In a high crime area near New Orleans, a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Deputy was involved in a shooting just before midnight on July 26, 2016. In the video of the shooting, it appears to be completely justified.
The deputy has his pistol drawn, or draws it just as he enters. He’s using a two handed hold and has his light on. Prior to the deputy’s entrance, we see the suspect enter the warehouse. It appears that the suspect considered taking out the pistol, a Beretta with an extended magazine, and leaving it, then changes his mind.
The deputy exercises good tactical sense by going wide around the corner of what may be an office on the right side of the picture frame. The suspect is approaching the corner from the right side. It is likely that they see each other at about the same time, about eight yards apart.
The deputy brings his pistol to bear first. He may well have shouted a command to drop the weapon. The suspect brings the Beretta to eye level, and the deputy fires. The suspect attempts to bring the Beretta to bear again, but the deputy continues to fire and the suspect goes down. The deputy then demonstrates reasonable caution by approaching the suspect using the corner as cover.
The Sheriff says that the suspect tried to kill the deputy, but was unable to fire the Beretta. From nola.com:
“Devon Martes tried to kill one of my officers,” Normand said, referring to the 17-year-old man who was killed. “Devon Martes is not the victim. The victim in this case is Deputy Dave Dalton.”
The perp’s Beretta had an extended magazine, apparently loaded with 22 rounds. The Sheriffs says they believe the Beretta malfunctioned. Looking at the picture of the Beretta, there are several possibilities for malfunctions.
Was a round chambered? It is a common mistake for inexperienced shooters not to chamber a round. Having taught hundreds of beginners, I can tell you that many have no idea that they have to rack the slide to chamber a round. Many think inserting the magazine is sufficient.
Was the safety on? It is in the picture. Law enforcement protocols call for not moving the safety on a piece of evidence without noting it. On the Beretta, it is not necessary to move the safety to work the action.
Looking at the 22 9mm rounds in the picture, six of them seem to have primer hits (all five on the right hand row, and the round with the nickled primer on the left). They are likely duds. If one of those were chambered, it is another potential point of failure.
My experience with extended magazines is that I generally avoid them, especially aftermarket versions. But as no rounds were fired from the Beretta, we cannot fault the magazine in this case.
One thing we don’t know: what prompted Martes to proceed toward a likely gun fight, or to initiate one. Did all the hype about “racist” police and the recent police assassinations encourage him to initiate the gun fight? We can never know for sure.
We do know that a young black man made some very bad decisions that ended with his death. The deputy made some good tactical decisions, and he survived.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Jeez those are some pretty desperate cartridges…
And that mag baseplate looks like ProMag. Nothing about that perp’s arsenal was going right.
You got that right! A ProMag? C’mon.
I tried several different ProMag products over the years and I never had one work. Possibly the worst aftermarket firearm company in the firearms industry.
Not big readers, are any of you?
Meaning . . . ? What, we should have read up on the product before buying it? Yeah, can’t disagree with you there.
Not sure what you mean, Walter.
But regarding Pro Mags, their Marlin 795 and Ruger P345 magazines have worked well for me. Not equisitely polished, but functional.
I guess that depends on your definition of “worked well” and “Not equisitely (sic) polished.” I have had pretty much zero good experiences with them and will never give them another chance. There’s too many other reliable mags out there to ever give them another chance.
Sadly, I too gave them more than one chance. Never again. There’s a reason why even Hi Point says that if you use a ProMag in your Hi Point carbine it will void the warranty.
Darwin’s theory in action…
Don’t draw on a drawn gun….to add…I’m 17 and invincible with me gun and I’ll scare the PO PO.
Tactical instruction aside, my chuckle for the day.
Judging from his prior mug shot I’d say he was a good boy who was on his way to college.
Absolutely. he was try’n to get his life straightened out! Jus’ ax’ his mama!
Actually, in a rare twist, his mother had this to say:
“Devon was a really kind person but he just got himself caught up in too much stuff,” Martes said of her son. “He really wasn’t a bad boy, but he put himself in that situation. He put himself in harm’s way.”
Of the deputies, she said: “They had to do what they had to do.”
From a different article on nola: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2016/07/devon_martes_mother_he_put_him.html
One less perp to room and board at taxpayer expense–if you involve yourself in criminal activity, be prepared to face the consequences
This will be start with the typical “he didn’t have a round chambered” or “he didn’t mean to shoot the officer” and be met with the new form of inane braying that an officer shouldn’t fire unless he knows the suspect’s intentions FOR SURE.
In short, this idiot will be another martyr for BLM and the nonsense about police hunting down and executing black men en masse will continue.
