prefer that you were not there. Just look up the posted body cam videos of cops when they get together to get their stories straight after they do something that they finally realized was pretty much stupid and which would get anyone else who did it and who wasn’t a cop stuffed into the back of a patrol car and be carted into jail.

        • “as a head shrinker, you doing a ride along with cops altered their behavior“

          In an alarming number of situations this is true.

          Basic physics, observing the situation changes the outcome.

    • Agree. Stay away from cops in all circumstances. Nothing but gang bangers with badges, these days. Sheriff’s deputies are a little better, because their boss is elected, but not much.

      • The sound from an Acorn hitting metal created a tidal wave and it needs to end where it began. All of this assumed PTSD being behind a skitish officer shooting up his patrol vehicle with a handcuffed individual in the backseat sorta falls on its face when gosh-darn-it another officer shows up, gets infected by PTSD and also starts shooting at the vehicle. In this case PTSD sounds more like a STD.

        You cannot hit what you cannot see. Before you panic do the math, you frisked and handcuffed the individual in the backseat of your vehicle so odds of him being exactly where you left him are high. You hear a sound that most anyone who has ever been under a tin roof by an Oak Tree would recognize. If not what you thought was a shot fired would most likely be coming from somewhere other than your vehicle. The winners will be the handcuffed individual and his relatives who now have near terminal PTSD and last but not least…his attorneys.

        TRUMP 2024.

    • Since my previous reply was rudely removed by TTAG editors, let me say this: Yes, there needs to be improvement in selection, training and oversight. But an over generalization like yours is way out of bounds. We only read about the sensational events which may be approximately 0.001% of police stops and calls. As a licensed mental health worker, I ride with police and I have yet to see or hear anything resembling anything close to this kind of reaction. Officers undergo phenomenal stressors (I am not excusing the officer here) and will still risk their lives to save yours and the lives of others. Think about it instead of reacting.

  2. Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Department, keeping the county safe from assault-acorns.

    If it had been a black walnut BLM would have been looting and burning and politicians would be calling the cops racist ’cause, you know, ‘systemic racism towards black walnuts’ and it would be another course at colleges where one could graduate with a degree in ‘walnut studies’ and a thousand tik-toks would appear from people claiming their walnuts are ‘gender fluid’ .

    So lets be thankful it wasn’t a black walnut.

    • Had it been an English Walnut, he would have had at most 2 barrels, and all the ammonia would have been down at the police station- oh, wait, nevermind.

      • my parents’ last fixer-upper buy was like that in the air vents. The squirrels made a lively pop-up range on the porch rail for a month before they got wise to new ownership.

        • “my parents’ last fixer-upper buy was like that in the air vents“

          Do your parents live at Mar-A-Lardo?

          “A photo from Mar-a-Lago reveals that the air vents in Trump’s home, which he claims to be worth $1.5B, are filthy. Beyond the gold veneer, and ornate celling, lies air vents that appear to be incubators of mold.

          Twitter users reacted to the filthy vents. One called Mar-a-Lago, a “gold plated dump.” Another suggested Trump is too cheap or broke to afford maintenance. Others were worried for the occupants and welcomed a health department inspection.“

          https://www.meidastouch.com/news/twitter-reacts-to-filthy-air-vents-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-home

    • they missed every single shot.

      which brings up yet another problem with cops.

      on top of being skittish as hell…..most of them can’t shoot worth a damn.

      though in this case it was a good thing they missed.

    • He didn’t die. He was a bit shook up though. He leaned not to F around and take his GF’s car for.a joyride when she throws him out. Apparently it’s a death sentence when Judge Dredd Deputy catches up with him and an acorn falls.

    • what happend to him? he wasn’t hit, but what happened is the luckiest day of his life ’cause with a decent lawyer he’s going to walk away from this with a nice pile of tax payer $$$ from a settlement or law suit award.

  5. If the officer in the video was that close to the edge why didn’t his supervisors notice and pull him off the street? Anyone who is obviously nervous as a long tailed cat in a rocking chair factory is a disaster looking for a place to happen if they are also armed and wearing a badge.
    There were reasons the cops used to ride 2 in a car. One being they could be both back up and oversight. No one wants their partner to get twitchy and trigger happy. And 2 are better than 1 if there is an actual threat or risk of things going bad. Perhaps it would be better to return to that practice in more LEO departments.
    If the officer in the video was this jumpy, perhaps he should have requested desk duty or at least went to the chaplain or sought out counseling. A man has to know his limitations to paraphrase another trigger happy fictional cop.

