SEAN MULLIGAN MULTIPLE ASSAILANT AMBUSH.
 
Hey Tony,
 
        Just wanted to write and fill you in on incident that happened last Saturday night here in Thunder Bay. I was in a marked cruiser paroling my community when I observed a group of 7-10 youths in behind one of our Beer Stores. When they saw the cruiser they all took off running in different directions. As I turned onto one of the side streets I saw three of them walking up the stoop to one of the houses, one sat down and the other two proceeded to the door as if they were going to enter. At this time I approached and asked what the youths were up to as the one seated replied that they were visiting a friend. When I asked who, they all looked at each other and didn't reply. I then moved in closer observing that the youths, all under age, smelled strongly of alcohol. I then requested that they identify themselves at which time the male seated stood up and said "Fuck you, I don't have to tell you anything, I know my fuckin rights".
       
 I then arrested all three under the authority of our Liquor License Act which requires anyone who contravenes a section to identify themselves. Believing that the male who stood up was the 'leader', I approached him and grabbed his arm to take him into custody. One male was standing to his left, while the other was standing to my immediate right, firearm side. The male then pulled his right arm away and began to push me backwards towards the short stairs and said, "Get your fuckin hands off of me". To catch my balance, I grabbed at the male with my left as his friend to my right lunged at me. With my right I then did a protective/tactical SPEAR driving the second male into the wall of the house. This male then grabbed at my right arm, which, thanks to the strengthening drill evolutions we did at the Fight House in NY, was outside 90 degrees. Using my left hand I then grabbed the first male by his throat and pulled him between myself and the second male Speared against the wall. While doing this I observed that the third male was reaching inside his jacked and grabbed a bottle. I then threw the first male, semi-conscious from a front vascular restraint to the ground knocking the second male down as well.
        
Somewhere in there, not sure of the proper sequence because of the adrenalin dump I was having, I told the third male to slowly place his bottle on the stoop, grabbed his left arm and handcuffed it to the first males left arm and in doing so, had positioned myself so that the second male was now to my left, gunside away from all three. The second male began to move at me again, this time much slower then before or at least, that's how it seemed at the time. I then hit him again with a Tactical SPEAR knocking him back and grabbed his right hand. The first male, now back up on his feet was yelling at me and threatening with his right hand as the third male, handcuffed to the first, was trying to get away. While still holding onto the second male's hand, I threw a shin kick into the first males thigh dropping him as he pulled the third male down with him. I then took the second male down with a wristlock and positioned him on his stomach to be cuffed. A civilian, having witnessed the entire incident ran over to assist and put what looked like a rear strangle onto the first male. This was the first opportunity that I had to call for assistance and did so.
       
The second male on the ground was now crying because of the pain from the pressure on his wrist while the third male was still trying to pull himself free and eventually pulled the first male away from the assisting male. While still maintaining control of the second male's wrist, I stepped on the base of the first males skull to keep him down on the ground while the civilian grabbed his free right arm. Within seconds, back up units arrived and assisted in handcuffing the second male, I used my only pair
securing the first and third together. It took three other officers to control the other two who had to be uncuffed and then cuffed separately as they continued to resist. I then escorted the first and third males in, as other units remained to interview the witnesses and escort the second male in. While on route, the first male said, "Take these cuffs off and I'll kick the shit out of you". To which I professionally replied, "You had your chance with two of your friends and you LOST" emphasis on "LOST". He then said, "If I had, had my gun, this would've ended differently".
       
I later found out that the second male was involved in an incident the previous evening where he ran from police leaving an imitation firearm and knife at the scene and that the first male ran from Police on the same night in an unrelated incident with the second. It turned out that these two had warrants for their arrest, were on conditions not to drink as well as curfews and are affiliated with one of our local youth gangs. The third had just come into town that weekend and unfortunately hooked up with the wrong crowd...he had no priors. None of the youths lived at the residence in which they were arrested.
        
Although this may seem unbelievable, it was real although I may have missed something as it all happened very quickly. I want to thank you for all of the training that you've provided over the past several years, without it I would hate to think what may have happened. And on another note, the training was harder, much harder:)
        
BTW...one of the supervisors who was first on scene and had served with me on our HRT, assisted in controlling the first male and later said, "Only three...you wimp!" He however did come up to me while I was finishing the paperwork and said that he was glad that it was me who was out there and not one of the many other officers. He then finished by asking if I would be willing to share some of my training with his unit and himself, even though he is recognized as a Canadian Judo Champ who almost made it to the 1994 Olympics. It says allot about you and your system...
 
Thanks for keeping me safe!
 
Sean Mulligan
 

 
Sean Mulligan has been a police officer for 18 years.  He's been a member of the various SWAT and ERT units and currently works special projects as well as runs the defensive tactics program.  Sean has also been training in the SPEAR System for 6+ years and is one of our top PDR & SPEAR team coaches.