Score 1 for the Goodguys (Warning Text Heavy)

Hey all. I’m relatively new to the boards and haven’t posted much but this story is too good not to share. First off, I’m a police officer in Dallas Texas, assigned to the South Central Patrol Division. I’ve worked for the dept. for just over 10 years. The day before yesterday I got a call on a Burglary in Progress at about 9:30AM. When I got there, I could see that the side door to this house had been pried open and was still partially ajar. Two 1-man cover elements showed up to back me up. We left one officer at the front door and the other officer and I went through the open side door.

We moved in and cleared the kitchen then started into the dining room. Then I notice this guy standing with his back to us in front of the Christmas Tree. He’s in the process of tearing open the Christmas presents. His crowbar is lying on the floor and he’s completely oblivious to the fact that 2 cops are pointing guns at the middle of his back. He’s got a PS2 and a laptop computer all stacked up and ready to go out the door along with the family’s digital camera and some jewelry. I yell at him to get on the ground…and that’s when everything went to hell.

He takes off running into the back room and the other officer with me runs outside thinking that there might be a back door (nope). As the guy runs into the bathroom, I almost get ahold of the hood on his jacket, but then he slams the door on my left forearm. So my arm is stuck with him putting all his bodyweight into the door. I'm pushing back from my side of the door and screaming at him that I’m going to f’n shoot him if he doesn’t let go of my arm. He’s screaming, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” I’m screaming back, “Don’t be sorry, just get the f..k off my arm!” I don’t know where the other officer is, so even though I can’t see what the badguy is doing and I'm at great risk, I can’t shoot him for fear of hitting my cover through some thin drywall. Then I find out the bathroom has a 2nd door that leads into another bedroom. He gives one last hard push and breaks for the other door, now I’m free and back on his heels. We’re headed back into the kitchen and he’s headed right for the open door to get outside the house. As he runs into the kitchen, he grabs a wooden chair and flings it into my legs...completely taking me out. I grabbed his hood as I was falling and he dragged me for about 3 steps before he was able to unzip the jacket and leave me holding it while playing Twister with the chair on the floor…1 cop down.

As the burglar is running out the door, the other officer that initially came in with me, runs from behind me, hurtles me as I’m trying to get up and gets right back on the guy. He gets a handful of the badguy, but loses his grip and goes down on the concrete, tearing up his elbow…2 cops down. Finally the last officer, remember the guy at the front door? Well he’s a good runner, and sees our badguy running out of the house. He takes off at a dead sprint and starts to close the gap on the burglar, but just as he gets from the front yard to the edge of the driveway, he slips on the wet grass, goes down on the driveway and breaks two fingers…3 cops down. We all pick ourselves up, I grab a car and another officer chases the guy into a wooded area. Finally the cavalry starts showing up and it’s raining police. We get the area surrounded and FINALLY catch him hiding about 10 minutes later. Turns out the badguy had been smoking “Wet” as they call it down here. It’s marijuana cigarettes dipped in embalming fluid and it has a similar effect to PCP. I ended up with some nice lacerations and a couple ugly bruises on both legs and maybe a some ligament or meniscus damage to my right knee (still need to get the MRI to confirm). It always feels great to actually snag one of the real scumbags; all the bad luck and injuries that it took to get this guy didn’t temper that feeling one bit. Like I said initially, “Score one for the good guys!”

Great job, man! As a US Marine that's been to Iraq and knows what it's like to chase down the bad guys, I cheer you on completely. I've got the scars and back injuries to prove it. :-P

embalming fluid??? ugh... what makes people think this stuff up???

you know someone, somewhere, had to look at the stuff and think: i wonder if i'd get high off this.

glad you caught him!

Wow! Pretty exciting stuff. Glad you got the guy and some family's Christmas wasn't spoiled too badly.

You guys don't have Tasers? Too bad the suspect didn't go to the hospital Can't get down like they used to back in the day.

