Inside An Officer-Involved Shooting with Officer Zach Pfannenstiel | Mike Drop #201

About this video

Officer Zach Pfannenstiel recounts his first officer-involved shooting while working in the gang unit. He describes an operation to apprehend a suspect wanted for elder abuse who, according to the suspect’s father, made pipe bombs and firearms and was anti-government. Pfannenstiel explains that during the arrest attempt, he rammed the suspect’s vehicle to prevent him from running over civilians and detectives, after which the suspect pointed a homemade shotgun at officers, leading to a fatal shooting. He also shares a separate memorable story about a high-speed pursuit involving a suspect throwing cocaine and guns from his vehicle.

Key takeaways

• Pfannenstiel describes ramming a suspect’s vehicle to protect civilians after the suspect fled and attempted to run people over, an action for which he later received a medal of valor
• Pfannenstiel states the suspect pointed what turned out to be an operable homemade shotgun at him and pulled the trigger multiple times, though it did not fire, resulting in an officer-involved shooting in which the suspect was killed
• Pfannenstiel says he handled the aftermath of the shooting by relying on friends for support rather than official psychological debriefs, and that it was easier to process because the suspect had pointed a firearm at him and possessed explosives

Episode details: published August 18, 2024 · 3.1K views · 9:15 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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