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They really need to fix those fences.
I had just arrived to work on the first day back from the weekend. Sitting at the mini-station with three of my units officers, we were all talking about our weekends and were waiting for the rest of the unit to arrive so we could start the day.
I acquired a new firearm the day prior and was fixing my gun belt to fit the new magazines and firearm. The gun-belt was off and on my desk, the keepers, which hold the belt in place, were off also. The issue was that the 3 pouch magazine holder I had have previously stored my 20 round magazines and I decided to downsize to the more reliable 15 round magazines, which were shorter, so the Velcro straps had to be adjusted. This procedure couldn’t be done with the belt on, so off it went. I was in the process of doing this when all of the sudden we heard the dispatcher get on the air…
BEEEEEP!!!!! ATTENTION ALL UNITS! CITY OF [CITY JUST WEST OF OUR DISTRICT] IS BEHIND AN ARMED ROBBERY VEHICLE! ITS CURRENTLY HEADED EAST BOUND TO [MAIN AVENUE] FROM [OFF MAIN STREET].
Oh man, that’s only 15 blocks away!
I grabbed my gun-belt and bolted out of the door with the other three officers. Running after one of them, I said, “Hey, let me hop in!” as we ran towards his car. I still had to get my gun belt on so driving wasn’t an option for me.
I hopped in as a passenger of his car and he started driving mach 3. I was trying as best I could to get my gun belt on within the crapped cruiser, and in the rush, I forgot to close my magazine pouches or put my keepers back on. Never a good thing when you forget either of those items.
Dispatch advised shortly after : ATTENTION ALL UNITS EN ROUTE TO BACKUP THE CITY UNITS, THE SUBJECT HAS BAILED OUT OF THE VEHICLE, REPEAT ALL UNITS, THE SUBJECT HAS BAILED OUT OF THE VEHICLE!
I heard another officer get on the main channel and he started giving a description and direction of travel.
It would just so happen that my partner and I were only 1 block south of the bail out, so he drove down the street and as we got to the first intersection in a residential block, I saw a female officer pointing at a guy. The thing is, she wasn’t just pointing at him. She was on one side of a chain link fence, he was on the other side, within 15 feet of her. He was walking away all calmly but I could see he was sweating and his cloths were already torn. Yea, that was him. The female officer was just standing there pointing and not actually going after him. Oh well, not everyone is cut out for this job.
She started yelling as I got out of the car, “That’s him! THAT’S HIM!!!!!”.
Instinctively I started running towards the subject. He must have heard the unsecured items on my gun-belt bouncing around and he turned around and saw me. I don’t know what went through his head, but he decided he could get away from me on foot.
He jumped the first fence, which was a 4 foot chain link fence that has those unfinished points at the top. Yea, as I jumped it I punctured both hands in several places but didn’t miss a beat. As I cleared that fence, he was just getting over the next one.
A 6 foot wood fence. These are fun to jump because unless you run up it, you’re not going to get over it. So, I did what I’ve done many times before and hit that fence without a problem.
It was the landing on the other side that threw me the curve ball. I saw the subject only 10-15 feet in front of me and he was stumbling. I found out why, as I landed in the large amount of piled sand, used in what appeared to be the construction of an addition to the house we were currently behind.
I lost my balance and fell to a knee. Getting right back up and back into the foot chase, this guy hit another 4 foot chain link fence.
From experience, fence jumpers usually don’t have the endurance to go more then a few fences and even if they do a few more, they usually lay down and try to hide.
This guy wasn’t that different. After I cleared the third fence I saw that he couldn’t get over the 4th fence. He turned around and squared up on me as I drew in closer. He took a bladed boxing stance, which was kind of silly to me as I had my gun drawn by this point and he was supposed to be armed with a handgun.
I said to him in a very firm but loud voice, “Lay down”.
His reply was an angry, “Fuck you”.
To preface what I did next.. I don’t have a taser and I don’t have an ASP (expendable baton). This situation is a subject who is possibly still armed with a gun but has instead taken a fighting stance. Within the law, I can use force to take him into custody. That force includes the use of a taser, baton, or any other weapons that I can get pain compliance out of using.
I got in close and whacked him in the head with my pistol. My brand new pistol. I later found out that I knocked the front sight off center and bent the rail mounted light screw, but it was a weapon of opportunity and I had to get compliance quickly.
This action obviously threw the subject off. I backed up and told him to “Lay down” again.
His reply once more was a big ole, “Fuck you, cracka”.
Alright. I was in a back yard by myself with the subject. Back up was God knows how far away. I holstered my gun and engaged the guy. He tossed out a punch and I saw it coming from a mile away. I snaked behind him and got him into my infamous ‘rear naked choke’. Within seconds I was laying on my back, his back was on my chest and he was very much unconscious. A few seconds later a different guy on my squad made it back to us and I rolled the guy over and my squad-mate took him into custody. I was tired and now I was all sweaty, covered in my own blood from the fence hopping and wanting a drink of water. My squad-mate said, “Hey Dash, you dropped these”, as he handed me all of my magazines, which had come out of my unsecured magazine holster…. Ugh.. “Thanks.” I told him with a smirk. I’d lost so many magazines in the past, I’d hate to lose more.
The news camera helicopters were up in the sky when I looked and I have no idea how much of that was caught on film. Its always fun to see yourself on the news, usually anyway.
We gave the subject to the city department that was chasing him and headed back to the mini-station.
Fun start to a day.
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