[DavidI]

Tales from the street on Thanksgiving Day:

The year was 1998 and I was working patrol as a Field Training Officer (FTO) with a newly assigned deputy (Trainee). He was assigned to me two weeks prior and he had a long way to go to make if off patrol training. It was about 7:00pm and the night was biting cold and inky black. Both of us wanted to be home because it was Thanksgiving, but we had signed up for this, so no complaining. Someone had to work; you see. when each of us was hired agreed to work any day, and shift, at any location in the County. Shut up and go to work and do you job.

We were dispatched to a "residential burglary" call in the area we working. As we drove to the home, I explained that just because the call indicated it was a "residential burglary," it does not necessarily mean that it is one. Desk personnel have a very difficult job extracting information from very upset people on the phone and it sometimes excruciatingly frustrating.

We parked the police car and were immediately rushed by an elderly woman followed by a man about the same age as her. She explained that her adult son had been using meth for a week straight, was acting bizarre, had not slept in days, and was in his bedroom. She did not know whether or not he had a gun, but she had seen him with a rifle on prior occasions.
While he was high, he had destroyed the interior of their home looking for valuable things to sell in order to feed his addiction. He also broke their interior bedroom door off of its hinges and stole all of her jewelry and expensive keepsakes. She was genuinely afraid of her son in her own home. Situations like this can go real bad real quick. She asked that we arrest him so she and her husband, father of the male, could live in peace.

I drew my firearm and told my trainee to follow me and do the same. He looked at me with a confused expression on his face. I "stongly gestured" for him to draw his firearm and to be ready.

My Trainee and I walked to his closed bedroom door and I slowly twisted the doorknob. It spun. We we lucky because the door was not locked. I slowly opened the door and it creaked on its hings. The bedroom was pitch black with blankets covering the windows, so I illuminated it with my flashlight. There he was, lying on his back onto top of his bed. He was wearing shorts. What caught my eye was the double barreled, sawed off shotgun laying across his chest.

Everything slowed down and I had tunnel vision on that shotgun. I yelled to my Trainee, "Gun!!!" The male was now reaching for the shotgun. I immediately ran up to his bed with my pistol trained on his head. Concurrently, I yelled to him that we were the police numerous times and not to go for the shotgun. As he rolled over onto his stomach to get up from the bed, he now had control of the shotgun with his left hand. I was now at his side with my pistol against the side of his head and continuously ordered him to drop the shotgun. We were outgunned by a meth addict and could not predict his actions!

With my left hand, I grabbed the barrel of the shotgun and pointed it away from my face. Very little is more humbling than looking down the barrels of a shotgun! Fortunate for us, I was able to pull the shotgun away from him. After a small struggle, we handcuffed and arrested him. My adrenaline was streaming through my body, but the danger I faced did not register just yet.

I escorted him to our police car and placed him in the back seat to take him to get medically checked, then to jail. While in the police car, I spoke to him about the incident. At that time, I thought I was invincible and nothing could hurt me. I told him he was lucky that I did not shoot him. He looked me directly in the eyes and replied that I WAS LUCKY HE DID NOT BLOW MY HEAD OFF! He told me that the only reason he did not shoot was because he saw a glint of light shine from my badge as I ran toward him!

My stomach sunk as I slowly realized he was 100% right. I should be dead...again...for believing I was invincible!

He told me that he could not understand or process my commands to drop the gun because he was still high and had not slept in several days.

The shotgun was loaded with live 00 Buck shells in the barrels.

On this Thanksgiving Day, I am thankful that the male did not shoot me or my Trainee, and that I was not forced to shoot him.