Shootout

A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a gun battle between armed groups. A shootout often, but not always, pits law enforcement against criminal groups; it can also involve two groups outside of law enforcement, such as rival groups. A military term for a shootout in a combat situation (i.e. regularly constituted enemy armed forces or even guerrilla or insurgent forces) would always be considered a battle (depending on size), rather than a shootout. Shootouts are often portrayed in action films and Western films.^[1]

Notable shootouts in the United States and territories[]

Gunfight On Vine Street[]

May 30, 1856. The Gunfight involved Judge Bird, Dr. Troy, Dr. Hunter, Colonel John R. Bell and his two sons (Charles and John Bell) and took place in Cahaba, Alabama, the former State Capitol of Alabama. The gunfight was the result of accusations by Dr. Troy and Judge Bird that the Bells were implicated in the burning (arson) of their homes. Inflamed by the accusations, John Bell assaulted Dr. Troy outside his office using a hickory stick and a pistol. Judge Bird and Dr. Hunter rushed to Dr. Troy's aid with Colonel Bell and his son Charles all arriving at the same time. In the hail of bullets that followed, Colonel Bell and his son John Bell were killed.

Jesse James Northfield bank robbery[]

September 7, 1876. Jesse James, Cole Younger, and their gang attempted to rob a bank in Northfield, Minnesota. They exchanged fire with the townspeople. Two of the gang members were killed in the fire fight along with two innocent civilians.

Deaths: James-Younger gang: 2; Northfield town: 2

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral[]

October 26, 1881. Deputy U.S. Marshal and Tombstone City Marshal Virgil Earp, Assistant Marshal Morgan Earp, and Special Police Officers Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, faced off against outlaw Cowboys Ike Clanton, Billy Clanton, Billy Claiborne, Tom McLaury, and Frank McLaury in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.

Outcome: Clanton/McLaury: 3 killed; Earps/Holliday: 3 wounded

Mabry-O'Connor shootout[]

October 19, 1882. Mechanics' National Bank president Thomas O'Connor, businessman Joseph Mabry, Jr., and Mabry's son, Joseph Mabry, III, were killed in a shootout in Knoxville, Tennessee. The incident was documented in Chapter 40 of Mark Twain's 1883 book, Life on the Mississippi.^[2]

Deaths: O'Connor: 1; Mabry: 2

Frisco shootout[]

December 1, 1884. Legendary lawman Elfego Baca ignited an intense shootout with 40-80 cowboys, depending on source, in Frisco (now Reserve), New Mexico.

Deaths: Cowboys: 4; Baca: 0

Coffeyville bank robbery[]

October 5, 1892. The Dalton Gang attempted to rob two banks simultaneously in Coffeyville, Kansas, only to find themselves ambushed by lawmen and armed townspeople before they could make their escape. The gang was cornered in an alley and shot to pieces by the swarming townspeople; Emmett Dalton is the only outlaw to survive.

Deaths: Robbers: 4; Townspeople: 4

Battle of Matewan, West Virginia[]

May 19, 1920. Private agents from the Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency battled with the local sheriff, the town's mayor, and a group of coal miners, over an attempt by Baldwin-Felts agents to evict coal miners from their homes during a strike.^[3]

Deaths: Townspeople: 3; Baldwin-Felts: 7

Bonnie and Clyde; Joplin, Missouri[]

March 22, 1933. Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow and their friends entered a firefight with the local police who had been sent to investigate them in Joplin, Missouri.

Deaths: Lawmen: 2; Bonnie and Clyde: 0

Kansas City massacre[]

June 17, 1933. Kansas City, Missouri. In an attempt to free their friend, a criminal gang ambushed seven FBI agents and Kansas City police at the train station as they were escorting captured fugitive Frank Nash back to prison. The FBI agents were unarmed, but the local police exchanged fire with the criminal gang. The gang unintentionally killed Nash along with the law officers.

The FBI claimed that the gang included Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, but the evidence is debatable and contradicts with Floyd's alleged presence.

