I was dispatched to a report of a 17-year-old male destroying items in his mother's residence with a baseball bat. Having recently completed the department's field training program, I was rehearsing my response while en route to the call. Obviously, the bat presented a deadly threat so the appropriate response for dealing with someone armed with a bat would be to draw my firearm.

Upon arrival, I parked several houses from the location of the call and waited for my partner to arrive. Unfortunately, prior to my partner arriving, the 17-year old burst out the front door of the residence, armed with an aluminum baseball bat. I quickly exited my vehicle and requested Dispatch expedite the response of my cover unit.

By now, the bat-wielding teenager was walking toward me, yelling for me to shoot him. I drew my handgun and pointed it at the subject, ordering him to drop the bat. He ignored my commands and continued approaching me. The subject's mother and his friend pleaded with me not to shoot him and actually walked in between subject and I so that I would not have a clear shot at him.

I placed my index finger on the trigger and was prepared to shoot the subject, who was about 20 feet away and closing distance quickly. I remember thinking if the subject took two more steps toward me and I had a clear shot, I would take it. Just then, he threw the bat down and charged me.

While back peddling to create distance and fumbling to holster my firearm, I found myself almost face to face with the suspect. I drew my pepper spray with my left hand and threatened to spray the suspect. Luckily, this caused him to stop. By now, my cover officer arrived, which prompted the subject to flee on foot. We gave chase and apprehended the subject following a brief altercation.

The moral to the story is that I was unprepared to handle a situation requiring me to quickly de-escalate from a deadly force response to an intermediate force response, such as the use pepper spray, baton, Electronic Control Device, or personal body weapons. In speaking to officers, I've discovered that many have experienced the same dilemma. When officers aren't prepared to handle this type of scenario, there is a possibility of them shooting an unarmed subject when doing so might not be reasonable or being injured while attempting to holster their handgun.

The question is, what equipment and tactics can we employ to give ourselves the best chance of safely transitioning from a deadly force response to a lower level force option?