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Martin Luther King day.
Being that I’m sick and have been so for almost 4 days now, I wasn’t in the mood to do much tonight. It’s a national Holiday to remember a leader of men and a movement that changed America as we knew it. A day that should have been a laid back and peaceful shift. It’s just that kind of day that nothing goes as planned.
I decided today I was going to jump into my buddies squad car and ride with him tonight. The first call out of the hole was an Illegal Dumping in progress. I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal, people throwing crap on the ground and all, but if you look at the ‘Glass window’ theory which states that if you have a beautiful house and someone throws a rock through the window, a passerby the next time he sees that will throw another rock into that same window, eventually leading the entire block into broken windows and spreading like cancer.
Upon arrival at the call there was a massive UHaul van with its back door fully open driving in reverse as fast as it could from a stop 20 feet away. The driver then slammed on the breaks causing a massive load of debris to come flying out of the rear end of the van, onto the grassy field.
He saw us approaching and tried to book but we cut him off and got him and his 2 passengers out of the car at gunpoint. Once cuffed and in our cruiser we saw that there were 3 full piles, measuring a total of 11700 sqft of debris / drywall that had been dumped out of this UHaul, with still half a load in the back.
I called out the Economic Crimes Bureau and a detective responded to take over the investigation. That was three Felony stats and in court they have a 100% conviction rate. Awesome, with three Felonies we could sit around and do nothing all night, like my body was asking me to do since I was extremely ill.
Next call we got was an Alarm, listening device from a Shoe warehouse, which is connected to a Super food mart and huge indoor flee-market. The comments on the call stated that voices were heard in the AC area of the 2nd level.
Normally, Alarms are false and no crimes are occurring. My partner and I arrived at this massive set of warehouses and parked our car on the south west side of the building, just before the corner. We did a physical check of the doors on foot and all the doors were locked shut.
Walking back to the car I heard some whispering from a grate that was approximately 25 feet above ground level. I signaled to my partner to come to me and listen to the sounds. We heard them again, they knew we were here.
I got on the air, “Dispatch, I need aviation and all available units to respond and setup a perimeter. We have subjects on the 2nd level of the Shoe warehouse at the South / West corner.
Aviation arrived first, lighting up the area where the voices were still talking. Then I heard the magic words, “They found us! HIDE HIDE HIDE!!!”.
Aviation advised that a subject was running South/East from a hole in the ceiling and another was running north along the roof line.
This next part I need to fully illustrate so bare with me.
The building stands 40 feet tall, has a birdcage type concave roof wall which is 5 feet tall and no viable methods of entry upwards.
I decided I was going after the subject running in the South/East direction while my partner followed the other one. My subject, I guess not seeing me following him on the roof line, jumped off the roof of the building, 25 feet onto a cement over hang. Without skipping a beat, he attempted the next 15 foot leap to freedom, only making it 13 feet before he got what could only be described as a ‘Game day’ tackle from your’s truly, running at full speed.
The force of my sprint against his midair body made him spin around in midair. He hit the floor hard and I was right on top of him. He was in cuffs before he knew just what happened. I threw him in the back of the cruiser as other units arrived. My partners subject ran back into the hole in the roof where the AC system was located.
With our perimeter setup (we had 15 units on it) there was no chance of escape. The subject I caught told me there were 3 other people in the building. K-9 arrived and started a ground level search but finding no trace of the other subjects.
K-9 then told me that there was a full 2nd level where the AC ducts were and that they couldn’t get up there with the Dogs. We’d have to do it manually.
My partner and I looked at each other. “No problemo”.
We went into the building at ground level and found a ladder up to the second level but were unable to gain access to the main infrastructure. So we did what any good cops would do, pretend to be the criminal and think how we’d break in. We called out a Fire truck and had them send their big ladder up to the roof.
