This week, I am actually writing this almost on time. Amazing. This was my first full week on my new schedule. I think that I am going to like the late side hours, 11 PM to 7 AM. Even though it is only a one hour difference, it really feels like I have a lot more time with the family in the evenings. The week started off with a bang, literally. I had one print call and a few picture calls this week. Friday was once again, smack your loved ones night.
While sitting in roll call on Monday, I was notified of a suicide that had just occurred. After loading up, I headed to that location in case they needed me to take photographs. On occasion, crime scene units are not dispatched to suicides. This time, they did send a crime scene unit, 2 in fact. When I arrived at the location, I noticed a van in front of the house and there was a man laying by the curb by the van. This man had borrowed his ex-wive's van to go out looking for a job. He returned the van and brought a rifle with him. He got out of the van and walked around to the passenger side. Then he stuck the muzzle of the rifle in his mouth and pulled the trigger. A rifle round was actually a relatively small round. If a person was shot with this rifle from a distance, the wound would be rather small. But since this was a contact wound and the bullet was chased by all of the gases generated from the round firing, there was a large wound. In fact, about half of his head was missing. His brain was scattered all over the side of the van, in the street, and in nearby trees. Messy. At least he did not ruin the vehicle by doing it inside of the van.
After leaving the suicide, I checked by with B and another officer on an assault. This one took place in the parking garage of a very nice high rise residential building. One vehicle was backing up, blocking the entrance to the garage. A Jeep, was trying to get into the garage. Honks, gestures, and words were exchanged. The driver of the Jeep got out of his vehicle which led to the driver and passenger of the other vehicle to exit their vehicle was well. The driver of the Jeep, seeing the possible 2 against 1 fight, went back to his Jeep and got out a baseball bat. Then he thought he was tough and decided to be the aggressor. After more words, he swung the bat, hitting the driver of the other vehicle in the head. Then he jumped back into his Jeep and drove away.
I ended up taking photos of the assault victim. He had a large cut and bump on his head and most likely had a concussion. Luckily, security at the building knew who drove the Jeep. This was not the first time that he had taken out the bat after a traffic altercation. A few hours after we left the scene, building security notified us that the driver of the Jeep had returned to the building. He was taken into custody without incident and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He said that he took out the bat and was the aggressor because it was 2 against 1, trying to say it was self defense. Ummmm, I don't think so. Not even a Texas jury is going to say it is ok to hit another person in the head with a bat after only a verbal exchange. Jail is probably the safest place for this guy. Eventually he will take the bat out at the wrong time and will end up getting shot. You should not bring a bat to a gun fight.
That bring us to Tuesday. I started the day at municipal (traffic) court. I had two tickets being contested and both were for illegal left turns where it is prohibited by sign. The problem was the complaint, the document that lists the offense that the city actually charges the drivers with, was not correct. One complaint was for turing left from the wrong lane and the other was for failing to signal a lane change. I do not have the best handwriting, but I have no idea how the clerk got failing to signal from illegal left turn. Since it was the wrong complaint, the city can either re-file the correct charge of just dismiss the case. In the current economic environment, I imagine that the city prosecutors are encouraged to re-file the citations with the proper violations.
Tuesday night started off with a traffic stop. A truck made the usual illegal left turn. I approached the vehicle and discovered that it was being driven by a former co-worker. We were juvenile probation officers together for a couple of years. A few years ago he also quit that job and joined my department. It was nice to see him, just an unusual circumstance.
Later that night I checked by with a few units on a family disturbance that involved a male, T, who was in a psychological crisis. T is bi-polar and according to his family, goes off of his medication about every six months. T has been having anger issues for the past six months that have been increasing in severity. A few days ago he flushed all of his medication down the toilet. On this night, he started threatening his wife and she became scared for herself as well as his welfare. She left their apartment and called the police.
The first officer on the scene was able to talk briefly with T, before T slammed and locked the front door of the apartment in the officer's face. We could hear T yelling and a screaming inside of the apartment. He seemed to be cycling. He would freak out for awhile, and then calm down just to ramp up again. We called for the department's speciality unit that deals with mentally ill citizens. They arrived, but did not have any luck in getting T to come out of the apartment. The wife returned to the scene and gave us the key to the apartment. She said that there were not any guns inside of the apartment. The apartment had a front and back door that each had two deadbolts, only one of which could be unlocked from the outside. The supervisor on the scene determined that T was a definite danger to himself and others, so we had to make entry into the apartment for his well being.
