All about the ‘Tueller rule’, the six-meter shield that protects police in the U.S. from a knife attack like the one in Andújar
A single bullet could have killed the assailant and the policeman. This is what surely happened in Andújar (Jaén) last Sunday. The autopsy performed on the National Police officer suggests that he died after being hit by the bullet fired by his partner against the individual who had thrown him to the ground armed with a hammer and a knife.
The first hypothesis of the preliminary report of the Scientific Police holds that the aggressor would have been shot when he lunged at the agent. But this bullet would have then hit the stomach of the second policeman, causing his death. Specifically, the projectile would have hit one of the attacker’s coins.bouncing off it and making it change direction to finally hit the agent who died.
That was the final result, but it all started as a quarrel between two neighbors in Las Monjas street in Andujar. One of them was hammering on the door of another in an aggressive attitude. A police patrol car was sent to the scene. A first officer, the co-pilot, got out and the aggressor went towards him. The police officer drew his weapon. At first he did not fire and walked backwards.. Then he reached for his expandable baton.
Did the agent do the right thing?
The assailant lunged at him and threw him to the ground. A first shot was heard. As assailant and policeman struggled on the ground.a second officer – the driver – approached on foot and was shot. He suffered cardiorespiratory arrest and, despite resuscitation maneuvers and transfer to a hospital, died shortly thereafter.
Did he do the right thing? That is, should he have struggled with the assailant with his gun drawn? The matter goes back to the Tueller rulewhich takes its name from Dennis Tueller. This sergeant of the Salt Lake City Police in Utah (USA) published in 1983 a study on the use of weapons in the performance of his duties, entitled How close is too close.
A little more than 6 meters in a second and a half
Tueller calculated the safety and efficiency times for the use of the regulation weapon carried by any officer. He came to the conclusion that 1.5 seconds was the time in which an officer can draw and fire. his pistol.
Second and a half. But why only a second and a half? According to his calculations, that is the exact time it takes for a knife-wielding assailant to travel 21 feet (6.4 meters). That is, there are 1.5 seconds before the individual throws himself on top of the police officer.
Those 6.4 meters are the minimum distance for an officer to have a chance of defending himself
Thus, according to Tueller, those little more than 6 meters are the minimum distance for an agent to have a chance to defend himself. effectively with a firearm, in the face of an aggression with a knife (from having the weapon holstered and in a ready-to-fire condition).
Tueller’s calculation holds that a trained shooter can. draw and fire a shot in a time between 1 and 1.1 sec.. The second shot would take an additional 0.2 seconds and the third would take another 0.2 seconds. In addition, the reaction time of a police officer, from the time he perceives the threat until he makes the decision to counterattack, varies between 0.16 and 0.5 seconds.
The Tueller rule is taught in the training of all police and government agencies in the United States. There it is a fundamental part of firearms training.
Too much stress to be accurate
However, the reality is always more complex, as Wayne Ryan has explained in his book. Souls Behind the Badge (“Souls Behind the Badge”). This retired former member of the Canadian Mounted Police recalls that when we talk about applying the Tueller rule we are talking about a situation of violence. and therefore of enormous stress.
A single shot is usually neither immediately fatal nor sufficient to stop the aggressor instantly.”
“There are many experiments that demonstrate that shots fired under conditions of intense stress are generally not accurate.. It is also well demonstrated that a single shot is usually neither immediately fatal nor sufficient to stop the assailant instantly,” Ryan’s book reads.
Chad McBroom, a now deceased U.S. Border Patrol officer, wrote in an industry magazine (ITS Tactical) an article on distances and reaction times. There he recalled that although a first shot by the policeman against the assailant severely damages the aortaa determined attacker could continue to advance (thus threatening) for at least five more seconds.
(Recent) case law in Spain.
In Spain, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court has created. jurisprudence on the use of firearms in the face of attack. with a knife or dangerous object. It has been recently, the sentence is from April, and has been explicitly citing the Tueller rule.
In March 2020, in the town of Alfacar (Granada), a pensioner shot dead another who tried to assault him an axe. The Supreme Court acquitted him of the crime of homicide because he was a meter and a half away.that is, within the Tueller distance. For this reason, the defendant was exonerated on the ground of self-defense.
Far from advising to face the aggressor with the firearm, the recommendation is to try to impose between the aggressor and the attacked a safety distance.”
This is what the judgment in the case says when it cites the rule: “It is not necessary to imbibe in manuals on combat techniques or in those that deal with police interventions, to understand that a sharp weapon, at a short distance from the victim (even when the victim has a firearm, already loaded and ready to fire), carries a serious risk to life if the person who carries it is determined to use it in the attack. In fact, the recommendation we will find in both kinds of studies, far from advising to face the aggressor with the firearm, is to try to impose a sufficient safety distance between the aggressor and the attacked. The so-called Tueller or 21-foot rule is used in this context.. This was established as the minimum distance to have effective defensive possibilities with a firearm, holstered and ready to fire, against an attack with a knife”.