My squad assembled with me, along with my sergeant and lieutenant. I got on top of the Fire truck in the mindset of going to war. I charged right up that ladder, 45 feet into the air. I got to the end of that ladder and looked down puzzled. I had a 10 foot drop onto solid concrete. I did what any ninja would do. I stood on the edge of the ladder, which was hanging just over the tip of the wall and did a forward jump, landing on my left side and rolling to dissipate the landing. Worked like a charm, minus the glass bottle my shin landed on, which broke and cut through my pants and into my shin. Not bad enough to need stitches but still hurt like a …
The rest of my unit followed suit and now we were on the roof, but no subjects in sight. I walked over to the AC area… that turned out to be a 15 foot straight drop. In the center of this square 20×20×15 gap in the ceiling was a massive water tank, with a broken pipe spilling out water. I guess this is what they used to get into the store in the first place. They must have jumped on this tank, which was about 2 feet from the wall and about 10 feet in diameter. Not a very smart move, but that’s why they’re the bad guys.
My LT and SGT went back down the ladder and brought up a portable ladder. I tossed that bad boy over the edge and went down as steady as I could. After my unit followed we found a metal door with 3 bars cut from it. This was the main entry point. I went in first, squeezing as best I could through the small hole. The units once again, followed suit. Guns drawn we made entry to the 2nd level of the building and realized that this was just the first hole. A 2nd hole was only 15 feet away and required us pulling our portable ladder into the building and up to that hole.
The hole itself was 2×1 feet. Not a comfy fit. I had to remove my gunbelt and shoulder carry it up the ladder. I threw it through the hole first, into the pitch blackness and jumped immediately in after it. Turning on my flashlight I was now in a 4 foot tall crawl space, sitting on a sea of insulation. Open insulation, you know, the small glass fragment kind? Yea, not cool. No subjects here either…
I found yet another hole, 2×2 this time and leading to the food store that is connected to these 2 other warehouses. I crawled through that hole and had a 5, then 10 foot drop to ground level. After my squad all got in, we started a basic search mission. With only flashlights to guide us we searched an entire warehouse covered in the crawl space insulation and water from the broken tank. Not a single person in that building.. where could they have gone?
Then I noticed the break in the wall back to the shoe warehouse. We made entry and did another ground level search mission, this time finding three morons hiding in the storage walls of the building. Being that we were inside this building with no cameras and whatnot, we got all the information we needed from these fine individuals.
Four more felony arrests for the night. After everything was done it was almost time to go home, I had several cuts and bruises from playing Army and a few tears in my uniform. Somewhere along the line I ripped a few holes in my pants and tore a 3 inch gash into my shirt.
While at the station still in our cruiser with the windows down my partner and I heard a series of gun fire only a few blocks away.
Before the dispatcher even got on the air we were running lights and sirens to the call. A gang fight broke out at a club and we were the first to arrive.
This was an active shooter situation. Shots were still being fired as we rolled up. My partner and I kept a tight formation as the shooting vehicle fired its last rounds and sped away from us. We were about to do what we had to do until I saw their victim laying not 30 feet away from us. We stood down and ran over to the victim. My partner issued the bolos and perimeter points as I assessed the victim. Shot in the back and leg, he was laying face up. He grabbed my hand and started saying he didn’t want to die.
I said a small prayer and hoped Rescue would arrive. The only thing I could do was put pressure on the leg wound.. He’d already lost a lot of blood and it had begun to pool around him. His white pants were totally stained red on one side and he was looking at the sky in the same way most people do as they die.
The world showed up just then. Every single unit in the district including command staff responded and secured the scene. Rescue came soon after and got this guy into the truck, still breathing.
I’m not sure if he made it or not. My Sergeant told us to head to the station and get our paperwork done.
Long story short, I went into work hoping for a laid back day and instead did everything in the book. I caught people dumping, played Commando and then Medic.
It’s the best job in the world, but I’m so exhausted mentally and physically that I can’t do much more.
Have a happy MLK day and stay safe out there!
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