While one officer knocked on the front door to distract T, the supervisor, two other officers and myself went to the back door. I used the key to unlock the deadbolt. The door would still not open, T had looked the other deadbolt. The supervisor gave me the go ahead to kick in the door. With one well placed lucky kick, the door flew open. T, who was naked and facing the front door, turned quickly toward the sound and saw me and another officer moving quickly toward him. The other officer had his taser out and the laser was centered on T's chest. T just sighed and hung his head to his chest. We took him into custody and I asked him if he wanted any clothes. His first answer was "hell no." Then he thought about it for a moment and said, "yes, please put some clothes on me." I had the joy of helping T into his boxers while his hands were cuffed behind his back. That should have been a job for the rookie on the scene.
One of the regular types of calls that we respond to are discharging firearms calls. A citizen hears what they think is a gunshot and calls in to report it. Usually it is a car backfiring, or something slamming, or who knows, but it is almost never an actual gunshot. Wednesday night, we had one of the exceptions. A discharging firearms called dropped and the responding officer arrived in the area. The officer was driving slowly, looking for a body on the ground in the area, because you never know. The officer saw a person on the sidewalk running in her direction. Not knowing if this was the possible shooter, the officer gave strong verbal commands to the person, getting them to stop. After some dialog, the officer learned that there had in fact been a firearms discharge. A male had followed this person up into his driveway, produced a gun and tried to rob them. The person fought back, and the suspect fired off two rounds from the pistol. Luckily, the rounds did not hit anyone. One of the rounds went into a nearby apartment, through a wall, and then into another wall. I helped to recover that round along with two shell casings, and one bullet from the driveway. It sounds cliche, but there are not any routine calls.
Thursday was very uneventful for me. We did have a shooting in the area. It started in a club, spilled outside, and then escalated. One person was killed and another was injured. There were plenty of units on the scene and the CSU (crime scene unit) came out and processed the scene.
If it is Friday, it must be get drunk and smack you loved ones night again. My first picture call was for a wife whose husband got drunk and slapped her numerous times in the head. She had quite a few scratches and cuts on her face. The second picture call was for another female. They were in town visiting from Louisiana and her boyfriend decided to get drunk. Then he punched her, busting her lip. But that was not enough, so he jumped on her and choked her until she was unconscious. The first male was charged with a class A misdemeanor and the second with a felony. At least they were both stupid enough to stay on the scene until we arrived so that they could be arrested.
That brings to an end, another week on patrol.
While sitting in roll call on Monday, I was notified of a suicide that had just occurred. After loading up, I headed to that location in case they needed me to take photographs. On occasion, crime scene units are not dispatched to suicides. This time, they did send a crime scene unit, 2 in fact. When I arrived at the location, I noticed a van in front of the house and there was a man laying by the curb by the van. This man had borrowed his ex-wive's van to go out looking for a job. He returned the van and brought a rifle with him. He got out of the van and walked around to the passenger side. Then he stuck the muzzle of the rifle in his mouth and pulled the trigger. A rifle round was actually a relatively small round. If a person was shot with this rifle from a distance, the wound would be rather small. But since this was a contact wound and the bullet was chased by all of the gases generated from the round firing, there was a large wound. In fact, about half of his head was missing. His brain was scattered all over the side of the van, in the street, and in nearby trees. Messy. At least he did not ruin the vehicle by doing it inside of the van.
After leaving the suicide, I checked by with B and another officer on an assault. This one took place in the parking garage of a very nice high rise residential building. One vehicle was backing up, blocking the entrance to the garage. A Jeep, was trying to get into the garage. Honks, gestures, and words were exchanged. The driver of the Jeep got out of his vehicle which led to the driver and passenger of the other vehicle to exit their vehicle was well. The driver of the Jeep, seeing the possible 2 against 1 fight, went back to his Jeep and got out a baseball bat. Then he thought he was tough and decided to be the aggressor. After more words, he swung the bat, hitting the driver of the other vehicle in the head. Then he jumped back into his Jeep and drove away.
I ended up taking photos of the assault victim. He had a large cut and bump on his head and most likely had a concussion. Luckily, security at the building knew who drove the Jeep. This was not the first time that he had taken out the bat after a traffic altercation. A few hours after we left the scene, building security notified us that the driver of the Jeep had returned to the building. He was taken into custody without incident and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He said that he took out the bat and was the aggressor because it was 2 against 1, trying to say it was self defense. Ummmm, I don't think so. Not even a Texas jury is going to say it is ok to hit another person in the head with a bat after only a verbal exchange. Jail is probably the safest place for this guy. Eventually he will take the bat out at the wrong time and will end up getting shot. You should not bring a bat to a gun fight.
