Posted: 1/1/2007 12:56:21 PM EDT
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It was just before the new year. My partner and I go to a man/woman fighting in the street. A third party reported this occuring in their neighborhood. On arrival no persons or fight were found in the street. The neighbor who reported it said the male half left on foot and that she wasn't sure if the female half was hurt because she went into her house to phone 911. I go to the female's house and the front door is cracked open slightly (no kidding it really was) and I nudge it open and say the magic, "Police, anyone home?" 3 meth heads come trudging out of a back bedroom, one of which is the female half. I see she has nothing in her hands so I ask if she was involved in a fight, is she hurt. My partner, who I'll call eagle eyes, leans in by my ear and says, "big knife on her right hip." He sees about 1-2" of kydex knife sheeth sticking out from under her coat. I was talking to her as he said this, and while I'm processing eagle eye's information, but before I could actually look down at the area, she hears his comment. I see a flash of movement and note that she is going to her hip with her right hand. I'm still behind the curve as to what is happening cognitively but as she is coming up with the knife I'm drawing my weapon. The only two sounds heard were her knife (about a 4" fixed blade) clearing kydex and my Glock clearing my plastic holster. Sort of like the old "schwing, schwing" sound from the Wilkerson's Shave razor commercials. As I'm drawing my Glock to a position next to my rib cage to fire on her, she drops the knife on the carpet. This all happens in under 1.5 seconds, from the time my partner says knife to us drawing and her dropping the knife. I didn't have to shoot her because her meth addled brain functioned just well enough to realize she was messing up and she dropped the knife in the fraction of a second it took to save her from a series of nearly contact distance gunshot wounds. She immediately starts babbling about," I was just trying to show you my knife." As I was leaving, her last comment to me was, "I have to get some combat training." Jeezus! Eagle eyes commented later that "he gets that motherfucking gun out fast." I took this as a compliment because his weapons skills are, as Borat would say, "verry nice." I love my partner in a purely contact and cover sort of way, but it's love none the less. If you haven't had a close one or the real thing before, and this is as close as I've came so far, then you don't realize the absolute and undeniable truth behind the cop's phrase, "it happens so fast." I got a step closer to understanding that maxim last night. I didn't even write paper on this incident and it's a good thing because 5 minutes later we had to head to neighboring agency to support an active shooting going on inside a bowling alley/casino. The shooting inside was still going on as our officers arrived outside but ended before any intervention could take place. One dead and 2 others injured were the initial reports. This was just after New Years broke. Happy New Year. |
Aint that the truth.....my wife calls my partner my "boyfriend" and even though she won't admit it she appears jealous of our bond from time to time. Glad your call went smooth, and glad I didn't have to work amatuer night last night. |
Congrats on the proper restraint. I've been just about that close twice (I was anovernight gas station clerk, a very well armed one) Glad as hell I didn't have to do more than draw.  When I was an EMT/FF I saw what happens to LEO's in the most justified of shoots. Be glad it ended the way it did.
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Yeah, maybe you should get some "life without substances" training first...
Well, I didn't beat her to the draw, but the one step I took back on the porch steps may have kept me from getting stuck more than 1x. Possibly not even stuck once. Maybe she would have hit my in my PDA and Palm would become standard issue in my Dept.. haha. |
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so do you think she was intending to stab you or just disarm herself? btw, its good to hear that you were able to keep your head on in a fast environment like that and make good quick decisions. I always try to practice a little with rock and lock when i go to the range. |
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New Years sucked for me. I investigated a tripple fatality accident. And no I wasnt a back up unit, I am THE investigating unit. It sucks. The female passenger of the suv was 22. Thats my age. 
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That's the strange thing, I didn't have one at all. The house was FULL of tools and other stuff that was all stolen. We were short for the holiday so I just didn't want to go there. If we had a full squad I would have used her physical actions as a reason to arrest her and then gotten inside the house and boy o boy would that have been a lot of paper. For the <2 seconds that this took place in she was assaulting me. In the moment she dropped the knife I could see her intentions were not to assault me. But during that very brief moment I was justified in ventilating her ass. My wife just doesn't understand what I'm talking about when I tell her this stuff. haha. |
I never even went across the threshold of the doorway. While I frisked her my partner stood on the knife and watched the two dudes. I then "completed my investigations and boogied on out of there." |