"There Are No Routine Calls"

By Bob Owens | 4:22 PM | February 17, 2015

Newly released dashcam footage of a traffic stop in Westerville, Ohio, shows just how quickly even the most mundane incident can turn violent.

Westerville Police Officer David Leighty (unit 538) attempted to pull over a silver Ford sedan driven by John W. Montgomery for a routine equipment violation. The stop quickly went from routine to deadly as Montgomery—who had a prior felony for voluntary manslaughter Officer Lieghty did not know about at the time—grabbed a gun.

Montgomery died at the hospital. His passenger was uninjured, even though Officer Leighty was forced to fire approximately eight shots in ten seconds, through or around the passenger compartment of the vehicle.

It was the first time in the 98-year history of the Westerville Police Department that an officer had to fire his weapon in the line of duty.

Bob Owens is the Editor of BearingArms.com. Bob is a graduate of roughly 400 hours of professional firearms training classes, including square range and force-on force work with handguns and carbines. He is a past volunteer instructor with Project Appleseed. He most recently received his Vehicle Close Quarters Combat Instructor certification from Centrifuge Training, and is the author of the short e-book, So You Want to Own a Gun. He can be found on Twitter at bob_owens.