Ya, unless you are shot first, do not fire (if you are still alive to do so)
I watched the video. Unfortunately, the video quality is so poor that it is really hard to determine exactly what happened.
For example, there appeared to be some light extending from the cop’s handgun sometimes. Was it a weapon mounted light? Or was it muzzle flash from shots?
Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department is way better than NOPD. Like night and day better.
Obviously, Devon only wanted an advance copy of the Times Picayune to get a leg up on tomorrow’s headlines…only to realize with chagrin they don’t print newspapers anymore.
So much for “registration,” the form 4473, universal background checks, or straw purchasers. All defeated in just a few minutes.
It’s hard to tell but the young pants on the ground perp certainly tried to shoot the cop. But it hardly matters to the “he shot my son” crowd…look at the parade of momma’s moaning about their dead criminal progeny at the DNC debacle. Yeah I did some stupid s##t when I was a teen but I didn’t shoot or rob anyone.
I’m quite sure this will show up as a “child killed with a gun” statistic.
Sad but true. Just another of the Liberal lies fabricated to advance their agenda.
Another “victim of the gun violence that’s plaguing our streets”
Let’s hear it for criminals who aren’t gun people, use broken guns and crapped up ammo and don’t know how to fix malfunctions.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Looks like a legitimate shoot to me.
When you think of all the things this jack wagon did on the way to being shot, you realize how hard it is to get shot by the police. He had a lot of outs, any of which would have spared his miserable waste of space life. All he had to do was not do something. How hard is it not to do something? An entire universe of inertia is on your side!
Don’t steal rims. Don’t run from the police. Don’t be a prohibited possessor in possession of an illegal firearm. Don’t try to ambush a cop. Don’t attempt to fire on a cop. Don’t repeat a failed attempt to fire on a cop.
I’d call it a cautionary tale, but these people never learn. So I’ll just call it “Tuesday” and be done with it.
The way things are going, a lot of us are going to be deemed prohibited possessors in possession of a prohibited firearm. Hell, as things are already, plenty of people have been prohibited from ever possessing a firearm, despite having never perpetrated a violent crime.
But I agree that all the rest make for a good shoot. Steal, rob, rape, rampage, and try shooting people because the world or whitey owes you?
Good riddance.
Says “22 rounds” at the top. I count 23 in the picture, one of which seems to have its primer popped already. Squib or dud, maybe that was his malfunction?
He was clearly reaching for a diploma.
And he keeps trying to point the gun at the cop after he’s been shot. I’d say the gene pool is better without him, but I’m sure he’s made at least two of Obama’s sons with different mothers already.
In an after shoot interview, I’m wondering if the officer remembers backing up before, during or after shooting…
Due to a mix up with some friends at the range I ended up with a couple of aftermarket 30 rd 92f mags. Only problem was I had a 226. It took a half dozen trips to the range to figure out why they didn’t lock up right. The funny thing is, they worked fine. Quality ammo and reasonable maintenance of a quality firearm can cover some funny errors. For the longest time the only thing I noticed was they didn’t drop free. Turns out the size and shape of the mags are almost identical, but the hole for the catch is a little higher on one.
How are they gonna get an invite to the white house if the cops keep on killing em?
I may be counting wrong but I count 23 rounds. If that’s a 22 round mag then it was loaded.
I actually noticed that myself. Glad you brought it up.
You’d think criminals buying guns would at least insist on quality, like a box of Winchester White Box or something. This reminds me of Saint Trayvon trying to go halfsies on a S&W SD9VE.
I wonder if the guy who sold him his gat also sold him a preloaded magazine with bad primers? If it was an HK, at least he might have noticed something was wrong with those cartridges…
Then one night in desperation
A young man breaks away
He buys a gun, steals a car
Tries to run, but he don’t get far
And his mama cries
fully loaded one !!!!
Here’s a thought to combat all this “gun violence” I been hearing about so much. Have some black market gun sellers provide pre-loaded mags with dud primers so these yoots can’t shoot anyone. Kinda the same concept of planting booby trapped ammo in enemy combatants ammo stockpile.
This was a hands down justified shooting but I’m sure this cop will have problems dealing with it. Taking a life even a douchebag like this guy will sit in the back of this cops mind and have long reaching consequences. The cops family and friends will feel the affects without realizing it. There is only one innocent victim and he was wearing a badge.
Sorry, but I’m not sure why you would think taking the life of a criminal scumbag is something to feel bad about. I do agree completely that the only victim here was the officer.
Dean Weingarten: From nonsensical calculations to headlines that have nothing to do with their stories.
I think its worth noting that although his parents said they were heart broken over the death of their son they also acknowledged that the officer was completely justified in shooting him.
Don’t post that shit here.