Marietta officers in action
Someone sent us the story of two Marietta, Georgia police officers, Maria Funes, a thirteen-year Army Reserve Staff Sergeant and Rocky Ellenson, a Marine Sergeant with five years active duty experience;
On Saturday morning, June 30th at approximately 6:41 AM Cobb County 911 dispatched Marietta Police Officers to a report of suspicious activity at 248 Aviation Road. The homeowner reported an unfamiliar vehicle had just parked in their yard and the driver was now stumbling around the area acting suspiciously.
When Officers arrived a few minutes later, the vehicle was parked in the lawn, unoccupied. Witnesses in the area directed the Officers to the back-parking lot of a nearby school. When Officer Maria Funes confronted the suspect, he quickly turned to run away with Officer Funes in pursuit. Officer Rocky Ellenson was approaching from the side and was also running to intercept the fleeing suspect when they both observed the suspect stop abruptly, square off toward Funes and attempt to draw a black handgun from his waist. Before he could actually point the gun, Officer Ellenson tackled him, wrapped his arms around him and knocked the gun out of his hand. Both officers restrained the suspect on the ground where he fought with them for more than two minutes before placing him in handcuffs.
The officers had eleven seconds from the time the suspect ran, stopped, drew his weapon and was taken to the ground. The split-second decisions they both made are a testament to their years of training and service to our country as well as the residents of Marietta.
It was later discovered the vehicle is registered to the suspect, Josiah Benjamin Moorhous. Moorhous has an extensive violent history including fighting with law enforcement. He was booked into Cobb Adult Detention Center on warrant 18-W-6132 and is facing the following charges:
Aggravated Assault Officer (F)
Obstruction / Hindering Law Enforcement (M)
VGCSA Possession Cocaine (F)
Possession of a Firearm by a Felon (F)
Possession of a Firearm During Commission of a Felony – Controlled Substance (F)
DUI Drugs (M)
Driving, Expired Tag (M)
Driving, No Insurance (M)After reviewing the film of this incident, it is clear that the use of deadly force by the officers would have been justified, yet the officers used their experience, skills and good judgement to prevent the situation from becoming deadly.
Category: Police
speaking for some of my cobb brothers and sisters, i’ll just say this sort of thing is not uncommon around here. all of the agencies around here are staffed with some top drawer types, and Marietta does do a good job of training their peeps. better still, both of these two are down to earth, humble types. hearts full of service.
Quick thinking and some great work, keeping a turd alive to commit crimes another day. Here’s hoping those charges keep this asshole locked up for a decent stretch of time.
In hindsight they prolly should have shot the son-of-a-bitch……..
In foresight, too. It worked out but it could have been disastrous.
I too vote for the taxpayer relief shot. But a good job nonetheless. It’s always a good job when you go home and the bad guy does not…
There’s a bodycam video out right now of two cops and a couple of security people seeking the Las Vegas shooter’s room. After a slow go, they find it and…and…and…do nothing. As they stand flatfooted in the hallway, behind cover, the police radio continuously announces need for medics. They stand there as the shooter produces more casualties. And I guess they kept standing there long after it went quiet in the shooter’s room, just to be sure. Point? I’ll take these two officers over that Vegas crew any day.
Amen!
Actually it was one cop, one brand new trainee (2nd day on job) and three armed security guards. Reminds me of people freezing up in combat. They get fear paralysis and it takes some leadership or other event to get them to break free of it and take appropriate actions. Soldiers get loads more training than police and still happens.
Unfortunately in that particular case it was the defacto leader that froze up. Everyone in the group was looking to the officer to act and he failed to do so. He did fess up in his written statement; but what choice did he have? Four witnesses saw him. I am surprised they haven’t fired him.
One veteran cop + one new cop = two cops. Funny thing about that rookie business. When WWII broke out, just about every American Fighting Man was a rookie, straight out of training. No amount of training can implant balls and a spine. You have them or you don’t. The Parkland cop(s) were lacking them, and so were these two cops in Vegas. There was a story about two weeks ago of a cop who graduated from an academy and later that day had to shoot someone.
I am not sure about Vegas Police. Around here if the police hire you they give you a uniform, a badge, a gun and assign you a guy to follow around until you actually go to the academy which could be six months later. Oh, and they tell the guy not do anything unless the trainer tells them it is ok.
Unlike the military, policing is an area where initiative is frowned upon mostly due to liability issues. New recruit circumventing a training officer simply does not happen much if ever. I still lay it all on the senior officer. Fail the size of the Titanic. He had an armed team at his beck and call and did nothing. He could have saved many lives had he sacked up.
Okay. I see now what you were referring to about the rookie. I’ll check on that and let you know.
That didn’t take long…
“The [Las Vegas] Police Academy is over 1000 hours of instruciton (27 weeks long) and is divided into two phases – Operational and Tacitcs:
The Operations Phase trains recruits in the basic knowledge, skills and abilities, required of a Police Officer in the State of Nevada.
The Tactics Phase builds on this and instructs recruits on advanced subjects, tactics, use of firearms, and emergency vehicle operations.
Physical fitness and defensive tactics training are integrated throughout the Academy on a daily basis.”
I left their typo in there.
The academy courses, the website says, are at the college level. That may be the problem.
Pretty much all police academy courses these days are at the college level.
Active Shooter Training did not exist at most departments and academies until after Sandyhook. One of the few things I approved of Obama doing was adding two weeks of mandated Federally funded AST to every training academy. That is all they get though and the senior guy might not have even had that. Still police are police and soldiers are soldiers. Soldiers are “mission first”, police are “me first”. There are lots of reasons for this but the whole “taking the hill” mindset is not there unless they are prior vets or out of the ordinary aggressive. Military leaders are taught to think outside the box. Police are taught never to leave the box, because it will get you in trouble in a civil suit.
But this guy was straight up cowardly and he admitted it.
I just viewed another police Vegas video that was released in May. (I guess this piecemeal release takes the sting out of it for the Vegas PD.) SWAT blew the door to the shooter’s room an hour after the last shot was fired. Well, sort of. One highly trained SWAT officer ‘accidentally’ let loose a round after the team entered the room. Somebody asks where the shot came from and no one says shit. Meanwhile, politicians are calling the Vegas police “courageous.” I’m wondering when the awards ceremony will be held. Cripes. No wonder they are so defensive. The shooter was effectively permitted to continue his murderous rampage well after police could have gotten to him. All that was needed was someone to say, “Screw this. I’m going in, with or without a green light.”
Those cowards need to turn in the badges and get a job selling twinkies or something! he asshole was shooting into the crowds, they could have rushed in and shot the bas-ard before he knew what hit him…I wonder how many citizens are wounded or dead because of these cowards?
Bravo Zulu, Officers Funes and Ellenson. another felon off the street, for now at least. Given Moorhous’ background, I don’t see a long and happy life ahead for him.
Josiah Benjamin Moorhous
Scrabble word score, please?
Four million…
Just for being stupid…
Yeah, but he needs to buy a lottery ticket and thank the officers for every day for the rest of his life.
He should have been dead.
Basic Scrabble word score of 48.
Multipliers of two through eight may be applied at the viewer’s discretion.
Personally….were it me sitting on his head?
Big ‘ol nasty fart right there!!
To be honest, I was amazed to see it was a white guy. He would stick out like a sore thumb in that neighborhood. Not a local or familiar with the area, either, the main druggy street is about a mile away from there.
I second (third?) the BZ for the Marietta officers, excellent work all around.