Deaths: Kansas City Police: 2; Oklahoma police: 1, FBI: 1; Nash: 1; Gang: 0

Little Bohemia[]

April 22, 1934. Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin. A team of FBI Agents led by Special Agent Melvin Purvis attempted to ambush bank robber John Dillinger and his gang at the Little Bohemia Lodge, a hotel and restaurant being used as a hideout. The ambush was botched when a truck full of Civilian Conservation Corps workers, who had been dining at the Lodge, was misidentified as Dillinger's men by the Agents, who opened fire, killing one of the civilians and wounding two more. Dillinger and his men briefly exchanged gunfire with Purvis's men before fleeing out the back of the lodge. FBI Agent W. Carter Baum was killed, and another agent wounded, by Baby Face Nelson during the gang's escape.

Deaths: FBI: 1; Civilians: 1; Dillinger's gang: 0

Battle of Barrington[]

November 27, 1934. Barrington, Illinois. Notorious bank robber Lester Gillis/George "Baby Face" Nelson, his wife Helen, and gang member John Chase, encountered an FBI car driven by Agents Thomas Dade and William Ryan on a highway outside Barrington. Nelson pursued the FBI Agents, exchanging gunfire with them, until his car was disabled. Two more agents, Special Agent Herman "Ed" Hollis and Inspector Sam Cowley, arrived on the scene and engaged Nelson and Chase in a shootout. Though Nelson was wounded seventeen times by the Agents, he and Chase were able to fatally injure both Hollis and Cowley. Nelson escaped, only to die that evening from his injuries.

Deaths: FBI: 2; Nelson: 1

Ma Barker[]

January 16, 1935. Ma Barker and her son, Fred, were killed by the FBI in Ocklawaha, Florida. Ordered to surrender, Fred opened fire; both he and his mother were killed by federal agents after an intense, hours-long shootout in a rented house. Deaths: Barkers: 2; Lawmen: 0

The Palace Chophouse shootout[]

October 23, 1935. Gangster Dutch Schultz and cronies battle with rival mobsters from Murder, Inc. at Schultz's headquarters in the Palace Chophouse restaurant in Newark, New Jersey.

Deaths: Schultz gang: 4; Murder, Inc.: 0

Truman assassination attempt[]

November 1, 1950. Puerto Rican nationalists Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola got into a shootout with officers of the Capitol police and Secret Service while attempting to break into the Blair House and assassinate president Harry Truman. By the end of the gun battle, Torresola and officer Leslie Coffelt were killed in an event that firearms instructor Massad Ayoob called "the boldest attempt at home invasion in modern history".^[4]

Deaths: Police: 1; Assassins: 1

Austin Tower sniper[]

August 1, 1966. Charles Whitman barricaded himself at the top of the tower at the University of Texas at Austin and proceeded to fire randomly from the tower. He eventually received return fire from police and armed civilians. He was killed in a final shootout when his perch was stormed by Austin police.

Deaths: 18 (including Whitman)

Newhall massacre[]

On April 6, 1970, California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers engaged heavily armed criminals Bobby Davis and Jack Twinning in a shootout in the parking lot of a restaurant near Newhall, California. In a span of five minutes, Davis and Twinning killed four CHP officers, making it the deadliest day in the history of Californian law enforcement.

Davis was later arrested, while Twinning killed himself following a long standoff with police.

Deaths: CHP officers: 4; Twinning: 1

Marin County Courthouse shootout[]

August 7, 1970.^[5] In an attempt to free his brother, imprisoned Black Panther leader George Jackson, 17-year-old Jonathan Jackson entered a courthouse in Marin County, California with an arsenal of weapons. After storming into a room where a trial was taking place, Jackson armed defendant James McClain, who was on trial for murdering a prison guard, and two fellow convicts who were participating in the trial as witnesses, William Christmas and Ruchell Magee. The four armed men then took the judge, a district attorney and three jurors hostage, and marched them out of the courthouse into a waiting getaway van.