I´m a police officer and we don´t carry guns or tasers just a baton and a mace and our bare hands.8)

I had a former coworker take out a guy that tried to rob a convenience store in Waukesha who expressed a similar high at helping the authorities apprehend the thief.

Wanna know how it was done? Hit him over the head with a bottle when he was backing up towards the door. Knocked clean out. Cops showed up a couple minutes later.

Justice.

Good question on the taser. That would have helped immensely. We do have tasers and I used to carry one. When they originally issued them, we were allowed to shoot fleeing suspects with them. Unfortunately we had an incident (I wasn't involved) where a 20-something year old 5'6" 250 lb+ guy with an enlarged heart,that was loaded up on cocaine,weed, and booze started pounding on his family. They called 911 and said something like this "Ju guyz bettah send lotsa cops cuz he'z gonna fight." So 6 cops show up, he fights, he gets maced, tasered, and dogpiled, handcuffed, racially discriminated against (so sayeth the family), and then his heart blows out. The medical examiner ruled the taser as a contributing factor to the death, though surprising not the discrimination. /scratches head...so now they raised the taser use so high up on the force continuum that you're justified in using a real gun in virtually any situation that a taser could be used. So alot of us don't carry the things anymore, they're just dead weight. It's too bad, because it's a great tool, it just doesn't fit the care-bear mentality of the administration. The perception amongst the troops is that they'd rather have us sit around the campfire, roasting marshmallows, and singing Kum-BY-Yah with the crackheads and glad-handing car thieves than keeping the good citizens from become victims. LOL. Sorry for the rant.

Great story! I'm a 20 year old Security Guard in Atlanta. While I've not had any similar experience, I am in school to become a cop. It's the only job I can imagine myself doing.

Originally Posted by N1mbus

Good question on the taser. That would have helped immensely. We do have tasers and I used to carry one. When they originally issued them, we were allowed to shoot fleeing suspects with them. Unfortunately we had an incident (I wasn't involved) where a 20-something year old 5'6" 250 lb+ guy with an enlarged heart,that was loaded up on cocaine,weed, and booze started pounding on his family. They called 911 and said something like this "Ju guyz bettah send lotsa cops cuz he'z gonna fight." So 6 cops show up, he fights, he gets maced, tasered, and dogpiled, handcuffed, racially discriminated against (so sayeth the family), and then his heart blows out. The medical examiner ruled the taser as a contributing factor to the death, though surprising not the discrimination. /scratches head...so now they raised the taser use so high up on the force continuum that you're justified in using a real gun in virtually any situation that a taser could be used. So alot of us don't carry the things anymore, they're just dead weight. It's too bad, because it's a great tool, it just doesn't fit the care-bear mentality of the administration. The perception amongst the troops is that they'd rather have us sit around the campfire, roasting marshmallows, and singing Kum-BY-Yah with the crackheads and glad-handing car thieves than keeping the good citizens from become victims. LOL. Sorry for the rant.

That's too bad. I'm sure the drugs, weight, and the fact he was fighting had nothing to do with it. I'm sure you know those things have saved a lot of guys fom getting hurt in physical confrontations, although I've only used mine once. We have guys on patrol using them a few times a month.

Seems like people would rather see a suspect get smacked a thousand times with a baton and end up in the hospital instead of a 5 second jolt with the Taser.

The only time I used it was a guy who I knew was going to fight. You can see it, he's tensed up, looking for his get away. I already had it out, he never saw it, when the female officer (who never had good control) of him went to cuff him he made a break for it. "POP" down he went. Going to prison now, he's got lots of prior theft convictions. Be out in 6 months probably.

ok, first off "It’s marijuana cigarettes dipped in embalming fluid..." - that's just gross and wrong. WHo come up with this crazy and potentially leathal stuff. Don't people care what goes into their bodies.


But mainly - ROCK ON! I'm sorry to hear that you guys got a little banged up but I am glad you got that jerk.