With the proliferation of body cameras we now have more footage of SWAT hostage rescue events than ever before. This means that we can see what was previously an incredibly rare event, with granular detail. The purpose of this article is to examine high profile cases for police officers and other tactical professionals. In this article we will highlight relevant camera footage as well as other publicly available sources of information. Keep reading to see all the details.
As I was doing my research for this article, I began by searching for body cam videos of hostage rescue events. I quickly came across this incident, which took place in Los Angeles, where it began as an active shooter situation. As I dug down deeper, I realized there were a lot of great lessons that police officers and other tactical team members could take away from this.
This event has the added benefit of some really great footage, as well as a publicly available case summary from the LA County District Attorneys office. Here are the SWAT hostage rescue key points for the event.
LAPD SWAT Hostage Rescue 10/8/21 Key Points
- 1 Male hostage taker with altered mental status (drugs)
- 1 Female hostage inside apartment
- Dual explosive breaches, one successful
- Flash bang deployed on entry
- Hostage taker pointed 22 revolver at head of victim, initiating rescue
- Entry team subject to fire
- Hostage taker shot at point blank range upon refusal of commands
Before we get into the details of the event, I think it’s important to mention that the LAPD SWAT team did a tremendous job. They conducted themselves professionally, and saved the hostage. The goal of this case study is to see what worked, and what didn’t, so that other law enforcement teams and special forces units tasked with hostage rescue can benefit. Now let’s get to the event.
Before we do that don’t forge to join the email list below. We’ll send out awesome articles every week, just as soon as they’re released.
Email List
LAPD SWAT OIS NRF 056-21
This event began at 3:45 PM on 10/8/21 in downtown LA, in the southern California area. The hostage taker (last name Anderson) approached a stranger and placed the barrel of his revolver to their face, pulling the trigger. Luckily the gun failed to fire. Moments later the hostage taker approached another woman and attempted to car jack her.
Anderson then approached a family a few minutes later, following them into a clothing store. He discharged his pistol several times, striking a 14 year old boy in the face (non fatal). Anderson then attempted to steal a passerby’s bicycle, after brandishing his gun. He was unsuccessful.
As you might imagine, these critical incidents generated many calls for service. Eventually patrol officers make it to the scene and building security informs them that the subject is armed, pointing out his location. Once patrol officers spot him they initiate a foot pursuit where Anderson ignores police commands.
During the foot pursuit, Anderson entered the building where he would take his hostage, with patrol hot on his heels. At that point, patrol stops pursing for unknown reasons, and sets up a perimeter. Patrol then checks building cameras and they see the hostage taker grabbing a woman on the fourth floor, dragging her into an apartment. This is the scenario when SWAT operators arrive.
Here is the full video review from LAPD, including some of the cell phone calls to dispatch, citizen video, and body camera footage from the officers.
If you’re a tactical professional who wants to work on your fitness. I recommend checking out some of my premium fitness programs. They are incredibly detailed, and will have you setting PRs in no time. Follow this link for more information.
The Tactical Situation
Once SWAT took control of the scene, they established a hostage rescue team at the North and South entrances to the apartment. Officers there heard sounds consistent with the hostage taker barricading the door. Later on, the victim confirmed that a filing cabinet was placed in front of the North entrance, and a concrete table was placed in front of the South entrance. Explosive charges were placed on both doors. Here is the layout below.
While teams prepared their breach plan, the hostage taker moved the victim in front of the windows, and held a gun to her head. This was captured by citizens across the street. This image is taken just prior to the SWAT hostage rescue.
Seconds before this happened the hostage taker told the victim he needed her to role play and then placed the gun to her head. He then began to scream, “I’ll kill this bitch.” This prompted an emergency entry to save the hostages life.
SWAT Team Entry and Resolution
Both teams were notified of the situation, and they triggered the breaching charges. The South charge detonated first, and then the North charge blew. At this point, the hostage taker separates from the hostage and begins to fire his handgun. He then returns to grab her, forcing her to the ground, prior to the SWAT hostage rescue response.
SWAT officers could not enter through the North entrance, due to the filing cabinet blocking access. It appears from the video that there was a significant delay at the South entrance to move the concrete table out of the way. This delayed the entry team.
