Caught myself trying to put off some work and from the recess of my mind I remembered the night I responded to a call: gun shots fired in the area. Eleven years of police work in one of America's top crime stat cities will yield a story or two whether it be a high speed chase, a hostage, a suicide victim, a foot chase... you name it.
On this particular night I was assigned as a one-man unit (meaning I did not have a partner in the car with me). Normally one-man units get dispatched to standard incidents such as a burglary that took place hours before or an accident scene. Sometimes you may see two police cars at a location and that is most likely because the situation may have the potential of escalated danger.
Anyways, usually to "gun shots fired in the area" call requires a two man unit. This particular night the call had come in prior to my arrival on the shift. I was at that time working the midnight shift. It was my first assignment as I exited the police station; as I approached the area I asked the dispatcher to repeat the time that the call had been received, I made my notations that it had been over an hour and a half.
I arrived to the location where gunshots were heard. The streets were quiet and dark, I rolled down my windows and cruised my police car at the slow pace of 5 miles per hour. I reached over to my left to use my police spotlight to get a better look in between the houses so as to light up around the dark areas... the whole time, hoping not to find anything out of the ordinary.
It all appeared serene and nothing out of place, I paused at the end of the street and grabbed the police radio deciding to ask the dispatcher one more question: Does the caller want to be contacted? The dispatcher said: Negative, anonymous. Okay, too simple right? Anonymous caller, everything is quiet, the call almost two hours ago ...probably some bozo testing their gun, right?
But something nudged at me to be more thorough, to get the job done right. I went around the block one more time, parked my police car and walked up to the first house on the corner. It's almost 1:00 am, I ring the bell. I hear someone shuffling to the door... and a voice asking: Who is it? I respond: Metro-Police Open the Door. The homeowner opens the door... a bit ruffled but their dealing with it. I inform them that I am in the area investigating an incident and wanted to know if they heard any gunshots.
I knocked on about 3 homes, two said they had heard gunshots earlier and one had heard nothing at all. One of them had pointed at a neighbor’s house that had a school bus parked in the driveway, the mentioned that they had seen someone running from the bus and into the house right after they heard the gunshot.
I walked over to the house with the bus in the yard and noticed that the bus door was ajar, cautiously I opened the door and that is when things started to happen too fast for human comprehension. From the corner of my left eye I caught movement and to this day I still don't know how I was able to run to that door and single handedly apprehend the man coming out through it. But I did, I knew I could not ask questions or my own life would depend on it. Swiftly seizing the moment and maneuvering handcuffs in place, I quickly grabbed my police radio and called in for back: 1332 - send back up to my location, I have a dead person and one in custody.
This is the part where police officers must rely on the 'animal' instinct of being human. Sprawled on the stairs of the bus was a dead man... a bullet had been placed through his head. The rest is documented history.
Most times people look for short cuts in life, doing things half ass, yet expecting the world to yield to them. Be a person of integrity and do your best. No one can hold anything against you when you do your best.
Daisy Says: Do your best in all you do, your life does depend on it.. and believe it or not, the life of those around you too.
March 11, 2009
I was going through your pictures and fell upon you in uniform. I was surprised and not surprised. I was in law enforcement during the height of the crack epidemic in the late 1980's as a housing police officer in Maryland. I had numerous 'touches' of the spirit moving on my behalf, and that of my partners. One time, and I have never written this down, the local drug dealers placed a hit upon my head. They came en masse in four cars. Everyone in those cars was rendered blind to my presence by the Great Mystery that Created me. The entire neighborhood and my men stood witness to this!
I am impressed that you would share this story online. People need to hear the stories and insights of women officers. My first-born son is a Police Officer now. I didn't lead him in that direction. I gave him a lot of medicine teachings over the years and he is serving the DC metropolitan area with distinction at a level beyond mine. ~Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories
On this particular night I was assigned as a one-man unit (meaning I did not have a partner in the car with me). Normally one-man units get dispatched to standard incidents such as a burglary that took place hours before or an accident scene. Sometimes you may see two police cars at a location and that is most likely because the situation may have the potential of escalated danger.
Anyways, usually to "gun shots fired in the area" call requires a two man unit. This particular night the call had come in prior to my arrival on the shift. I was at that time working the midnight shift. It was my first assignment as I exited the police station; as I approached the area I asked the dispatcher to repeat the time that the call had been received, I made my notations that it had been over an hour and a half.
I arrived to the location where gunshots were heard. The streets were quiet and dark, I rolled down my windows and cruised my police car at the slow pace of 5 miles per hour. I reached over to my left to use my police spotlight to get a better look in between the houses so as to light up around the dark areas... the whole time, hoping not to find anything out of the ordinary.
It all appeared serene and nothing out of place, I paused at the end of the street and grabbed the police radio deciding to ask the dispatcher one more question: Does the caller want to be contacted? The dispatcher said: Negative, anonymous. Okay, too simple right? Anonymous caller, everything is quiet, the call almost two hours ago ...probably some bozo testing their gun, right?
But something nudged at me to be more thorough, to get the job done right. I went around the block one more time, parked my police car and walked up to the first house on the corner. It's almost 1:00 am, I ring the bell. I hear someone shuffling to the door... and a voice asking: Who is it? I respond: Metro-Police Open the Door. The homeowner opens the door... a bit ruffled but their dealing with it. I inform them that I am in the area investigating an incident and wanted to know if they heard any gunshots.
I knocked on about 3 homes, two said they had heard gunshots earlier and one had heard nothing at all. One of them had pointed at a neighbor’s house that had a school bus parked in the driveway, the mentioned that they had seen someone running from the bus and into the house right after they heard the gunshot.
I walked over to the house with the bus in the yard and noticed that the bus door was ajar, cautiously I opened the door and that is when things started to happen too fast for human comprehension. From the corner of my left eye I caught movement and to this day I still don't know how I was able to run to that door and single handedly apprehend the man coming out through it. But I did, I knew I could not ask questions or my own life would depend on it. Swiftly seizing the moment and maneuvering handcuffs in place, I quickly grabbed my police radio and called in for back: 1332 - send back up to my location, I have a dead person and one in custody.
This is the part where police officers must rely on the 'animal' instinct of being human. Sprawled on the stairs of the bus was a dead man... a bullet had been placed through his head. The rest is documented history.
Most times people look for short cuts in life, doing things half ass, yet expecting the world to yield to them. Be a person of integrity and do your best. No one can hold anything against you when you do your best.
Daisy Says: Do your best in all you do, your life does depend on it.. and believe it or not, the life of those around you too.
March 11, 2009
I was going through your pictures and fell upon you in uniform. I was surprised and not surprised. I was in law enforcement during the height of the crack epidemic in the late 1980's as a housing police officer in Maryland. I had numerous 'touches' of the spirit moving on my behalf, and that of my partners. One time, and I have never written this down, the local drug dealers placed a hit upon my head. They came en masse in four cars. Everyone in those cars was rendered blind to my presence by the Great Mystery that Created me. The entire neighborhood and my men stood witness to this!
I am impressed that you would share this story online. People need to hear the stories and insights of women officers. My first-born son is a Police Officer now. I didn't lead him in that direction. I gave him a lot of medicine teachings over the years and he is serving the DC metropolitan area with distinction at a level beyond mine. ~Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories
Hellow Dawn Wolf.
ReplyDeletethank you for sharing a piece of my life experience.
~ Daisy
Daisy when you shared this story I had no idea my first born son would wind up as a Police Officer in the Washington DC area, but he is, and I shared this story with him thinking of how it would play somewhere in his thinking...
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the story.