As they attempted to flee the scene, a shootout broke out between the hostage takers and Marin County Sheriffs deputies providing security at the courthouse. By the end of the gun battle, Jonathan Jackson, McClain, Christmas, and judge Harold Haley were killed. According to the other hostages, Haley was executed by the hostage takers with a shotgun that had been taped to his throat. Magee was severely injured, but survived the battle and was sentenced to life in prison. One juror and the D.A. were also wounded. One of the weapons used by Jackson was later traced to Black Panther icon Angela Davis, who was later tried (but acquitted) for participation in the crime. It was later alleged by a Marin General Hospital doctor that Judge Haley was being treated for a brain tumor and should have been recused from trying cases for health reasons.

Deaths: Suspects: 3; Hostages: 1

Howard Johnson's Hotel shootout[]

January 7, 1973. One week after he had killed two police officers, former Black Panther member Mark Essex climbed to the roof of the Howard Johnson's Hotel in downtown New Orleans to set off a deadly shootout. As he made his way to the roof, Essex killed four people and set several hotel rooms on fire. The arriving police and firefighters were shot at by Essex. The confrontation lasted several hours, and by the end of the shooting, 8 people had been killed, including Essex and 3 police officers.

Deaths: 8 (including Essex)

Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) shootout[]

May 17, 1974. A confrontation and gun battle between Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and six members of the Symbionese Liberation Army at a residential home at 1466 East 54th Street, Los Angeles.

This remains one of the largest police shootouts in history with a reported total of over 9,000 rounds being fired (5,000 by police, 4,000 by the SLA). Every round fired by SLA members at the police missed the officers. During the incident, police fired tear gas into the house, unintentionally starting a fire. All six SLA members were killed, either by police bullets or the fire. The SLA's leader, Donald DeFreeze, committed suicide.

Deaths: SLA: 6; LAPD: 0

Pine Ridge shootout[]

June 26, 1975. A confrontation and gun battle between American Indian Movement (AIM) activists and the FBI on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Deaths: FBI: 2; AIM: 1

Golden Dragon massacre[]

September 4, 1977. The massacre took place at 2:30 a.m. at the Golden Dragon restaurant in San Francisco, California. A longstanding feud between two rival Chinatown gangs, the Joe Boys and Wah Ching, came to a head when a botched assassination attempt by the Joe Boys at the restaurant led to 5 civilians, including 2 tourists, being killed, and 11 others injured. The assassination attempt came about after members of Wah Ching vandalized the graves of Joe Boys' members, breaking an unspoken taboo of respecting the dead.

Deaths: Civilians: 5; Gang members: 0

MOVE[]

MOVE was a back-to-nature, anti-technology group in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the 1970s and 1980s. They were involved in two shootouts with the Philadelphia police.

August 8, 1978, Powelton Village. During an attempt to forcibly remove the group from the home in which they were living, a shootout took place between the police and the group; one police officer was killed. Nine of the group members were tried and sentenced for murder.

Deaths: Police: 1; MOVE: 0

May 13, 1985, Osage Avenue. In a failed attempt to serve arrest warrants on four members of the group, Philadelphia police became engaged in a gun battle at MOVE's communal residence. About 10,000 rounds of ammunition were fired by the police. The police dropped a bomb on the house, starting a fire which burned down 62 houses and killed 11 people.

Deaths: MOVE: 11 (6 adults, 5 children); Police: 0

Norco bank robbery shootout[]

May 9, 1980. Prolonged shootout and chase between police in Norco, California, and five heavily armed bank robbers wearing military-style fatigues and armed with semi-automatic rifles, thousands of rounds of hollow-point bullets as well as various explosive and incendiary devices. Police responded to a bank robbery call in Norco. Upon arriving the police were ambushed and outgunned. After the robbers unloaded over 300 rounds at police cruisers, the officers were forced to retreat behind their cruisers or nearby obstacles, all the while being fired upon. The suspects attempted to escape in their own vehicle. During this attempt, the driver of the suspects was killed by a stray police shot. The suspects then hijacked a nearby vehicle and became involved in a prolonged chase, in which the suspects shot at police and disabled and destroyed 33 police vehicles (as well as civilian cars) with explosives thrown from the back of a truck. The suspects also disabled a police helicopter by shooting at it. Later, the suspects lay in wait for police as they chased them, and ambushed them, resulting in the death of a police officer and wounding two others. Heavily outgunned, the police were pinned down until one officer arrived with an AR-15 carbine. After the police engaged the suspects with the AR-15, the suspects fled. One of the suspects was killed in the shootout, one during a later standoff with the police the next day, and three were later captured. Eight officers were also wounded during the events.^[6][7]

