On Thursday, May 12, 2023 after being involved in two hit and run accidents, one of which involved a cyclist that sustained serious spinal injuries and several broken bones, a man led the Galveston Police Department on an chase through several residential streets. The suspect finally stopped his vehicle in the middle of the roadway near several apartment complexes.

Officers then conducted a “high risk stop” which can be seen here, where several patrol cars will line up behind the suspect vehicle and give verbal commands over a loudspeaker to the driver. During this “high risk stop” we can hear several commands being given for the driver to exit the car and walk back to the officers but the driver refuses and remains in the vehicle.

In this situation, officers are taught to maintain their distance to give them more time should the driver attempt to attack them. From this distance which is pretty standard for a “high risk stop”, less lethal weapons that these officers were carrying, like the taser or aerosol chemical sprays are ineffective due to their limited range and types of deployment. So one of the officers on scene deploys his Byrna SD. Here you will see the officer fire five rounds of Byrna max from a distance of about 40 feet into the open door of the car, striking the dash and windshield.

As you can see, the drive exits the vehicle only seconds after, clearly being affected by the chemical agent in the projectiles. The driver then immediately begins complying with commands and surrenders with no further incident and no injury to himself or officers.

One of the many benefits of the Byrna platforms is their ability to be deployed in seconds and used in so many different ways to be effective. In this case officers used it in an indirect manner at a range that none of their other less-lethal weapons could reach to gain immediate compliance without any injury to the suspect or themselves.

Byrna is proud to be able to give professionals the tools to be prepared to defend not only themselves but also their communities.