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• Continued from B-l.Sgt Dennis Weiber. also a training instructor. would rather see his fellow officers make mistakes in practice sessions instead of on thestreets.These are situations when officers tend to get shot. Weiber said of the felony stops. '•Officers tend to be laxBuilding searches have also claimed thelives of manv police officers.Sanduskv officers practiced building searches in the’darkened basement of the J C Pen-nev’s building. May was once again the suspected felon, playing hide and seek, firing blanks and often killing fellow officers Mav would hide in ventilator shafts, behind false walls or in closets, while officers used flashlights to find him. He usually wasn t cornered until he had fired one or two blanks atsearching police officers.After the flashlight search had failed. Grathwol would bring the men out of the basement and bring in a tracking dog — Major — trained bv Patrolman Carl Swanigan. The dog would find May in a few minutes, without being shot. ...Lechner and Grathwol both want the officersto learn how the dogs work in a building searchand to rely on the dogs for assistance.We don't ever want to see a dog get shot, but it's better then having a police officer killed,” Grathwol said.The training sessions ended with a course in weapon retention. taught by Da\ id Okinaga. a part-time patrolman with the Perkins Township Police Department and a police self defense instructor.Okinaga showed officers techniques they could use if someone tried to take their service weapon from their holster or their hands. He also showed moves officers could use to disarm someone who had managed to take anofficers service weapon.“This is something the officers need.' Okinaga said. When an officer is threatened by somebody attempting to take their weapon ... this is designed to keep them from gettingkilled.“It’s bad enough that officers get killed in the line of duty without them getting killed with their own weapon.’*An incident a month ago that almost claimed the life of Patrolman David Wilkin is still freshin officers' minds.Wilkin lost his service weapon in a chase. The weapon ended up in the hands of the man he was trving to arrest. The man shoved the weapon in Wilkin's chest and tried to fire. Wilkin's life was spared when the gun didn'tfire.This is worthwhile to go through. Patrolman Lee Evans said of the weapon's retention program, recalling Wilkin’s close call and noting how the program could havehelped him.The training courses are getting better andbetter, Evans added.Lechner wants the department to go throughanother training session this fall.He said the sessions will be more intense than what we did before as he tries to incorporate more information into the programs.
Newspaper Details
Sandusky Sunday Register
Sandusky, Ohio, US
Sun, May 16, 1982
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Massillon P.
OH, USA 04 Mar 2019
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