Upon entry, officers deployed a flash bang and began to clear the apartment. Once the officers enter, the hostage taker fires at least once in their direction. At this point he is holding the hostage in a fetal position, on the ground, near the pillar.
Officers encounter both persons on the ground, and after some delay, are able to determine he’s armed. Two officers discharge their rifles at less than 3 feet, striking him on his scalp, neck, biceps, and shoulder.
Later on, officers clarified that the hostage taker had attempted to shoot himself in the head, causing them to see the gun, and fire their rifles. The autopsy revealed that he shot himself with a low powered 22 round, that failed to function normally.
Toxicology revealed that he had consumed cocaine, amphetamines, and methamphetamine prior to the incident. He was pronounced deceased on the scene. The hostage was uninjured. Now that we know the facts of the case, let’s get to the tactical discussion.
Tactical Discussion
In this section we’ll review some of the more salient points regarding this SWAT hostage rescue, to see what worked well, and what could be improved upon. The goal here isn’t to Monday morning quarter back these officers, or this police department. We are simply trying to learn from them.
If you want an awesome free fitness program for tactical professionals, you can find that here. It’s over 30 pages in length, and very detailed.
LAPD Patrol Response
The first point that jumps out to me is the lack of pursuit by patrol once the hostage taker enters the building. At that point he had done several attempted robberies, attempt murders, and actually shot a boy in the head. Given that information he is an going danger to the public. Deadly force would most likely be a reasonable resolution once they spot him, given these facts.
I can tell you that this many calls would generate a lot of chaos for the officers, with conflicting descriptions and reports of what happened. However, the officers there were aware that he was armed and fleeing from them. They were also likely aware of him committing violent felonies. I see no reason to stop the foot pursuit to set up a perimeter.
I think they did a good job of reviewing building surveillance quickly. This allowed them to determine that a hostage situation had occurred. This is good patrol level work. Without this, the hostage might not have survived.
SWAT Response
The SWAT officers were very lucky that this apartment had two entrances, which isn’t common for high rise apartment buildings. As we saw, both doors were barricaded, causing one breach to fail. The other breach was significantly delayed by the concrete table.
You can see on the video that this fouled the breach, causing one of the entry officers to slip on the uneven footing. I don’t think there is any way to mitigate this issue. I was most surprised that a sniper did not shoot the hostage taker when he presented the gun to the hostage in the window.
If we examine the video we see that patrol broke contact with the hostage taker at 4:15 pm. SWAT did not make entry until the hostage taker put a gun to the hostages head at 6:44 pm. This would have been an ideal shot for a sniper positioned on the frontage of the building, where the twitter video was shot.
I can only surmise that the team did not have enough time to get a sniper set up, or they didn’t have a good angle to take the shot. Either way, I think given the layout of the building, a sniper shot would certainly have been a better method to resolve the situation.
SWAT Entry Team
Upon entry the team deployed a flash bang, and made their way from the South entrance, to the pillar. The lead officers saw him shoot at them, and they continued to move towards the problem, without hesitation.
The officers showed great restraint in shooting him only when they had a clear shot. Other officers who located the hostage, immediately removed her from the scene. The rest of the team showed a lot of professionalism by not all clustering on the subject during the shooting.
They continued to do their specific tasks, relying on the officers there to deal with the hostage taker. Now let’s finish this article up with some of my final thoughts.
Final Thoughts
This is clearly a win for LAPD. They handled one of the most difficult calls a SWAT Team has to deal with. I think the two biggest improvements would have been to prioritize coverage across the frontage of the building. To be honest, it doesn’t even have to be a sniper. One officer with an M4 could have taken that shot.
The other point of improvement would be for patrol. Given the situation, I think continued pursuit would have been a better decision. This might have prevented a hostage situation in the first place.
As far as hostage rescue training recommendations go, I think teams could benefit from working on fouled breach entries more than they already do. All in all I give LAPD kudos for their excellent work.
If you liked this kind of case study let me know in the comments section below. Don’t forget to join the email list.
The opinions in this article represent the authors personal opinion and are not representative of any unit, police department, or other organization. All images and media are used for educational purposes only.
