“Officer Down”
Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office
On July 15th, 2022, the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office SWAT and Negotiating teams were called to assist neighboring jurisdictions regarding a 22-year-old male armed with a rifle who had fired at responding officers. As this call was transitioning between agencies the subject opened fire, four officers were hit, and one was killed. Negotiations then ensued and the incident was resolved eleven hours later with the subject taken into custody. This presentation will review the negotiations (including being a secondary negotiator with a first-time primary negotiator), verbal containment and other utilizations of negotiators, the tactical situations involved, the dynamics of a multiagency response, and the personal impact of negotiating an incident that claimed the life of a co-worker and friend.
Presented by: Dr. Andy Young and Miriam Huerta
Dr. Andy Young
- Professor of Psychology and Counseling at Lubbock Christian University since 1996.
- A negotiator and psychological consultant with the Lubbock Police Department’s SWAT team since 2000.
- Team lead for LPD’s Victim Services Unit and is the director of the department’s Critical Incident Stress Management Team.
- He is the author of, “Fight or Flight: Negotiating Crisis on the Frontline” and “When Every Word Counts: An Insider’s View of Crisis Negotiations “Crisis Negotiations: Managing Critical Incidents and Hostage Situations in Law Enforcement and Corrections”.
Deputy Miriam Huerta
- Lubbock County Sheriff Office since 2014 currently working as a deputy in the patrol division
- Active member of the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office hostage negotiator team.