Deputy Wounded, Man Killed in Texas Standoff

if the deputy was wearing a vest, yet the bullets still penetrated...what was this guy doing with those kinds of bullets? are they so easy to acquire these days?

Since the article mentioned two small pools of blood through the vest, I was thinking those could be 22 long rifle rounds. Those rounds will penetrate some soft body armour without a trama plate. Of course, the armour piercing rounds are still available to the general public (imagine that)!