Instructor Bios

Instructors

STG instructors bring years of professional skill and real-world knowledge to every course.

• Max Michel

  VP of Competition and Training · World Champion Shooter. A former U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit member with more than three decades in action pistol. His titles include seven World Speed Shooting Championships, 25 U.S. National Championships, IPSC XVII World Champion, a Guinness World Record and more than 300 major championship wins. He has trained thousands of civilians, officers, soldiers and competitors, and now leads Staccato's training and competition programs.

• Randy Tweedy

  Director of Training. Retired after 25 years with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, 13 of them as a full-time firearms instructor in its Weapons Training Unit. He trains instructors, teaches pistol-mounted optics and develops new shooters, and was on the team that tested and secured duty approval of the Staccato 2011 for LASD.

• Chris Palmer

  STG Lead Instructor. Retired from the Phoenix Police Department in 2025 after 26 years, including SWAT from 2006 to 2019, where he founded and led its modern breaching and high-angle programs. He helped build the department's practical firearms curriculum, co-authored its use of force policy, and since 2021 has worked with more than 100 officers involved in lethal force incidents. He gave the 2024 Texas Tactical Police Officers Association keynote.

• KC Eusebio

  STG Lead Instructor · World Champion Shooter. Started shooting at 8 and became the youngest USPSA Master at 10, Grandmaster at 12 and World Speed Shooting Champion at 15. He later served with the Army Marksmanship Unit and has won 12 World Speed Shooting Championships. He trains military, law enforcement and competitive shooters.

• Ricky Shaneline

  Lead Armorers Instructor. Earned a gunsmithing degree from Murray State College in 2008, then rose at STI from production gunsmith to head gunsmith and Director of Training, Development, and Gunsmithing. Since 2018 he has been Head Warranty Gunsmith and Armorers Course Instructor, teaching agencies including the San Francisco Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

• Christian Vandestreek

  Instructor. A U.S. Army infantry veteran (2017–2021) who deployed to Iraq and served at Ft. Hood, Texas. He became a gunsmith in Copperas Cove, joined Staccato as a gun assembler in September 2023 and moved to the Finals Team. Since March 2025 he has taught Armorers Courses and inspected agency-issued Staccatos across the country.

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