New court documents tell us what happened during Saturday night's shooting from the perspective of one of three suspects that have been arrested.
According to court documents released Thursday morning, De'Arius Cannon admitted to not seeing any armed person in the area during Saturday night's shooting. The documents also further outline he agreed that he simply heard the sound of gunfire, took out his handgun and started firing back, regardless of how many people were in the area; adding Cannon also admitted during his interview that he refused to comply with officers demands for him to put down his gun.
Tallahassee Police Department Patrol Captain Vincent Boccio was one of the officers who responded to the shooting. He happened to be nearby and was on the scene in 15 seconds.
Boccio recalls a few things that ran through his mind when he responded that night. "Fear. You know, we're humans too. Police Officers are human so we're fear comes over and then our training takes over and we respond and make sure our officers, the community, anybody is safe, so that all runs through your head," said Boccio.
Boccio said officers train for moments like this one. "No one wishes any type of situation ever comes to their community, but I was happy to see that the training we received at Tallahassee Police Department and how we work with our law enforcement brothers and sisters, we all came together, we corroborated, and we took care of the situation," said Boccio.
Dr. Ivette Motola works at the Gordon Center for simulation and innovation in medical education. They help educate and train first responders for violent incidents like the one that occurred last Saturday night.
"To bring this idea of a rescue task force approach to these events that I know are always obviously very unfortunate when they happen, but our goal is to try to save as many lives as possible," Motola.
She said having realistic training scenarios allows first responders to practice working through a situation before it happens. "It gets them into action mode, implementing their plan, problem solving around what might come up that they didn't plan on, and being able to do that effectively," Motola.
Boccio believes training like this is invaluable for any active shooter situations they may respond to. "It's a benefit to us, just like this past weekend, when we have that training, and it takes over and it helps us do our jobs," said Boccio.
TPD hosts an active shooter situation training annually for all officers. They learn how to handle a chaotic situation, quickly take care of any active threats and make sure everyone is safe. After that, they start to work the scene as an active crime scene.
