know, but once I was up, I was hearing things again
because I could hear brass still clinking on the tile floor.
Time had also returned to normal by then, because it had
slowed down during the shooting. That started as soon as
he started toward us. Even though I knew he was running
at us, it looked like he was moving in slow motion.
Damnedest thing I ever saw.I think you’ll agree that these are profoundly strange stories.
In the first instance, the officer appears to be describing
something that is quite impossible. How can someone watch his
bullets hit someone? Just as strange is the second man’s claim
not to have heard the sound of his gun going off. How can that
be? Yet, in interviews with police officers who have been
involved with shootings, these same details appear again and
again: extreme visual clarity, tunnel vision, diminished sound,
and the sense that time is slowing down. This is how the human
body reacts to extreme stress, and it makes sense. Our mind,
faced with a life-threatening situation, drastically limits the
range and amount of information that we have to deal with.
Sound and memory and broader social understanding are