GPD Snipers tops in North America!
The Greenwich Police Department Special Response Unit “Sniper/Observer” team finished first at the North American Sniper Summit held earlier this week at the Harvard Sportsmen’s Club in Harvard MA. (The Special Response Unit or “SRU” is Greenwich’s SWAT unit.)
The GPD team, Dave Hall and Chris Girard — both police officer technicians who supervise and train fellow GPD officers in the use of firearms — placed first out of a field of 21 teams comprised of law enforcement sniper/observer teams from all over New England as well as teams from Michigan and Alabama.
The summit is a team and individual competition. This year Dave Hall finished first out of a field of 42 in the individual events, and Chris Girard took second place. In the New England SWAT challenge (covered by OurGreenwich.com photographer John Ferris Robben) in August, Girard finished first and Hall second in the sniper competition. The North American competition was similar in format to the New England SWAT challenge except that it was not full SWAT exercises but exclusively sniper/observer .
The summit included eight events over two days – basically engaging precision steel and paper targets at unknown distance under time and physical stress. Officer Hall reports, “We had to run, climb and maneuver through obstacles as a team. Many events were multi-target courses.” (For information on the event see the Crosshairs website or the North American Sniper Summit site.)
Congratulations to Officers Hall and Girard. Our Greenwich is proud of you.
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