On most of the local news stations and in the newspaper, there is a story concerning a homeowner who shot a person that was trying to break into his house after his vehicle was towed. That was my call and this is what happened.
I had traffic court again at 9 PM on Thursday. Court ended at 9:15, and I went over to the station. J and I rode together since I was there an hour early. Half way through the shift we were dispatched to a shooting / just occurred at a home in the middle of the Gayborhood. We were the second unit on the scene. The first unit on the scene placed two men in handcuffs and found a third male that was laying on the threshold of the front door. On any police scene, our first goal is to make sure that the scene is safe. That is especially true on a scene where we think a gun is involved. That is why the two men were immediately placed in handcuffs and searched. The man on the ground was quickly searched for weapons as well. A gun was found on a chair just inside the front door. It had been unloaded and the slide had been locked back. I took that gun into custody and put it in my back pocket for safe keeping. Another officer and I then searched the house to make sure that no one else was hiding inside. Once the scene was safe, we began our investigation.
The two men in cuffs turned out to be H, the homeowner, and N, the second suspect. The man laying on the ground was W, the primary suspect who had been shot in the leg. The homeowner and the two suspects were all black males. An ambulance arrived shortly after and loaded up W and transported him to an area hospital. A unit followed the ambulance to the hospital since W was the primary suspect in a burglary of a habitation.
This is what H, the homeowner told us had happened. H said that he took his car and drove to a few of the nearby bars. When he returned home around 2 AM, a vehicle was parked in the street blocking his driveway. He called the police to have the vehicle ticketed and towed so that he could access his driveway. A unit was dispatched to that call and did indeed ticket and tow the vehicle blocking the driveway. H then went inside and started cooking himself some breakfast, grits on the stove.
In the middle of the cooking process, he heard two very loud crashes. The noise came from the front of his house and was the sound of breaking glass. Thinking that his home was getting broken into, H ran to his bedroom and grabbed a loaded .45 caliber pistol. He then crossed his living room and approached a glass paned door that led to the small outer room where his front door was located. Through the glass, H saw a male break his front door and start to come inside his house. H pointed his pistol at the male and fired one shot. The bullet went through the glass in both doors and then into the leg of the male. The male dropped to the ground and started yelling for help. The second suspect N, who had been on the sidewalk started coming toward the front door. H lifted his pistol again and told N to stay away, which he did. H then called the police and we arrived shortly thereafter.
After hearing what had happened, it was my responsibility to call the Homicide division. They are called on every shooting scene. Homicide generally does not roll out a team unless someone dies. I heard from the officers at the hospital that W was going to live. W had been shot once and the bullet had broken his femur. I told the homicide investigator that W would live, and he released the scene to us to process and complete the initial investigation.
My next call was to the district attorney's office to get charges accepted on the suspect. We have to have permission from the DA's office to charge anyone with more than a class C violation. So, I spoke with an assistant DA and gave her the facts of the incident. I thought that we had a very easy burglary charge against W. I was wrong. The assistant DA refused to accept any charges at all and wanted the case referred to the investigative division for further investigation. What in the bleep? I had a suspect break two windows and a front door. Then try to come in the door. The suspect was in custody and stated that he was mad that his vehicle had been towed. But the DA thought further investigation was necessary? There are two elements to a burglary offense: 1. Unlawful entry combined with 2. the intent, attempt, or actually committing a theft, assault, or other felony. The DA said that they had to prove our suspect had intent. I said that he was not breaking in to have breakfast with the homeowner.
I was incredulous as were all of the officers and supervisors on the scene. I called back the homicide investigator to see if he had any suggestions. He advised that I call back and ask to speak to the acting intake chief DA. So, I did and got the same answer. He wanted the case referred to the investigative division so that the case could be walked straight through to the Grand Jury.
Since no charges had been accepted, there was no reason for the officers to keep W in custody. They gathered all of his information and left the hospital. We had already gathered N's information, so we released him as well.
Our full time print / picture unit was on the scene and I asked him to document the scene. He took quite a few photographs and then took custody of the pistol and shell casing that we found. He then tagged those items into evidence.
All that was left was the report. J entered all of the screens while I ate a bacon sandwich and then it was my turn to write the narrative of the report. In a report like this where charges are not accepted and we are releasing a burglary suspect into the wild, I had to make sure and cover all of our behinds. It took me over an hour to write the narrative, which is an eternity for me.
The homicide investigator advised me to call the Burglary and Theft division when they opened at 6 AM to give them a heads up on the case. I did so. A few minutes later, the B & T investigator called me back and told me that they wanted W in custody. Her LT thought that W needed to be in custody, even though he had not been charged with anything and was in the hospital. I said ok, and contacted my supervisor while the B & T investigator called the hospital to make sure that W was still there. The investigator called me back and a logical decision had been made. W was still in the hospital and decided to send one of their own officers to the hospital since they believed that charges were imminent. I said great and went home.
I turn off my ringer on my cell phone and the house phone is also turned off in the bedroom. Between 7 AM and 11:30 AM, my cell phone received no less than 5 calls concerning the shooting. At 11:30 AM, Jen came in and woke me up because a LT called the house and in her words sounded "frantic" to speak with me. I called everyone back and answered their questions. Since the story was getting a lot of play in the media, the chiefs were concerned with the case. That puts pressure on everyone below the chiefs. The last thing that I heard from the lead investigator was that he was walking the case to the Grand Jury, but he thought that he would only be able to get a criminal mischief charge against W. That is too bad, but better than nothing. It made for a frustrating, but interesting shift.
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