    • He had a partner, she lit up the car too. Andrew Branca did a show on this incident. To be fair, they did have evidence that the perp had been in possession of a suppressed firearm, but 2 cops searched him and didn’t find him to be armed before they put him in the squad car. I guess he could have thought the pop from the acorn drop was suppressed fire, but…..

      • Holy crap, that has to be a record. Two cops shooting at a guy in the backseat and he wasn’t hit!? One lucky dude…

        He will have no trouble claiming mental trauma.

      • Handcuffed, searched, and belted into the backseat of the police cruiser with his hands behind his back and out of reach of the seat belt release….but he could have had a suppressed weapon on him…

        Yeah, that’s a load of hooey.

        The reality is that the lives of us lowly civilians mean NOTHING to them. We are merely cattle. Welcome to the people farm.

      • When one cop shoots, all cops shoot.

        They don’t want to miss out on the fun. But they will frequently miss the target.

        • If you watch the video, the second officer looks like she is responding to what she genuinely believes to be a mortal threat to her partner. I suspect she is probably in the clear for this. The acorn guy… it’s hard to fathom what must have been ping-ponging around in his head to make him go all “they’re comin’ right for us.”

  6. “Russia doesn’t have nukes in space (yet).”

    I saw THIS sentence and I simply could not read any more of this. Even after watching the 17 minute video. This make absolutely NO sense at all. Why would you say this? If this is true then why were children all across America told to hide under their desks? Russia has had nukes for decades. That was at the heart of the Cold War. Or did you miss that? If the world was lied to about this then THIS is the article you should be writing because some random cop somewhere in Florida becomes completely meaning by comparison. Do you have ANY idea under God how many adults and children were emotionally traumatized by the prospect of being blown up in a nuclear holocaust? Because of the nukes that Russia had (and still does)! I no longer care about this moron police officer. THIS is enough for me to disregard any further article written by you.

    Either they had nukes or we were all lied to!

    • just as an aside….it matters NOT that they might be in space. That whole thing is just gaslighting fodder for the easily triggered. These are intercontinental. To say nothing of the Cuban missile crisis. It doesn’t matter where they are. The problem is the fact that they exist and are pointed at us. It is THESE things that presents a greater danger simply because they can be so easily bought and sold with others like Iran, China, etc.

        • Reporting?

          Reported by who? People that have proven time and time again to be manipulative liers? What do you think would happen with a nuclear weapon striking a satellite? Even on the chance that THAT is true.

          Who honestly believes that Russia hasn’t had nuclear missiles in space for decades? What do you think sparked Reagan’s Star Wars plan? The there is Trump creating Space Force. We have been getting told about space being used as the next battle ground for war in many ways over several presidential terms.

          Like I said though, it doesn’t matter WHERE they are. The problem isn’t that they are in orbit. The problem is that they are controlled by mentally questionable (if not unstable) dictators. We don’t refer to it as “cold war” anymore but these weapons NEVER went away. They are still there.

        • “These nukes would be used against satellites, according to reporting.”

          Or, as a way to sucker-punch EMP the USA.

          I wouldn’t put it past Putin to do something like that…

        • Putin thinks treaties signed with the USSR no longer apply to Russia and he’s free to do what he likes.

          He said in the TC interview he wants to restore Russia to the peak of it’s empire. The Mongolian President showed a map of the Mongol Empire at it’s height but noted “don’t worry, we’re a friendly people”.

    • Did you see all the hubbub about some Congress man, returning from the Ukraine, and he was demanding that Biden declassify information so all of Congress could read and address it?
      Happened just last week.
      That is what Jennifer was referring to.

      • This is what makes it such a problem to have a mental defective as president. Biden claims the biggest threat is MAGA Republicans when in reality it’s him and the rest of the Democrat party.

        If people are getting PTSD over this then my response is “of course”. I’ve been saying since Obama started is first term that you cannot turn this country social least without making everyone crazy.