Deaths: Suspects: 2; Police: 1

Brink's armored truck robbery[]

October 20, 1981. An attempted armed robbery of a Brinks armored truck by members of the Weather Underground and Black Liberation Army resulted in a shootout and the deaths of two police officers and a Brinks security guard in Nyack, New York. The robbers, wearing body armor and equipped with assault rifles, initially ambushed the armored truck when it was parked at a shopping mall, killing Brinks guard Pete Paige and wounding his partner. After taking $1.6 million in cash and attempting to flee in a U-Haul truck, they were stopped at a roadblock set up by police. In a second shootout, police officers Waverly Brown and Ed O'Grady were killed and the robbers fled the scene in several different directions. Four of the robbers were arrested during their escape attempt, and more than six other people involved were arrested in subsequent investigations over the next several years. The last arrest was made in 1986.

Deaths: Suspects: 0; Police: 2; Brinks Guards: 1

Shannon Street massacre[]

January 12–14, 1983. Memphis Police Officer Bobby Hester was taken hostage at a house at 2239 Shannon Street after confrontation occurred between Hester and his partner Ray Schwill and the house's owner, cult leader Lindberg Sanders. After 30 hours of negotiations, a Memphis Police assault team raided the house and shot and killed Sanders and six of his followers, after which they found the body of Hester beaten to death.

Deaths: Memphis Police: 1; Cultists: 7

Gordon Kahl[]

February 13, 1983. Tax protester Gordon Kahl traded shots with U.S. Marshals when they attempted to arrest him in Medina, North Dakota. Two marshals were killed, and one marshal, three Medina policemen, and Gordon Kahl's son Yorie were wounded.

Deaths: U.S. Marshals: 2; Kahl: 0

June 3, 1983. Gordon Kahl was killed in a shootout with federal agents and the local sheriff in Smithville, Arkansas, in the house where he was hiding out.

Deaths: Kahl: 1; Sheriff: 1

FBI Miami shootout[]

April 11, 1986. Two FBI agents and two suspects were killed in a prolonged and intense firefight between the FBI and bank-robbery suspects William Matix and Michael Platt in Miami, Florida. The event became one of the most famous shootouts in American history, with ten participants (eight FBI agents and two suspects), roughly 145 rounds fired, and four deaths. Even though the FBI agents outnumbered the suspects four to one, the FBI were outgunned by the suspects. It took a total of 18 hits (six on Matix, 12 on Platt) to bring the gun battle to an end. All but one of the FBI agents involved in the shootout were killed or wounded.

Deaths: FBI: 2; Suspects: 2

Lance Thomas[]

From 1989 to 1992, Los Angeles watch merchant Lance Thomas was involved in four shootouts with armed robbers. In those four events, he killed a total of five and wounded another, while also being shot a total of five times. Thomas survived each shootout without permanent injuries. On April 27, 1992, Thomas eventually shutdown his store to avoid further bloodshed two days^[8] before the 1992 Los Angeles riots broke out.

Deaths: Suspects: 5; Thomas: 0.

Ruby Ridge[]

August 1992. In a 10-day siege, agents of the ATF, FBI, and U.S. Marshals armed with sniper rifles and M-16s shot it out with survivalist Randy Weaver and his family in the wilderness near Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

Deaths: Weavers: 2 (and 1 dog); Federal agents: 1

Branch Davidian siege[]

February 28–April 19, 1993. Heavily armed members of the Branch Davidian sect engaged federal agents of the ATF in an intense firefight during a raid of their compound building, initiating a 51-day siege by the FBI near Waco, Texas.

Deaths: Branch Davidians: 6 (and 76 on April 19); BATF: 4

Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police headquarters shootout[]

November 22, 1994. Former convict Bennie Lee Lawson entered the Cold Case Squad room at the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police headquarters armed with a Cobray M-11 semi-automatic pistol and opened fire killing FBI Special Agents Martha Dixon Martinez and Michael Miller, and D.C. Metro Police Sergeant Henry Daly; and seriously wounding FBI Special Agent John Kuchta^[9] before killing himself.

