Here is a new, and extremely interesting case from NYC involving armed robbers with guns making contact and even going to the ground with an off duty cop. 

BUT WAIT! “Cecil, you said private citizen in the title!” Yes, because this was an off duty cop in normal everyday clothes. From all the other news reports I have seen, he was targeted as a victim because he was there, not because the robbers knew he was a cop. As far as they knew, he was an everyday person who was available to be their victim. Tom Givens has pointed out numerous times over the years that some of the best data points we have on how gunfights and crimes occur is from FBI and DEA agents being involved in such situations because they rarely are in any kind of identifiable uniform and as such, are identical analogues most of the time to private citizens. This event here is a perfect complement to his fantastic point. 

Take a look at the pictures. Two robbers, both with guns out, and not only do they attach to the victim, they both take him to the ground and remain there with him while they rob and beat him. Bad guys want control while they do what they need to do, and even with firearms they will over and over again make contact with their intended target. Bad guys will put themselves into an entanglement, including the ground often (certainly not every time, but statistically high enough to matter), and if we go around with blinders, it will be an already bad day made infinitely worse. 

https://nypost.com/2025/05/25/us-news/police-id-thug-who-beat-off-duty-cop-stole-his-gun-and-bust-his-dad-for-using-the-officers-credit-card/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nypost&utm_source=twitter

I was on Aimpoint’s Taking Aim podcast with Rich Nance. We covered some really good stuff, and went pretty broad on the subjects.

Jelly Bryce was a phenomenal shooter. Not only could he do things on the range for show, he could also use those exact skills in life or death battles with bad guys, and did so, and did it often. He, as my friend and terrific instructor Wayne Dobbs puts it, plucked a lot of weeds from God’s garden. No one can ever deny any of that.

However, where things get sticky is when others try to emulate and follow his example without understanding some key things.

It is not just with this specific example, but it happens over and over again in many different areas and contexts, and it is almost always problematic.

The high performers in a given field most often get there in large part to specific physical attributes. Certainly, they may also have an incredible work ethic which helps push them over the top, but that is layered over the aforementioned attributes.

Jelly Bryce for example had an amazing work ethic. Many people verified what he said was his daily routine – two hours every single day dry firing in front of a mirror. He did not do this for a short period of time. From all accounts, he did this even as he got much older and was close to retiring as an active duty FBI agent. So he would have probably been fairly successful in most of his gunfights, but that practice was backed up by some incredible attributes. His hand/eye coordination was incredible, and his ability to see probably equaled the best major league baseball players who were great hitters.

Where this is an issue is when his example becomes the beacon of what others believe is the correct path. Bryce was a point shooter. The gun for most of his gunfights stayed below his line of sight, and that worked well for him. However, when others who wanted to ape his results blindly followed the path of “point shooting” without doing the training Jelly did, and without his attributes could never come close to replicating his results.

Technique does not exist in a vacuum.

Technique is powered by certain drivers. Really, the main drivers are things based on concepts, principles, training methodology, and other global engines, but physical attributes do play a part. That is okay when your actions are not fueled by physical attributes, but they are just additions. So when we decide on what “techniques” we are going to use, we indeed to make sure that 1) the training methodology is supportive of our context (i.e. not having to train 5 hours a day every day for 5 years to see results), and 2) the techniques can work just as well with our own current attributes and capabilities.

Jelly Bryce is a good example of the fallacy of following an expert’s path without an in depth understanding of their journey, but it happens all over. In the Combstives world for example, what works for Islam Makhachev in the UFC cage MAY work for us, but it may not. He may have some unique qualities that do not transfer for the lay person. On the basketball court, we can ape Michael Jordan’s moves, but the chance we can play at an NBA level is nil.

So let us look to the greats and the high performers, but let’s make sure we understand context as we do.

*note* this may be footage of Jelly Bryce. I have not seen absolute proof, but it still serves as a good illustration of what he advocated and did in his shooting.

Entangled Fight with Private Citizen and Weapons 5/23/25

A private citizen defends himself against an attacker and does well, but does not understand how to control someone in an entangled fight, and BG accesses his gun and shoots good guy.

Again, a private citizen in an entangled fight against a bad guy with a gun.

What chance would he have had if he had tried to draw a gun himself? Against a gun already out and pointed at him with the bad guy’s finger on the trigger?

John Valentine from the Combatives Association Summit and myself were on the Primary & Secondary Podcast where we discussed stepping into the world of combatives, the positive social environment to be found there, and how to gain confidence while training. I thought we hit on some good stuff.

Link in comments.

For quite literally years and years I have been telling people that one of the single best skills we can have if we are truly interested in real world self-preservation is the ability to breakfall. It is not sexy or tacti-cool, but it is far more likely to be used and more likely to save you from harm than a firearm or H2H fighting skills.

The simple fact is that everyone falls – whether that is because of slipping/tripping over something on the ground, or getting our feet tied up through bad, hasty, unthinking movement. We all have done this at some time, and some of us have done it a lot. Hopefully, the most negative thing we get afterwards is embarrassment or some broken skin, but all too often the consequences are much worse. For anyone who is unsure about that, look up how many times a senior citizen who falls and breaks their hip then passes away as a result.

At the beginning of my Immediate Action Combatives coursework, I tell people the seminar is NOT about teaching you to voluntarily go to the ground to fight. Instead, it is about “when you do not intend to go to the ground but find yourself there regardless”. When I ask students if that is possible and how it would be, they universally answer “after falling”, because anyone who is honest will admit that they have fallen at some point in their life. I point out that even if you do not want to, if you have not trained specifically to stay on your feet, finding yourself under sudden surprising violent assault is not the time when your brain is going to be able to do so easily.

Take this video as a case in point, as it is a perfect illustration of what I try to get across.

Does anyone think that the LEO wanted to go to the ground? Of course not. It is obvious that was unintended and totally accidental. And because it was accidental, and he was not prepared or trained for it, the single reason he did not suffer worse consequences was that the bad guy had the same reaction. If the bad guy had not fallen over the officer and had a bit more presence of mind, there is a pretty good chance the officer would have suffered major injuries from the bad guy’s knife, and perhaps even have died. The good guy was also extremely lucky that he did not suffer injuries from the fall itself such as hitting his head. Again, nothing good would have followed that.

The good guy in the above video was lucky, but I don’t really think counting on luck to save your life is the best plan. That is no different than making poor financial decisions over and over again in the hope that you will hit the lottery at some point. You need to prepare and practice for it the same exact way you practice drawing from concealment with your carry pistol.

If you are honestly interested in self-preservation, than you need to spend a solid amount of time on the things that are most likely to kill you. Having decent health (regular physical checkups, including dental since there is a direct link between poor dental hygiene and heart attacks), not being excessively fat, eating like an adult, being a good driver, knowing CPR and how to work an AED machine and recognize the signs of a stroke, and knowing how to survive a sudden fall. None of these are sexy or can be easily accomplished by buying gear, but they mean far more to your actual well-being.

In the next article, I will talk about how we go about learning and developing the ability to breakfall.