Hello. While I am no fan of the communist nations, I do appreciate the manner in which this female Chinese police officer dealt with a hostage-taker who had already stabbed his female victim repeatedly with what appears to be a pair of scissors. Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-AgnIHjVAE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-AgnIHjVAE
I have read (but not researched to verify) that the officer was a designated "marksman" but have no idea what all that might or might not entail. The handgun she uses appears to be a Makarov 9x18mm as best I can tell. These pistols are more powerful than .380 ACP but considerably below 9x19mm Parabellum in power. They are traditional DA/SA, straight blowback design and usually reliable as death. Their sights leave much to be desired. Still, at the appropriate moment the officer makes her move and as Jeff Cooper noted in his commentaries on hunting, "If you can get close, get closer". She did just that, rapidly advancing before making her first shot. I couldn't tell for sure where her bullet impacted her target (I think the head), but he went down and she didn't stop until she was sure that this problem was "solved".
While some might argue that her use of an "underpowered" caliber in a handgun having two separate trigger-pulls (DA and then SA) with tiny fixed sights would have had a different outcome had the hostage-taker had a firearm, I don't think so. It appears that he was taken totally by surprise and the shots went into vital areas, insuring his permanent "rehabilitation".
I am in no way suggesting that more potent calibers from handguns having more refined qualities are unimportant in surviving life-and-death scenarios, only that competence and being "willing" are more so.
Best.
