Knifeman Downs Officer Armed with AK, Three Police Armed with Pistols, in 28 Seconds(video)

This video is from 2011 in Nicaragua.  It shows how dangerous a man with a knife, who is willing to use it, can be.    The knife is good sized, about an 8-10 inch blade.  The comments indicate the situation is domestic.  The knifeman’s wife left him or divorced him for another, and he has not been able to accept it.  He does not wish to be bothered, and the News crews seem to exacerbate the situation.  The knife comes out at about 4:04, but the video is edited there.  The sound track is in Spanish.  Spanish speakers will get more details.

Link to video

The police dodge and run, and avoid injury, but they do nothing effective to stop him or contain him.   In about 10 seconds, an officer draws a weapon, likely a revolver, but does not shoot.  Reinforcements arrive.  I count at least five officers.   One officer has an AK variant.  The knifeman removes his backpack and crosses a wire fence.  He gets into a better defensive situation.  At one point he rubs his hands with dirt, probably to improve his grip.

Four officers cross the wire fence, flank the knife man and encircle him.  They appear to attempt to improvise non-lethal weapons.  One throws the AK rifleman a stick, across the fence.  He picks it up with his right hand, and holding the rifle in his left, crosses the wire fence and takes a couple of steps toward the knifeman.  This was a deadly mistake.

That may have been a predetermined “line in the sand” for the knifeman.  He attacks decisively and explosively.  The AK rifleman is the first to die, stabbed at about 7:29.

In the next 29 seconds, at least three other officers are chased down and stabbed.   The first shot is fired at 7:43, 14 seconds after the first officer is attacked.  Three officers are down before the first shot is fired.  At least one more dies.   A total of 9 shots are fired.  I cannot determine how many hit the knifeman. 

All because they did not take a man and his knife seriously, and had not received the proper training.

The video is a real life example of the Tueller drill, and how fast a man with a contact weapon can close distance and deliver a mortal blow.  In the case of the AK rifleman, it appears to be less than a second and a half.  In four seconds two policemen are down; the third is down 13 seconds into the attack, the fourth by 28 seconds.

It could have been avoided if the officers had been trained in the dangers that edged weapons pose, and had been ready to use their weapons effectively.  They were not, and they paid a heavy price.

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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