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That'll leave a mark.
Yesterday was the start of our work week and we were already in the mood to do what we do. The beginning of the shift was rather slow for whatever reason but as always, the calm didn’t last long.
BEEP!!! ATTENTION ALL UNITS! BURGLARY IN PROGRESS AT [ADDRESS]. 2 BLACK MALES INSIDE THE CHECK CASHING STORE!
Hmm. That place was burglarized last night also, maybe its the same people? Mr. Medic and I were blocks away and started heading towards the call as fast as we could.
Egghead, who is now on a road patrol afternoon unit got on the air. “THERE THEY GO ACROSS THE FIELD!!”
One of his usual poor bolo’s, no problem though. My partner and I knew exactly where he meant. Behind the Store is a small 4 foot wall (east wall of field), then a huge 100 yard field with 10 foot high fences on both sides of the north and south barriers and the west wall stands about 12 feet tall. They literally jumped into a cage. The west wall meets up with a townhouse community so the wall is not only tall, but decorative. The wall on its north and south points has about a 10 foot strip where the fence is only 6 feet high to make some sort of artistic statement. We’ll, my partner and I knew that those were the only two spots these guys could run too.
I went to the south side and my partner to the north side of this long west wall.
Getting out of my car I didn’t see anyone and jumped the West wall so I was now in the field with zero light. The Helicopter that had been in the area arrived just in time to spotlight the bad guys running across the field on the north side, running to the west wall from the back of the store. They were huffing and puffing so I just started running straight at them. They had a lead on me by at least 60 yards but they were running directly towards Mr. Medic. I advised him and sure as hell, they jumped that wall right into his arms. They were so tired they didn’t even bother fighting. I hopped the wall after them and we took them into custody.
Excellent. We ended up writing the report which wasn’t a good thing. The road Sergeant that showed up doesn’t know what we do and ordered us to ‘handle’ the signal. No problem, violates the chain of command from her refusal to notify our Sarge but hey, she’s new to the district. Our job is to ‘help’ the road units and get back into the thick of things, not get stuck on a report.
That day it was only Gary, Medic, Sarge and myself. So we were already short staffed.
While Medic and I were sitting at the scene with our two guys not able to move because we were waiting for a detective to respond, 2 home invasion burglaries, 3 armed robberies and an Officer being shot at went out over the radio. We couldn’t go. Gary went to the perimeter for the shots fired at the police officer with the other 20 units. That is something that we’re trained for unlike 90% of the department and instead we were stuck babysitting some burglars. Sarge was pissed.
Finally, the detective got to our scene and we transported the guys to the station and booked.
Back on the road it was now about 2300 (11PM) and I decided to meet up with Gary, who was still on the scene of the officer being shot at, on some perimeter point. I talked to him, told him I was clearing and I started driving north bound on a main avenue.
I watched a car as I was headed north driving really fast away from the scene. He blew straight through a red light with me right behind him.. and Gary 2 blocks south following me.
Now, its very dark outside and he may not have seen me. I advised over the tactical channel that I was stopping the car a few blocks up. I hit my over head lights and my Sarge, who was about 10 blocks north of me, got on the air saying he saw me and was in route.
The guy pulled over and I got out of my car. He had the music so loud he wouldn’t have been able to hear me and his window tint was so dark even with my flash light I couldn’t see into the car. So, I drew my firearm and knocked on the window with the flash light, hopping that he wouldn’t start shooting through the glass from where I can’t see in.
Instead of rolling down the windows he opened his door. I recognized his face, I’ve arrested this guy for Cocaine before.
I told him, “Hey partner, how you doin?”
He replied with “WHY YOU STOPPED ME!?”
His eyes were pin point needles. He was flying high on cocaine. This wasn’t going to be good. Cocaine gives you some sort of super human strength. The last guy I fought high on cocaine lifted my straight off of the floor with one hand and didn’t feel anything I did to him.
Me : “Listen, you blew a light and your tints are… hey, stay in the car. GET IN THE CAR!”
He decided he didn’t want to stay in the car anymore and instead that he would attempt to run away.
He bolted between the open door and my body. I took my left hand, grabbing him by the back of the Collar on his polo shirt and yanked back hard. He kept trucking on like a Line backer. I wrapped both arms around his chest and dropped my weight to the floor, while trying to catch his feet with mine.
This guy, being only 160lbs at 6’0 to my 185lbs at 6’0 was still managing to push forward. I couldn’t believe it. That’s when he decided that he didn’t want to escape anymore. He wanted to fight. I knew I was in for a rough night and prayed someone showed up soon. We had to have been exchanging close blows for at least 30 seconds before I started to get wobbly.
Just then I looked up and Gary, at 5’10 and 240lbs came charging in. Gary jumped on this guy and I attempted to turn him and it was an all out brawl. Punches and kicks this guy wasn’t feeling anything and he was dishing out just as much as we gave. Finally, Gary took out his radio and started hitting this guy with his radio, its the only weapon he could get out in the struggle. This guy started lifting both Gary and Myself off of the floor. Inhuman.
That’s when this coked out guy decided to go for my gun.
I threw my hand on top of his hand, holding my gun in its holster as best I could and started punching him as hard as I could with my left hand. Hit after hit and hit. He wasn’t feeling anything. I however felt stabbing pains and burning in my hand. Yeap, I thought to myself, it’s broken.
Just then Sarge rolled up and Gary threw himself on this guy again, blood everywhere.
Sarge yelled at me, DASH! CLEAR!
I rolled on to my back just as sarge came in with a running kick to this guy. That finally got him on the floor and Gary cuffed him.
I laid on my back totally burned out and with my possibly broken left hand, thanking God for the backup.
Gary and Sarge started walking this guy to Garys Squad car. He was so coked up he decided to try and run again! This time though he was going to run UP. As sarge got him to the door of the squad car near the trunk, this guy jumped straight up into the air, at least 5 feet. Sarge was holding onto this guys arm though and picked him out of the air and threw him into the back of the trunk. A crater formed in the trunk and a long 6 inch gouge was cut into the back of the trunk from the cuffs.
I hopped up with some energy left and opened the squad car door as they threw him in.
Sarge said, “Dash, you need rescue man?”
Me : “Bro, my hand is screwed, I’m hopping that it isn’t broken.”
Gary heard that and got on the air, “Dispatch, I need rescue on a 3 (in emergency mode)”
Dispatch : “What’s the reference?”
Gary : “Ah, An Officer has a broken hand … and ah, a Subject has a broken Face”.
My Sarge almost died. He couldn’t believe Gary said that over the air.
Recuse arrived and saw tons of blood, both myself and Gary were head to toe covered, and the subject was his own color Red.
They looked at my hand and said it’s probably broken and that I needed to head to the hospital.
Gary took me to the hospital while Mr. Medic transported our arrestee to the local hospital near the jail for treatment. Medic told me that this guy took 10 staples to his head and was treated for multiple wounds.
I got to the hospital and they started doing x-rays. After waiting in pain for an hour they told me I had no fractures but an extremely bad haematobia (which probably isn’t spelled correctly). Thank God. They gave me treatment and released me. It’ll be about a week before it’ll heal back to tip top shape.
I went home, 5 hours late and covered in blood, threw my entire uniform in the wash and took a long shower. The blood just wouldn’t come off completely.
Did I mention that the guy had nothing wrong with his license, not on probation or bond, nothing in the car, no reason to do what he did. I think it may have been related to the people that shot at the officer that the officers didn’t find. I’m going to give his guys pictures to the Officer that was shot at, see if he can make a positive ID.
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