Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
SHOOTING COMPETITION HONORS FALLEN OFFICER
The three-part competition honored late Caln Sgt. Christopher ‘Buc’ Sambuco
DOWNINGTOWN >> Local police recently participated in a shooting competition that tested their skills and honored their late comrade.
The Tredyffrin Township Police Department won the first part of the match, known as the 2019 inaugural Sambuco Memorial Team Pistol Match, which was sponsored by the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 11. It is named after Caln Sgt. Christopher “Buc” Sambuco, 42, of West Chester, who served with the Caln Police Department for 15 years. He died off-duty on April 12, 2018. The winning team from Tredyffrin consisted of: Lt. Tim Brown, Cpl. Mike Spirito Jr., Officer Neil Jackson and Officer Josh Smethers.
They all served alongside Sambuco on SWAT as members of the Chester County Regional Emergency Response Team.
During the Team match, each participating police department shot together as a team on a “dueling tree” which has six targets and starts with three targets on each side of the tree. The objective is to hit all the targets toward the opposing team’s side before the other four-person team does so, and then knock down a final target. Each team member was restricted to two shots during their turn and then the next team member repeats
the process until there is a winner. The winning team, with best out of three duels, advances to the next round until there is only one team left.
The Pistol Match portion of the competition, held at the Chester County Public Safety Training Campus, was sponsored by the Chester County Police Chiefs Association to promote firearms skills, and camaraderie among the law enforcement community in which Sambuco served.
The first course in the Pistol Match involves the officers shooting at stationary targets, which are the “threats.” The objective is to fire two shots at each of the three targets, and then repeat it. Most of the officers successfully did this in an about 10 seconds or less.
A Daily Local News reporter, who completed the courses can attest that the second part of this course is challenging. They begin by running 25 yards which creates adrenaline, and then have to shoot twice through a window at a moving target. The objective is to shoot the target twice in a matter of seconds, which proved challenging.
They then move on to shoot at three targets that have innocent hostages in front of them. The officers again take two shots at each target and are penalized in the scoring process for hitting an innocent person. At some point in the course, the officers are required to reload their weapon.
The last section of the course is the most challenging and is also the quickest. The officers have three seconds to hit a moving target twice before it disappears out of sight. They then fire at two stationary targets. Each participant is timed and the scoring is based on where the bullet strikes the target.
The Chester County District Attorney’s Office sponsored the third part of the competition, called the Tactical Match, held at the Downingtown Police Range. In the Tactical match, each police officer shot at the drop tree target system, which required each officer to knock down the target until it fell off the target frame. Next, they do a “three gun match” which includes a handgun, a rifle and shotgun. At one point, the officers shot from a distance of up to 45 yards away. Then from a close distance, they shot at a hostile target that has an innocent target moving in front of it. There are penalties added to their time for hitting an innocent target and failing to knock down a hostile target. This portion reflects the officer’s ability to fire while moving with a ballistic shield, as well as precision shooting and reloading.
“It’s nice to come out for him,” said Caln Officer Mike Kopil, who was trained by Sambuco as his supervisor. “It’s nice to have a competition with my coworkers and fellow officers in law enforcement.”
Kopil, a former Marine, was deployed several times and noted that being on the streets as a police officer is much different. He said in both cases they are taught to react; however, there are more steps in the decision making process as an officer. He explained police are thinking about possible decisions and looking for additional threats in the foreground while being aware of innocent bystanders and possible hostages.
Eric Shallis with the Schuylkill Police Department, did not know Sambuco personally, but believes that Sambuco is the type of police officer that those wearing the uniform should strive to be like. Being on the Chester County Regional Emergency Response Team, Shallis heard about how dedicated Sambuco was to the job.
“The least I could do to honor him, the team and the Caln community, was to participate in this. It’s great to do this competition in his memory,” Shallis said. “The way everyone described him to be, he was the epitome of the kind of officer everyone should strive to be.”
He described the course as challenging because of the steps involved and how they have to be thinking through their movements during the fast-paced competition. He said their training is a fundamental skill to the competitionstyle course.
“I had no choice not to shoot, and I mean that in a good way,” Caln Sgt. Kevin Bernard said, explaining that he wanted to do this for his late partner. “He would have done this. It’s something we’d do together.”
Bernard worked with Sambuco, and served together on SWAT, added that competitions like this build confidence for the police officers, and by practicing shooting in a repetitious manner, it helps them train the brain to react.
“This builds your skillsets with a good healthy competition,” Bernard said. “It does add pressure with the clock and the speed. That’s how cops need to train because any time we’re doing something like this, we’re doing it under stress.”
“You have to be able to hit those (targets) at speed,” Bernard said. “It’s a lot faster than you’d think.”
Overall, most officers completed that entire course in less than a minute. The scoring was based on speed and accuracy. Trophies will be provided to the top three shooters in three different classes of the three-part competition. Downingtown Police Chief Howard Holland was the only chief to compete. There was also only one female officer who competed.
“I wanted to do well,” said My Inderelst, who earned a trophy.
She had also received the firearms award in the police academy two years ago. She works full-time with the Sherriff’s Office and part-time with the West Brandywine Police Department. When she decided to change careers, Sambuco had faith in her abilities.
“Even with my age and the fact that I just got out of the academy, he believed that I could do this,” Inderelst said. “He was a really good man.”
Visit Daily Local News staff writer Ginger Rae Dunbar’s blog about journalism and volunteering as a firefighter at FirefighterGinger.blogspot. com.