Twice a month the Broward Sheriff's Office Elite sniper team hits a football field-long gun range in Coral Springs to fine tune their skills.
Despite what many think, BSO's sniper team isn't just "taking out" the bad guys. It's mostly about stealth observation from a safe distance and communicating to a command post.
"They're relying on us to give them information about what the house looks like, the building looks like, obstacles that might be in the way, doors, windows, the number of people we see," sniper team leader Det. Richard Saito said.
Saito said they could be laying in wait for 6-7 hours. In his nine years as a SWAT sniper, Saito said no one has pulled the trigger, but they're always ready.
Saito pushes him team through drills, taxing not so much on the body, but the mind. In a color blind test, snipers pick out obscured numbers from 50 yards, then find a corresponding number 100 yards away.
Then a physical test and mental test. The crew runs a few hundred yards, rifle in tow, return and look at an old photo of a hostage taker then get into position and from 100 yards away they have to pick out the same suspect who looks differently -- amid five hostages -- and take him out.
Taking a life would have its mental wear on anyone. And 16-year BSO veteran Vincent Chiaccarelli says most snipers take this approach.
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"People do hurt other people and prey on victims. I took an oath to stop that," he said.
It was on road patrol, not as a SWAT sniper, that Chiaccarelli killed a gun-wielding suspect who gunned down victims.
"She came outside, I had my rifle. I ordered her to drop the gun, she wouldn't. She presented it at me and kept coming. I was really forced to, with that one, there was nothing I could do. I have to go home to my family," he said.
While tiny targets a country mile away bears impressive training for these marksmen -- it pales in comparison of the important and stress-rich job on the streets. It's clear this job is not for the weak minded.