That bring us to Tuesday. I started the day at municipal (traffic) court. I had two tickets being contested and both were for illegal left turns where it is prohibited by sign. The problem was the complaint, the document that lists the offense that the city actually charges the drivers with, was not correct. One complaint was for turing left from the wrong lane and the other was for failing to signal a lane change. I do not have the best handwriting, but I have no idea how the clerk got failing to signal from illegal left turn. Since it was the wrong complaint, the city can either re-file the correct charge of just dismiss the case. In the current economic environment, I imagine that the city prosecutors are encouraged to re-file the citations with the proper violations.
Tuesday night started off with a traffic stop. A truck made the usual illegal left turn. I approached the vehicle and discovered that it was being driven by a former co-worker. We were juvenile probation officers together for a couple of years. A few years ago he also quit that job and joined my department. It was nice to see him, just an unusual circumstance.
Later that night I checked by with a few units on a family disturbance that involved a male, T, who was in a psychological crisis. T is bi-polar and according to his family, goes off of his medication about every six months. T has been having anger issues for the past six months that have been increasing in severity. A few days ago he flushed all of his medication down the toilet. On this night, he started threatening his wife and she became scared for herself as well as his welfare. She left their apartment and called the police.
The first officer on the scene was able to talk briefly with T, before T slammed and locked the front door of the apartment in the officer's face. We could hear T yelling and a screaming inside of the apartment. He seemed to be cycling. He would freak out for awhile, and then calm down just to ramp up again. We called for the department's speciality unit that deals with mentally ill citizens. They arrived, but did not have any luck in getting T to come out of the apartment. The wife returned to the scene and gave us the key to the apartment. She said that there were not any guns inside of the apartment. The apartment had a front and back door that each had two deadbolts, only one of which could be unlocked from the outside. The supervisor on the scene determined that T was a definite danger to himself and others, so we had to make entry into the apartment for his well being.
While one officer knocked on the front door to distract T, the supervisor, two other officers and myself went to the back door. I used the key to unlock the deadbolt. The door would still not open, T had looked the other deadbolt. The supervisor gave me the go ahead to kick in the door. With one well placed lucky kick, the door flew open. T, who was naked and facing the front door, turned quickly toward the sound and saw me and another officer moving quickly toward him. The other officer had his taser out and the laser was centered on T's chest. T just sighed and hung his head to his chest. We took him into custody and I asked him if he wanted any clothes. His first answer was "hell no." Then he thought about it for a moment and said, "yes, please put some clothes on me." I had the joy of helping T into his boxers while his hands were cuffed behind his back. That should have been a job for the rookie on the scene.
One of the regular types of calls that we respond to are discharging firearms calls. A citizen hears what they think is a gunshot and calls in to report it. Usually it is a car backfiring, or something slamming, or who knows, but it is almost never an actual gunshot. Wednesday night, we had one of the exceptions. A discharging firearms called dropped and the responding officer arrived in the area. The officer was driving slowly, looking for a body on the ground in the area, because you never know. The officer saw a person on the sidewalk running in her direction. Not knowing if this was the possible shooter, the officer gave strong verbal commands to the person, getting them to stop. After some dialog, the officer learned that there had in fact been a firearms discharge. A male had followed this person up into his driveway, produced a gun and tried to rob them. The person fought back, and the suspect fired off two rounds from the pistol. Luckily, the rounds did not hit anyone. One of the rounds went into a nearby apartment, through a wall, and then into another wall. I helped to recover that round along with two shell casings, and one bullet from the driveway. It sounds cliche, but there are not any routine calls.
Thursday was very uneventful for me. We did have a shooting in the area. It started in a club, spilled outside, and then escalated. One person was killed and another was injured. There were plenty of units on the scene and the CSU (crime scene unit) came out and processed the scene.
If it is Friday, it must be get drunk and smack you loved ones night again. My first picture call was for a wife whose husband got drunk and slapped her numerous times in the head. She had quite a few scratches and cuts on her face. The second picture call was for another female. They were in town visiting from Louisiana and her boyfriend decided to get drunk. Then he punched her, busting her lip. But that was not enough, so he jumped on her and choked her until she was unconscious. The first male was charged with a class A misdemeanor and the second with a felony. At least they were both stupid enough to stay on the scene until we arrived so that they could be arrested.
That brings to an end, another week on patrol.
No comments:
Post a Comment