Deaths: Police: 1; FBI: 2; Suspects: 1

North Hollywood shootout[]

February 28, 1997. Following a failed bank robbery in North Hollywood, California, two heavily armed bank robbers, Larry Phillips, Jr. and Emil Mătăsăreanu, of whom were armed with several assault rifles fired upon responding officers of the Los Angeles Police Department which resulted in a firefight lasting 44 minutes, with over 2000 rounds fired collectively from both sides.

The only deaths were the two bank robbers, Phillips, Jr. and Mătăsăreanu. However, 12 police officers and eight civilians were injured.

Carl Drega[]

On August 19, 1997, Carl Drega, a New Hampshire resident who had long been in conflict with the government over alleged land code violations, opened fire on New Hampshire State Trooper Scott Phillips after he was pulled over for a routine traffic stop. Drega, armed with a scoped AR-15, killed Phillips and another Trooper, Les Lord, who arrived on the scene as backup. Then he stole Phillips' police cruiser and drove to the offices of the Colebrook News and Sentinel, where he killed judge Vickie Bunnell and newspaper editor Dennis Joos, who tackled him in an attempt to disarm him.

After this, Drega drove home to set his house on fire, then drove to Vermont where he opened fire and critically injured a Vermont trooper who had followed him after identifying the stolen New Hampshire police car. Eventually, Drega abandoned the vehicle at a Vermont farmhouse and ambushed a group of law enforcement officers from multiple agencies who had been sent to track him down. After a long shootout in which two more officers were injured, Drega was killed by Border Patrol agent Stephen Brooks and New Hampshire State Trooper Charles West, who were respectively armed with an M14 Rifle and Remington 870 shotgun.

Deaths: Police: 2; Civilians: 2; Suspect: 1 Injuries: Police: 3

Columbine High School massacre[]

April 20, 1999. During the massacre, school shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold exchanged fire with Denver police three times. Although 12 students and one teacher died, 21 others were injured and both the shooters committed suicide that day, no officers were killed or injured.

Tyler courthouse shootout[]

February 24, 2005. David Hernandez Arroyo attacked his ex-wife, Maribel Estrada, and her son outside the courthouse in Tyler, Texas. Arroyo was armed with a semi-automatic MAK-90 (AK-47 clone with a semi-automatic receiver) rifle. Maribel Estrada was shot in the head and died; her son was shot in the leg but recovered. The shots immediately brought a response from nearby sheriff's deputies and Tyler Police. Arroyo began trading gunfire with the officers, who were armed only with pistols, and forced them to retreat, wounding several of them. A passing civilian, Mark Allen Wilson, drew his own pistol and attempted to aid the officers but Arroyo was wearing body armor and Wilson's pistol failed to stop him; Wilson was shot and killed by Arroyo. Afterward, Arroyo jumped in his pickup and led police on a high-speed chase, exchanging gunfire along the way. Arroyo was eventually shot and killed by a responding officer armed with a CAR-15 rifle.

Deaths: 3 (Arroyo, Estrada and Wilson)

Toddler dies in shootout[]

July 10, 2005, Los Angeles, California. José Raul Peña, while high on cocaine, threatened his wife, took his 19-month-old daughter Suzie Marie Lopez (or Susie Marie Peña) hostage, then used the child as a human shield while he exchanged fire with the LAPD SWAT team. Peña (using a 9 mm handgun and a shotgun) fired more than 40 shots at the police, and the police fired more than 100 rounds at Peña.^[10]

Deaths: 2 (Peña and child)

Scott Barnaby[]

On April 24, 2007, Scott Barnaby of South Bend, Indiana shot at officers outside his motel room. Barnaby and one of the officers were killed, and another officer was injured. Gun dealer Ronald Wedge was found guilty of selling a gun to Barnaby illegally, and was sentenced to ten months in prison.^[11][12]

Deaths: Barnaby: 1; Police: 1

Oakland shootings[]

On March 21, 2009, four Oakland police officers and the suspect were killed in a shootout.

