Security Expert: For police, fights are life or death

SOUTH BEND, Ind - The St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit says a man was shot Tuesday night after getting into a fight with a South Bend Police officer.

The prosecutor’s office confirms Terrence Eppenger, 27, was shot by South Bend Police Officer Samuel Chaput.

“You’re taught very young as a police officer that every fight you’re in, you’re in a fight for your life,” says ABC 57 Security Expert Josh Gobel. “We cannot afford to lose fights. Statistics show that when we lose fights our guns are taken from us and used against us and we die.”

Metro Homicide is currently investigating Tuesday’s shooting to determine if Chaput was justified using deadly force.

As of Wednesday night Eppenger was in critical condition.

Gobel says deadly force is not the first option, but sometimes an officer is left without a choice.

“If the time allows, and the situation dictates, you try to go from fighting to maybe your taser or OC 10 (pepper spray) or if you have to go to deadly force. But again, there are times when you skip that and have to go right to deadly force,” says Gobel. “The suspect dictates that, what level of force you’re going to use.”

Gobel says an officer’s main goal should always be making the arrest using the least amount of force necessary.