Hostage situation hypothetical

[stui magpie]

Here's the situation, take the hypothetical for what it is, no trying to twist it, question it, change the scenario, or say this couldn't apply to you, just deal with the situation as laid out or don't play.

You are at home, it's early evening.

A person is holding a loved one of yours (child, partner, parent, whatever) in front of them with a sharp knife held to their throat. This person is larger than your loved one so your loved one does not provide full cover for the other person. At least 80% of their head and all of the shoulder that's not attached to the hand holding the knife is clearly visible.

3 metres of clear space separates you and there is nothing else within 2 metres of either of you. No cover, no distractions.

There is no one else in the house and no prospect of anyone else coming, it's just the 3 of you.

You have a loaded handgun in your hand. Let's say for sake of argument it's a standard Police issue .38 revolver. How you got it in your hand is irrelevant, it's there.

The person holding the knife to your loved ones throat tells you to drop the gun by the count of 10 or they will cut your loved one's throat.

They start to count.

Who this person is, is irrelevant as is their gender, race, religion, motive and anything else. What you do know with a 90% degree of certainty is:

1. If they get to the count of 10 and you're still holding the gun, your loved one is getting their throat cut

2. If you put the gun on the ground, they intend to pick it up and kill you and your loved one both.

3. It is not possible to de-escalate this situation by talking, this person intends to kill you and your loved one if they can.

You have 9 seconds to make a decision. What do you do?

For the sake of the hypothetical, your skills in using a hand gun are whatever your real skills are. How good or bad a shot you are is what it is. You don't need to know how to use a gun, this is loaded, the safety is off, all you have to do is point and pull the trigger and it will fire.

What do you do?

Indecision would be a standard response but the countdown is on. When this person gets to 10 there's going to be blood.

What do you do?

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[Morrigu]

No brainer - hope I have my glasses on - remember how good I am at darts - aim for the carotid and shoot !

Mind you if it wasn't hubby could only be one of the girls and they would have scratched the bejesus out of em and be long long gone before I could shoot

[stui magpie]

The notion that if your aim is a tad off you could put the bullet into hubby's head doesn't make you pause?

[Morrigu]

Nope cause the likelihood of me hitting him by mistake is less than the likelihood that knife person will do as they say.

And if I miss both the resulting situation may be enough to change the dynamics of the situation in our favour.

[stui magpie]

Applying a risk management approach, your local Quality/risk management people would approve.

FWIW I'm on a similar page but I'll wait to see before I put mine up.

[Morrigu]

2 and a bit years in the CATT ST Kilda to Dandenong catchment

[Tannin]

Go for a body shot ('coz I wouldn't be confident of hitting the right head) and hope like all buggery (a) that the wound won't be fatal to the hostage, and (b) that whatever sort of bullet I'm firing from whatever sort of gun that is will be sufficiently hard and have sufficient muzzle velocity to go right through and wound the bastard with the knife.

Not a good option, I know, but the hostage might survive a body wound but is most unlikely to survive a head wound.

[stui magpie]

[think positive]

Shoot on one, aim for his head, and scream duck
He will let go, I'd keep firing

If I miss she dies anyway, better a bullet than a knife, and then I'd take him apart piece by piece, he would wish he was never born,

[stui magpie]

Jo,

I'd expect nothing less.

[Wokko]

I'd shoot and then charge, he either cops the head shot or gets winged and hopefully lets go/is disoriented enough to NOT take the throat slash.

Have to take the chance with the shot, because no other option leads to a good place.

Only other option I could think of was to throw the gun above his head and charge when he looks at it, but I don't like the chances of making the 3 meters without ending up stabbed or losing the hostage.

[think positive]

[Tannin]

Of course, if I was a trained, highly skilled American cop, I'd just turn around and fire 16 deadly shots into someone that was no possible threat to me.

[David]

My instinct would be to try to talk him down and work out what he wants, but seeing as how you've excluded that option, this is what I'd do:

Basically, it's a stalemate situation. You're in just as much of a position to tell him to drop the knife as he is to tell you to drop the gun. So, go on the offensive. Tell him that if he doesn't drop the knife, he's getting a bullet. Fire a warning shot above his head. If the knife moves, start shooting near his exposed area and don't stop. The minute he gets hit, he'll be incapacitated and you can take control of the situation.

In a way, this is a bit of a trick question because usually there are pros and cons to weigh up in a hostage situation. It's why police often wait hours before intervening. But in the rare cases where the hostage-taker is on an efficient murder/suicide mission, that's the time to go in all guns blazing.

[stui magpie]