Deaths: Suspect: 1; Police: 4

Pittsburgh police shootings[]

A shootout occurred on April 4, 2009, at 1016 Fairfield Street in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, stemming from an argument over a dog urinating in the house between a mother and her 22-year-old son. At approximately 7:11 a.m. EDT, 22-year-old Richard Poplawski opened fire on two Pittsburgh Police officers responding to a 911 call from Poplawski's mother, who was attempting to get the police officers to remove her son from the home. Three police officers were ultimately confirmed dead, and another two were seriously injured. Poplawski was armed with a semi-automatic AK-47-style rifle and two other guns, protected by a bulletproof vest, and had been lying in wait for the officers. According to police and witnesses, he held police at bay for four hours as the fallen officers were left bleeding nearby, their colleagues unable to reach them. More than 100 rounds were fired by the SWAT teams and Poplawski, who surrendered after suffering a gunshot wound to the leg. Poplawski was later convicted of capital murder and was sentenced to death.

Deaths: Pittsburgh Police: 3, Suspect: 0

Lakewood police officer shooting[]

On Sunday, November 29, 2009, four Lakewood, Washington police officers (Sergeant Mark Renninger, Officer Ronald Owens, 37, Officer Tina Griswold, 40, Officer Greg Richards, 42) were shot and killed at a coffee shop in the Parkland unincorporated area of Pierce County, Washington, United States. One gunman (Maurice Clemmons) entered the coffee shop, fired at the officers as they sat working on their laptop computers. One of the officers returned fire before being killed, wounding Clemmons, but he was still able to flee the scene. After a 2-day manhunt that spanned several cities in the Puget Sound region, the alleged gunman was shot and killed by a Seattle Police Department officer in south Seattle.

Deaths: Suspect: 0 (killed two days later); Police: 4

Christopher Dorner shootings and manhunt[]

From February 3–12, 2013, former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner killed three people (including an officer) and injured three other officers. On February 12, Dorner engaged in a shootout with police at Big Bear Lake, California, killing one and injuring another. The police then deployed CS Gas (Teargas) which possibly set Dorner's cabin on fire, whereupon Dorner committed suicide.

Deaths: Police: 2 (4 injured and 2 civilians killed) Dorner: 1

Watertown shootout[]

April 18, 2013. After killing three civilians and injuring hundreds during the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev shot and killed a police officer on the campus of MIT. Later in the night they engaged in a shootout with officers in Watertown, Massachusetts where they injured 16 other officers and Tamerlan Tsarnev was killed while Dzhokhar Tsarnev was arrested the next day. Boston Police Department officer Dennis Simmonds was injured by a hand grenade shrapnel to the head and died on April 10, 2014. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was later convicted for bombing the Marathon, and was sentenced to death.

Deaths: Police: 2 (16 injured) Suspects: 1 (other injured)

Twin Peaks shootout[]

May 17, 2015. In one of the deadliest gang shootings in United States history, a brawl between rival biker gangs in front of a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas escalated into a shootout between rival gangs as well as police. Nine people were killed and 18 others were injured.

Deaths: Gang members: 9 Injuries: 18

Umpqua Community College shooting[]

October 1, 2015. After killing nine civilians and injuring nine others at Umpqua Community College near Roseburg, Oregon, shooter Christopher Harper Mercer then immediately engaged in a shootout with responding police officers before killing himself.

Deaths: Suspects: 1, civilians: 9

Dallas shootings[]

July 7, 2016: Enraged by the shootings of black men Alton Sterling and Philando Castile by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, Micah Xavier Johnson opened fire on white police officers of the Dallas Police Department from an upper floor of a parking garage whilst they were overseeing a protest. Johnson was killed by a Remotec ANDROS Mark V-A bomb disposal robot, which carried a pound of C-4 explosive.

