Gunfight Stories: Tim Gramins

August 25, 2008 was a Sunday afternoon in Skokie, Illinois. Skokie PD Officer Tim Gramins was on his first day back from a family vacation, working his patrol circuit and planning to make a quick stop to pick up a Star Wars video game for his son's eighth birthday. (Recoil) Then the radio crackled. A man had just robbed a bank at gunpoint in a suburb eleven miles north and fled in an unknown direction. Gramins was only six blocks from a major expressway — the most logical escape route into the city. (Recoil) He headed that way.

He parked near the Edens Expressway and monitored passing traffic. A white Pontiac Bonneville caught his eye — the plate traced back to the South Side. But it wasn't the plate that confirmed it. It was the look on the driver's face. (BenShot) Gramins had seen it before — that split-second flash of recognition, the oh-crap-there's-a-cop expression that a man tries to bury before it gives him away. They made eye contact, and the driver floored it, cutting across three lanes of traffic and roaring up an exit ramp. (Blue Force Gear) Gramins hit his lights and siren. The chase was on.

The pursuit wound off the expressway and into a quiet residential neighborhood. The driver suddenly stopped his vehicle near Estes and Kilpatrick Avenues. (Falling Out) What Gramins didn't know yet was that this man had made a decision long before that afternoon — he had vowed he would kill a police officer if he ever got stopped. (Recoil)

The first four shots came immediately, punching through the windshield of Gramins' squad car. (Falling Out) Gramins returned fire through the disintegrating glass, tracking his target as the man advanced on the patrol car door, still shooting. The gunfight lasted nearly a full minute. Fifty-four rounds were fired in total — 21 by the attacker and 33 by Gramins from his Glock 21. (Police Magazine) At one point both men ran dry at the same moment. The attacker sprinted back to his car. Gramins exploded out his driver's door, reloading on the run, and got on the radio — shots fired, suspect out of his vehicle, officer needs help. (Blue Force Gear)

The man came back. By the time it was over, Gramins had put 14 rounds into him — 17 hits total on his body including three fatal shots to the head. (Firearms Nation) Prior rounds had struck the heart, lungs, and kidney. The man had kept coming. (Police Magazine) What finally ended the fight was Gramins dropping into a solid prone position and delivering three carefully aimed shots to the head. The last one shut off the computer. (Blue Force Gear)

Gramins walked away with only minor cuts to his chin from flying debris. (Firearms Nation) Throughout the fight, a neighbor on the corner had been leaning out his door yelling encouragement the entire time. Gramins has said it was genuinely comforting — like having a coach on the sidelines.

Now for the lessons, because there are several good ones here. The first is one we keep coming back to in these posts: rounds to center mass are not a guarantee. This man absorbed over a dozen rounds including at least six in locations that should have been fatal, and he kept attacking. (Bureau of Justice Assistance) The fight doesn't stop because you've hit the threat. It stops when the threat stops. Keep working.

The second lesson is about ammunition capacity and the reload. Before this shooting, Gramins carried 47 rounds on his person. Afterward, he went to work carrying 145 rounds — three extra 17-round magazines for his primary, two 33-round magazines in his vest, a backup gun, and 90 rounds for his patrol rifle. (Recoil) That's not paranoia. That's a man doing the math after nearly running dry in a fight that lasted under a minute. How many rounds do you carry?

The third is about aimed fire. Gramins fired a lot of rounds in that fight, and many of them connected. But the fight ended when he slowed down, found a stable position, and made precise shots to the head. Suppressive fire can buy you time and create distance. Aimed fire ends the fight. Both have a place, and knowing when to shift between them is a skill worth developing.

And the fourth — maybe the most important — is about training. When asked how he got through it, Gramins said his training simply kicked in. He didn't have to think about what to do. It was already there. (Firearms Nation) He was on his department's SWAT team and had put in extra hours because of it. When the moment came, all of that showed up automatically. You will not rise to the occasion. You will default to your training. Make sure your training is worth defaulting to.

Look up the ProArms Podcast episode with Tim Gramins. It's one of the best firsthand accounts in law enforcement training, and it will change how you think about what you carry and why.

Be safe. Be well.