      • “He said in the TC interview he wants to restore Russia to the peak of it’s empire“

        Are you talking about Tucker Carlson?
        He has become very effective at helping Putin produce propaganda:

        “During his recent trip to Moscow to interview Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin last week, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson praised the Russian capital city’s subway system, noted the seemingly low-cost of groceries and basically took aim at the problems in the United States via a series of videos he shared on social media.“

        https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2024/02/16/tucker-carlsons-moscow-videos-were-just-latest-pro-putin-propaganda/amp/

  7. He needs to switch to decafe.

    I have met some really good cops, and a few who were douche bags.
    Room mate invited me to her parents for Christmas Eve dinner with some other family members. Her one uncle who was a cop, had two of his cop friends there too. As soon as they found out I was a former Marine, they turned into real douche bags. Kept giving me dirty looks. I just ignored them.

    • Acorns can be surprisingly loud. I bet this fellow has been shot at enough to be keyed to the sound of bullets striking, as opposed to muzzle blast. Also, you’re right, caffeine really could have impacted his behavior. Good thing it wasn’t a hickory nut.

      Not really defending the job performance here, just saying…

  10. He was wearing surgical gloves. I’d bet he’s wearing a face mask, and is afraid of everything. He should never have been a cop in the first place. Expect more of this with the lowering of police hiring standards.

    You are on your own.

      • And the police and military need to be politically indoctrinated to ensure their reliability.

        Like the PLA. It is not the country’s army and certainly not the people’s army (unless they are being liberated from their lives and property). It is the armed wing of the CCP.

    • “He was wearing surgical gloves.”

      Pretty much all cops do that now before touching someone, it’s paranoia about the lethality of Fentanyl…

  11. “No, they won’t take your gun rights away for seeing a therapist. The only way that happens is if you get committed to a mental health facility against your will or if you get red flagged in some states.”

    And seeing a therapist is how that chain of events starts. No thanks.

    • NY has more than a few cases of denied rights with no commitment or definable danger to self or others. One of which is slowly working it’s way up the state court system with the state doing everything it can to dodge discovery. So seeking help not hurting your rights would vary by location. With that said I wouldn’t do anything medical in NY unless it is absolutely unavoidable for other reasons.

  12. “The gay couple down the street probably isn’t trying to destroy western civilization and turn your kids into freaks.”

    They’re just giving cover to the ones who are.

      • All three of them? No one cares about a few fringe extremists.

        It’s still a free country. Should someone want to show pride in their Southern heritage by flying the Confederate flag, they are free to do so. And you’re free to make unfounded and uninformed personal judgments about their intentions even when you’re wrong. Just the fact that it irritates you is icing on the cake, as far as I’m concerned.

      • I’m a racist, but I don’t support slavery. I can’t imagine anything worse than having to ride herd over a pack of sullen blacks, have to feed, clothe, house them and control their behavior and have to get some useful work out of them!

  13. This whole article seems like a thin excuse for Sensiba to rag on people for being upset about the direction the country is heading.

  14. In the academy instructors should sneak up on cadets and shout “BOO!”

    The reaction could be used to advance or disqualify.

  15. Sensiba is a Democrat and lives in blue New Mexico. She votes Democrat because of her membership in a freakoid lefty identity group, and therefore, because of that vote, supports gun control. She thinks she can make up for it by writing these lame articles.

    Few like you here, Sensiba. Go away and write somewhere else.

    • I second the motion! “She” probably scribbles/keypecks/screentaps for Media Matters/VOX/Huffington Post under “male” name too.

  16. The guy needs to find another line of work. I don’t know the officer, and I try not to second guess, because I wasn’t there. Although, this time I’m going to take an educated guess.
    The man is a coward.
    I’ve seen it before. It’s not uncommon in law enforcement . From my personal observations (and what I remember from Psych 101) they’re trying to cover up a personality flaw with a badge and a gun. The same thing is common with armed citizens. They just don’t have the badge. Understand, there is no shame in being afraid. I’ve been scared often. The difference is; who’s going to grit their teeth and go through the door first.
    Finally, screaming in panic, while crawling on all fours, with a weapon at slide lock, is not a technique I saw taught at the academy.
    The best thing is for an officer to do is to be honest with themselves and admit the job is not for them. Someone has to do everything else.