Deaths: Police: 5, Suspects: 1 Injuries: 11 (9 police, 2 civilians)

2019 Miramar shootout[]

December 5, 2019: Miami-Dade police engage with jewelry store robbers at a busy intersection. Deaths: Police: 0, Suspects: 2, Civilians: 2

2021 Sunrise shootout[]

February 2, 2021: FBI agents served a search warrant on a house of suspect who was suspected of abusing minors. The suspect ambushed the FBI agents, shooting five agents, 2 mortally wounded. The suspect was killed on the scene. Deaths: FBI: 2, Suspects: 1 Injuries: 3 (All FBI agents, 1 did not require hospitalization.)

Other notable shootouts[]

Jules Bonnot[]

April 24, 1912: When three police officers confronted anarchist Jules Bonnot in a fence's apartment, Bonnot opened fire on the officers, killing the vice-chief of the Surete Nationale before fleeing across adjacent rooftops.

Outcome: Surete: 1 killed; 1 wounded; Bonnot Gang: 0

April 28, 1912. 500 police officers, soldiers, firemen, and lynch mob participants exchanged fire with Bonnot in a Paris suburb. The conflict ended after police bombed the building in which Bonnot was taking cover.

Outcome: Police: 3 wounded; Bonnot: KIA

Beer Hall Putsch[]

On November 9, 1923, Adolf Hitler and at least 2,000 members of the Nazi Party, which Hitler belonged to, attempted to launch a coup in Munich. The resulting shootout between Bavarian police and Nazi supporters left twenty people dead and many injured.

Deaths: Nazi Party: 15, Bavarian police: 4, Civilians: 1

Battle of Bamber Bridge[]

In the early hours of 25 June 1943, tensions between black troops and white military police stationed in Bamber Bridge, Lancashire, UK, flared into mutiny, with both sides shooting at each other in the middle of the town. The "Battle of Bamber Bridge" was one of the few instances of a gunfight on UK soil during World War II, and left one dead and four wounded.^[13]

Result: 1 soldier killed, 2 soldiers wounded, 2 MPs wounded

Milperra massacre[]

The Milperra massacre or Father's Day Massacre was a firearm battle between rival motorcycle gang members on 2 September (Father's Day in Australia) 1984, in Milperra, a south-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The shootout had its roots in an intense rivalry that developed after a group of Comancheros broke away and formed the first Bandidos Motorcycle Club chapter in Australia. Seven people were killed and twenty-eight injured when the two groups clashed at Milperra. The event was a catalyst for significant changes to gun laws in New South Wales.

Result: 6 dead gang members, 1 dead bystander, 28 injured

David Malcolm Gray[]

14 November 1990: After a shooting rampage which killed up to 13 people (including a police officer) in the small seaside township of Aramoana, New Zealand, members of the Special Tactics Group (STG) surrounded the house where shooter David Malcolm Gray was hiding and a gunbattle took place after failed attempts to lure him out. At the end, Gray ran out of the house, firing his rifle from the hip before being struck and knocked down by gunfire from STG officers. Gray subsequently died on the journey to hospital.

Outcome: STG: 1 wounded; Gray: killed

1991 Lokhandwala Complex shootout[]

November 16, 1991. Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Aftab Ahmed Khan, head of the ATS, led a force of almost 100 policemen and ATS officers and attacked the Swati building at the Lokhandwala Complex in Bombay. In the ensuing shootout which lasted four hours, 450 rounds were fired and seven gangsters belonging to the D-Company were killed, including Maya Dolas, Dilip Buwa and Anil Pawar.^[14]

Deaths: Gangsters: 7; ATS and Mumbai police: 0 Injuries: Gangsters: 0; ATS and Mumbai police: 2

Rodney Ansell[]

Rod Ansell was an Australian bushman who served as the inspiration for the "Crocodile" Dundee films. On 3 August 1999, Ansell ambushed several police officers at a roadblocked intersection at Acacia Hills, Northern Territory, Australia, and fatally shot one of them. A gun-battle erupted as more officers arrived on scene, and Ansell was killed in the ensuing gunfight. The day before his attack on police, Ansell had been on a rampage, shooting at houses and wounding several civilians.

Result: Two persons shot dead (Ansell and one officer); several civilians wounded

Mayerthorpe incident[]

On March 3, 2005 James Roszko ambushed and killed Royal Canadian Mounted Police constables Peter Schiemann, Anthony Gordon, Lionide Johnston and Brock Myrol with a prohibited HK-91 rifle during a stake-out. The resulting shootout with other present RCMP officers came to an end when Roszko committed suicide after being wounded.

