NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The deadly officer-involved shooting captured on an officer's body-worn camera in Nashville late Friday night could be used to train other police officers.
Former Metro officer Brink Fidler trains law enforcement at Defend Systems. He said Officer Christopher Royer followed his training when he shot a man running toward him with two knives.
"Most of the time in a deadly force incident it's - is there imminent fear of serious bodily injury or death to me or someone else?" said Brink Fidler about police training. "You're trained as a police officer... you're trained prior to hitting the street on being able to recognize what qualifies as serious bodily injury or death and how do I respond to that threat to stop that."
The state of Tennessee requires that every sworn police officer receive 40 hours of continuing education every year.
In his sessions, Fidler trains law enforcement agencies and individual officers on what to do in split-second situations.
"You don't really have the time to think of tons of options in the moment. You have time to respond based on your training," Fidler said.
The emergence of body-worn cameras is allowing anyone to review, pause and rewind police encounters. Fidler said it is important to not pass judgment too soon.
"When you see something traumatic on an officer's body-worn camera, emotion kicks in, and that's OK we're humans, we're allowed to have emotions, but prior to making a judgment on what you see take a deep breath, take some time, let your emotion dwindle down a little bit and then use a little logic," he said.
Defend Systems will likely use the video of the recent officer-involved shooting to train officers down the road because there is always a lesson to be learned.
"We owe it to every single victim, whether it be a police officer or innocent civilian that has been injured or killed at the hands of someone else to get better," he said.