    • During the past few years, more and more officers are taking your advice, GF.

      It’s a double-edged sword single-edged razor — the cop haters are happy until they need LEO response when they’re in danger, and the cop lovers can’t get LEO response when they’re in danger.

      • You, I’ve said it before. This planet is a dangerous place to live. You are responsible for your on safety. Act accordingly.

    • “Understand, there is no shame in being afraid. I’ve been scared often. The difference is; who’s going to grit their teeth and go through the door first“

      Correct, most heroes admit they were scared shitless but did the right thing anyway.

      I would not care to serve with a man who had no fear.

  17. Too many people in law enforcement are jumpy cowards, shooting dogs out of hand, blasting unarmed people, blasting people for talking back. Maybe it was always a problem, but I feel like it got worse in the last twenty years.

  18. Wheaton, again, only my only personal observation, but those “jumpy cowards?” Do you seriously think we didn’t all know who they were? The last to arrive to they’re own hot calls. Every time. They all fall by the way side. Eventually. It was sad.

  19. For accidentally shot by police vs. ordinary law abiding armed citizens:

    * Handguns: Less than a 0.0004% probability a person will be shot accidentally by an ordinary law abiding armed citizen, a little more than a 6% probability a person will be shot accidentally by law enforcement.​

    * Rifles: A 0.0005% probability a person will be shot accidentally by an ordinary law abiding armed citizen, a 4.7% probability a person will be shot accidentally by law enforcement.​
    ​
    When near misses (‘others’ not actually hit) and personal injury ‘negligent discharge’ types are factored in …​
    ​
    * Handgun: law enforcement slightly over 7% probability – ordinary law abiding armed citizen a little over 0.0004% probability.​

    * Rifle : law enforcement – 5.2% probability – ordinary law abiding armed citizen a little over 0.0003% probability.​

    Yet for some strange delusional reason anti-gun claims, overall, police having firearms are ‘safer’ and they fear being ‘accidentally’ shot by the ordinary law abiding armed citizen.

    If an ordinary law abiding armed citizen were to have gone off and mistakenly started shooting because of acorns and shot at the car with someone inside they would have been charged with a felony and arrested and prosecuted, lost their 2A right for the rest of their lives, and anti-gun would have been calling it ‘gun violence’ and it would appear as a major showcase item for them. Yet, these two officers (the partner started shooting too), despite their obvious (and in one case even noted in the report) ‘unsuitability’ for duty that day (due to some form of mental health impairment stress) are not even a notable blip for MSM and and anti-gun in terms of ‘gun violence’ or ‘firearms’ or ‘gun-control’ for the prolonged coverage they give to such incidents.

    Last year, 2023, there were ~47,000 incidents nationwide where police officers ‘unintentionally’ or ‘accidentally’ fired their firearms while the firearm was in their hand. (this includes training, while pursuing criminals, at property of others, and in some cases at or in direction of other citizens that were not the criminals being pursued and were simply ‘bystanders’, and in some cases the criminal was ‘unintentionally’ or ‘accidentally’ fired upon after they were in custody)

    A person is 12,137 times more likely to be shot ‘unintentionally’ or ‘accidentally’ by a police officer than they are by an ordinary law abiding armed citizen.

  20. So, I live in the county that this happened in and the Sheriff is a good friend of mine. He told me the officer did resign over the incident and that the officer does not suffer from PTSD. The officer was special forces in the military, decorated, but never saw combat. The officer is VERY familiar with weapons and suppressed weapons….before they arrested him the officers confiscated many weapons including suppressed weapons. So, the officer has the image and sound of these types of weapons in his mind when he passed by the car at the time the acorn hit the roof of the patrol car. I asked the Sheriff why the officer responded the way he did and his response was, “he lost his shit”. Not really an explanation that we want to hear but the officer had no reason other than it is what it is. BUT, PTSD is not in the conclusion of the report.

    • one can be under a ‘mental health stress’ and it not be PTSD. For example, Roberts was working an overtime shift and had been under significant stress due to recent departmental incidents (this was noted in the investigation) …

    • “The officer was special forces in the military“

      This is why we should think very carefully before allowing combat arms veterans to serve in a civilian law-enforcement role.

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