Deaths: RCMP: 4; James Roszko: 1

Spiritwood incident[]

July 7, 2006. Constables Robin Cameron and Marc Bourdages of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were both shot in the head through the windshield of their cruiser after a 27 km car chase and shootout with Curtis Dagenais in rural Saskatchewan.

Deaths: RCMP: 2; Dagenais: 0

Mumbai massacre[]

On November 26, 2008, 10 members of the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba carried out shooting sprees at several different locations throughout the Indian city of Mumbai. The terrorists, heavily armed with automatic weapons and explosives, overwhelmed the initial response from lightly armed and minimally trained police and held out for nearly three days, inflicting almost 500 casualties, with 157 deaths (including 17 police officers and soldiers). 9 of the 10 attackers were killed, while the 10th was arrested and later executed for the crime.

Result: 166 deaths (including 9 of 10 attackers), 293 injuries, 1 terrorist arrested (later hanged after being sentenced to death).

Manila hostage crisis[]

On 23 August 2010, in Rizal Park, Manila, Philippines, former police officer Rolando Mendoza boarded a bus with Hong Kong tourists taking the occupants hostage. After freeing four children, senior citizens and a disabled woman, the shootout began after the on-board TV broadcast showing the arrest of his younger brother. Enraged, Mendoza took the tour guide and shot him in the head at the door. It took the SWAT team almost two hours to kill Mendoza with a sniper. The assault killed eight hostages (the youngest being 14), and wounded seven hostages, one journalist and one bystander.

Result: Shooter: 1 dead, hostages: 8. 9 others wounded.

Alejo Garza Tamez[]

On November 14th, 2010, 77-year old Mexican rancher Alejo Tamez barricaded himself in his ranch house and got into a shootout with members of the Los Zetas cartel, who had invaded his property because they wanted to use his ranch for their drug-running activities. After a prolonged shootout, the cartel members fled, leaving behind four dead and 2 critically wounded. Tamez was mortally wounded in the gunfight as well.

Result: Tamez dead, 4 cartel members dead, 2 cartel members wounded and arrested.

2013 Annaberg shooting[]

On 16 September 2013, Austrian federal police received a call about a suspected poacher in the woods. Police officers sought to inspect the vehicle of 55-year-old Alois Huber, but he sped off upon spotting them and later crashed his car in a ditch near Annaberg, Lower Austria.^[15] Huber then proceeded on foot and shot two police officers posted near a checkpoint in Annaberg. A Red Cross paramedic was also shot while providing aid to a wounded. One of the officers and the paramedic later died in the hospital,^[16] while the other officer survived his wounds. At another checkpoint, Huber shot and killed another officer while taking a fourth hostage. He then stole a police car and drove it to his farmhouse near Melk. Austrian Armed Forces assisted in the manhunt with soldiers and armoured vehicles.

Deaths: Police: 3 (including one EKO Cobra operator), Paramedic: 1; Poacher: 1

2015 Île-de-France attacks[]

7–9 January 2015. Three AQAP terrorists, brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly, committed a series of five attacks that resulted in the deaths in 20 people, including themselves. The Kouachis killed two police officers during the Charlie Hebdo shooting on 7 January before fleeing. Coulibaly shot and killed a policewoman the next day. Finally on 9 January, the Kouachis and Coulibaly held separate sieges which resulted in shootouts with police and all three being killed.

Deaths: Terrorists: 3, Police: 3, Civilians: 14
Injuries: 22

Saint-Denis raid[]

On 18 November 2015, 5 days after the November 2015 Paris attacks, in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, France, French police raided an apartment that thought to be housing the mastermind behind the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Following a seven-hour shootout in which police fired over 5,000 rounds of ammunition, Abaaoud, his cousin Hasna Aït Boulahcen, and fellow Paris attacker Chakib Akrouh were killed and 5 terrorists were arrested.

Deaths: ISIL: 3, Police: 1 dog
Injuries: Police: 5, Civilians:1

References[]