Page 325 - 2023 PPIAC RMIC BOOK

Case # 4

CBP Police officer killed in training exercise - Causation

The results of the investigation have not been made public, however this is what the evidence suggests:
• Instructors and/or safety officers failed to maintain positive control of the
training environment.

• Instructors and/or safety officers failed to follow established safety protocol /
best practices for Force-on-Force training.

• Officer Arias was shot twice, suggesting that the officer who shot him was
firing faster than he could process the environment.

• “Double Tap Theory”

Double Tap

• The term Double Tap stems from competitive shooting.

• Competition is all about speed first and then accuracy. Often speed will compensate
for inaccuracy.

• The Double Tap in layman’s terms is firing 2 shots with one sight picture on each
target.

• In theory if the shooter has a good grip and can fire fast enough he/she will score 2
hits and only need to look at each target once and then transition to the next target.
This saves a lot of time and can be the difference between 1st and 5th place.