On June 28, 2022, the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team (aka GVERT) was working as a quick response team for narcotics surveillance when a call went out of an active bank robbery in progress.  Two suspects, covered almost completely in body armor and heavily armed with SKS rifles were robbing the Bank of Montreal branch in nearby Saanich BC.  The suspects had herded all of the bank patrons and employees into the back of the bank and then proceeded to wait more than 12 minutes in the entrance vestibule of the bank hoping to ambush and kill the responding officers.  In accordance with their policy of remaining covert until suspects left the bank to avoid creating a hostage situation, responding officers from Saanich, Central Saanich and nearby Victoria PD descended on the area and inserted into covert locations around the bank.  The GVERT team left the surveillance and headed immediately to the bank.  As they arrived on scene and gained situational awareness, the two male subjects, covered head to toe in armor and armed with SKS 7.62 x 39 rifles with high-capacity magazines, exited the bank. The team raced into the parking lot in their surveillance van, deployed a flashbang, and began to exit to effect arrest.  As they did the suspect nearest the van calmly turned and opened fire on the van.  In just a few seconds, 6 of the 7 operators in the van were shot, some multiple times.  All of them were injured and at least one of them was at immediate risk of death.The remaining team members and patrol officers returned fire eventually killing the suspects.  What transpired over the next few minutes can only be described as a heroic performance by team members and army of patrol officers and other first responders who quickly transitioned from taking the suspects into custody, to searching for a possible third shooter, clearing the bank, freeing the hostages, dealing with numerous IEDs and most importantly providing care and transport for their injured teammates.  This is the first of a two part series that will look at this event through the several different perspectives.  This episode will be unlike any previous episode of the debrief because of the sheer number of people we were able to interview.  The agencies, patrol officers and teams involved in this incident gave us access to more than a dozen people who responded to the event.  As a result, we will be seeing incident from the perspectives of the team commander, team leaders, detached sniper element, assaulters, medics, and even the patrol supervisor for the day.  It is our hope that doing so will allow us to understand not only what happened, but how their training allowed them to succeed in an almost unwinnable situation and how their lessons learned from the event informed future training and tactics. In this first part we will look at the timeline of the event itself, in part two we will sit down on video with three of the team members to look back at the events and formally discuss lessons learned.In keeping with the standard policy of the debrief we will not mention the suspects’ names or objectives in the hopes that they will be lost to the sands of time.  We will however mention the names of responding officers as they are heroes and need to be remembered as such.One additional note, this episode has a corresponding decision-making exercise created by the California Association of Tactical Officers.  Please be sure to run that exercise with friends or your team.

Dr. Gary Klein, a renowned author and researcher in decision-making, shares his insights gathered from decades of study across various sectors, including military and emergency response. He discusses innovative techniques like the pre-mortem method to enhance decision-making under pressure. Klein recounts fascinating lessons learned from firefighters, emphasizing intuition over analysis. He highlights the importance of communication and mentorship in refining tactical skills, and explores how embracing failure can turn setbacks into valuable learning opportunities.

Join Sergeant Rafael Rosales and Officer Kevin Olejar from the Austin PD SWAT team as they share gripping stories from a critical incident that tragically claimed Officer Jorge Pastore's life. They discuss the intense emergency response, the tactical challenges faced during the operation, and crucial lessons learned about crisis management. Kim Pastore, Officer Pastore's wife, reflects on her husband's legacy and the foundation created in his memory, emphasizing the importance of first responder training and wellness initiatives.

Decision Making Excercise #3

On the afternoon of July 11, 2022, at about 1400 hrs, two Hamilton County Ohio Sheriff’s Detectives observed an escapee from the River City Correctional Facility in Cincinnati, in the parking lot of the Baymont Inn hotel.  Although they were unable to make a positive identification before the suspect entered the hotel, they contacted the Mason Police Department for support. A Mason officer learned that the female observed in the parking lot with the suspect (whom she had just met) was registered to room 310. These two detectives as well as several additional Mason police officers knocked on the door of the room and were immediately met with screaming, yelling, profanity and threats of violence made by the suspect. Mason Police immediately requested assistance from the Warren County Tactical Response Unit (WCTRU). The suspect then barricaded himself inside keeping the woman as a hostage and threatening to kill her if officers came through the door. Several times the suspect was seen at the window and officers could see a knife in his hand. WCTRU used a negotiator throughout the night to talk to the suspect but at approximately 0230 hrs as negotiations broke down, the team forced entry into room 310 and observed the suspect holding a knife to the hostage’s throat.  A single TRU team member fired one round into the suspect’s face, ending the standoff and recovering the hostage.  In keeping with our standard policy, we will not be using the suspect’s name or identifying him in any way.  It is our hope that he will be erased by the sands of time.  We will, of course, be using the officers’ names because they are heroes and need to be remembered. Book Recommendation:Leader Shift by John C Maxwell ISBN: 9780718098506The Mission, The Men, and Me by Pete Blaber ISBN: 9780425236574The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin ISBN: 9781250195777 Contact Info:Deputy Scott WilliamsWarren County Sheriff’s Office513-266-4536Scott.williams@wcsooh.org

Imagine if you could train your brain to give you better situational awareness, see and hear more, and improve your tactical decision-making abilities?  Although this sounds like science fiction, it is quickly becoming a science fact in the emerging field of brain training for tactical operators.  On this episode of The Debrief we will explore the science of brain training for tactical operators with three experts in the Field, Jeff Selleg from the National Tactical Officers Association, Dr. Henry Mahncke from Posit Science the creator of a program called Brain HQ, and Dr. Brittany Loney from Elite Cognition, a performance psychologist who works with elite military and law enforcement units.   Contact Info Brain HQ - Brain Exercises, Brain Training, Brain Health – BrainHQ from Posit ScienceJeff Selleg - NTOA - BrainHQ | NTOADr. Brittany Loney – www.elite-cognition.com