For the third consecutive year, the Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow Police Department shooting team has taken first place in the Barstow Local Law Enforcement 6th annual Shooting Competition, May 18.
The annual shooting competition which regularly draws dozens of officers from around the high desert was hosted by the Barstow Police Department at it's shooting range.
The five-person team from the Marine Corps Police Department consisted of Capt. Charles MacNeil, operations officer for the MCPD on base, as well as Marine Sgt. Jeff Avery, Lt. Kris Smith and Officers Jose Caceres and Chris Perez.
“It’s a three-gun competition, so we have to shoot our shotguns, rifles and pistols, the ones we usually use on the job,” MacNeil said.
He said all of the shooting also involved a lot of running. “On one of the ranges we had to run to acquire five different targets. You had to move to see around a barrier to find the targets. You had to put down the long gun and pick up the shotgun and shoot four clay pigeons and then run all the way back to the beginning of the range and use your pistol to fire four magazines of eight rounds each at various targets.”
Although the MCPD team did take first in the team shoot for the third straight time, MacNeil said BPD is really improving.
“This year it was uncomfortably close,” he said.
Sabrina Ellis, an evidence technician with the BPD, whom has organized the event since it began, noted that the five-person MCPD team’s collective time to finish the course was 4 minutes and 21 seconds, while the BPD team time was 4 minutes 29 seconds.
The top shooter on the MCPD team was MacNeil, who came in second to Detective Tom Lewis Jr., of the BPD.
This is the fourth straight win for Lewis in the individual shooting round.
“I am extremely proud of our officers,” MacNeil said. “The training and dedication of the members of the team and their willingness to give up their time off to come in and practice at the range really made a difference.”
Besides the BPD and the MCPD teams, shooting teams from the California Highway Patrol, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, and the Bureau of Land Management were also competing.
“Barstow is such a small city we really depend on assistance from surrounding law enforcement agencies,” said Ellis.
“The idea of the shooting competition was to point out that even though we may work for different departments we’re all on the same side,” Ellis continued, “and this competition is a way to show that.”
“This competition is important because it allows us to practice a vital skill needed as a police officer,” MacNeil said, “and it also brings us together as law enforcement officers under better circumstances than we usually meet. It’s an atmosphere of friendly competition and camaraderie that helps promote unity among the departments.”
Date Taken: | 05.24.2018 |
Date Posted: | 05.25.2018 16:39 |
Story ID: | 278502 |
Location: | MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, CALIFORNIA, US |
Web Views: | 228 |
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