Share Your Life or Death Story

[SOCALCOP]

What is your life or death story? What happened? How did you view it while it was happening? How did it affect you afterwards? Share with us so we may be prepared if it happens to us. This is not to cretique officer safety or department policy. Here is mine.

I went on a call of domestic violence. I was the first officer on-scene at the apartment complex. As I walked through the gate a resident said to me "he's over there." I thought "great" knowing he was still causing problems. I made contact at the front door but did not enter. As far as I could tell he was alone but I was not sure if a victim was bleeding to death inside and he tore up his apartment. I asked him to come outside with me. He was very upset and began hitting walls and throwing things around. I backed up a bit and he came outside. I did my best to calm him down but it did not work. He then picked up a long metal pipe, began to swing it like a baseball bat and began to walk towards me. I immediately got on the HT and asked for units Code-3. I pulled my weapon and ordered him to get down, to get down on the ground. I yelled this several times and very loudly not only so he could hear but so others could hear in case I had to shoot. I continued yelling loudly to "get down" but he refused and he kept walking towards me swinging the pipe.

The next thing that popped into my head was "I am going to have to shoot him."
Then unconsciously I visualized myself shooting him, him going down and seeing blood all around him as I am standing there thinking, "what do I do now."
At that point he backed up and dropped the metal pipe. Back-up arrived and after a short fight with him we arrested him.
I never understood why those things popped into my brain. The only thing I can figure is my brain was preparing me for what was about to happen.
Stay Safe.

[1code12]

Good topic....

I'll give you mine. Back in the summer of 1993, I was working probably one of the craziest afternoon shifts. It was hot, and all kinds of things were going on. I just wrapped up a basic shoplifter arrest and when I cleared, I was dispatched to a complaint of juveniles driving recklessly on a motor scooter at one of the local apartment complexes. At roll call we were advised that there had been a stolen motor scooter reported there the night before. Knowing this I was sure that I'd get an arrest out of it. Well, being the afternoon was so busy, no one was available to back me up. The helicopter was enroute, but no other ground units were available.

As I arrived, sure enough there were 4 - 5 kids gathered around this scooter which was just laying in the roadway. As soon as they saw me, they all ran towards a fenceline that led to a residental neighborhood. I took off after them just as the helicopter arrived also. These kids ran through a break in a wooden fence and had a good jump on me. As I got through the break in the fence I heard shouting...loud shouting. I looked to my side and about30 feet away from me was a guy yelling something at me and at his side was a axe handle, which he started to raise in my direction. I remember yelling Police! and Drop it! and trying to get my gun out. This guy kept yelling and started walking quickly towards me. I unholstered, drew my weapon and raised it up, all while yelling at him. At this point probably less than two or three seconds has gone by, and then the guy screams NO! stops, and tosses the axe handle aside. I don't know how or why, but I fell backwards on my butt. I think I was so into yelling and trying to get my damn gun out I forgot to concentrate on balancing.

In the end, the helicopter crew called help for me and we arrested the guy for some unrelated charges. The suspects brother told us later that his father hung himself in the backyard where all this occurred a long time ago, and the suspect goes insane when anybody goes into the backyard (like me). He said he was surprised that his brother even listened to me.

This was 13 years ago, and as I type this my feet get sweaty. I drive by that house once in a while and think back to that night. If I took anything away from that incident was to be ready for anything. I try to be 'tactical' and size up situations when I can.

[RabbitMPD]

Yes excellent topic indeed. I hope everybody can tell their story without the fear of being 'Monday morning quarterbacked'. This thread can serve great purpose and this is not the thread to critique what people did right or wrong. Here is my story:

Got called to a large 10-10 (fight in progress). When I was going to the call code 3, dispatch informed there were weapons involved and possible shots fired. I felt the adrenaline enter my body. Myself and another unit was first on the scene and I saw 3 teenage males screaming at each other. Two of them immediately yelled "HE'S GOT A GUN!" pointing at one subject. I unholstered and yelled to everybody, "EVERYONE HANDS UP, NOW!!!" The kid whom supposedly had the gun had his hands up but kept jerking his hands down towards his sides. I kept yelling "HANDS UP! HANDS UP! KEEP EM UP!" Then it happened. The kid quickly went into his right pocket, grabbed the gun, and threw it to the side. I had the trigger about half way there. I was half a squeeze away from killing a 16 year old kid.

It really didn't hit me until after my shift was over. I was in the locker room getting changed and I all the sudden felt sick. I didn't stop thinking about it for probably a week. The guy that was there with me was pretty shaken too.

Turns out the gun wasn't even loaded. :rolleyes: That kid and his parents will never realize how close he was to being killed.

[Bing_Oh]

Alright, here's mine.

Night shift, we get a call from a woman's boss who says she called him and told him that she was being held hostage by her boyfriend, who was armed with a rifle. Four of us haul out to the address given and take cover positions around the house, watching the doors, two with shotguns (one of them is me) with the other two on backup for us with pistols. Dispatch is unable to make contact with anybody inside by telephone.

Suddenly, the front door opens and out walks the boyfriend...with an SKS in his hand. He's unaware that we're there when he comes out.

We confront him at gunpoint, ordering him to drop the rifle, and he stops in the middle of the street and just stands there. We continue yelling at him and he starts to bring the rifle up...and then drops is. We pounce on him, cuff him, and toss him in a crusier. He's extremely drunk and stoned.

I talked to the other guy on shotgun that evening and discovered that we both had pressure on the trigger. That guy was a couple pounds away from being shot by at least two shotguns.

Oh, and the rifle was found to be empty with no firing pin.

[oldcop1971]

Got into a car chase late one night in Montgomery, suspect got a jump on me and went out of sight around a curve. When I came to the straight stretch I knew he had turned into a driveway to hide, so I started spotlighting cars and found him. We both exited our vehicles at the same time, with him coming around in a combat crouch pointing a shiny object at me. I drew my 357 and screamed at him to drop it as I pulled through on double action. He dropped and I was able to back off the trigger just before let-off on the sear. He had a big KEY RING that he was pointing at me. I asked him why, and he said "guess I've been watchin too much tv, boss-man." 16 and unarmed, stupid as a bag of rocks. He never knew how close he came to dying that night.

[Retired96]

This incident took place on 11/9/74 and still. Went to a domestic dispute at 2300 hrs. The handling deputy decided to arrest one of the drunk brothers. A fight ensued with 2 Deps trying to subdue the brother and I was restraining the other brother. We were face to face with the suspect when he was able to obtain my partners gun and placed the barrel against my forhead and fired. The bullet went thru the upper portion of my left eyebrow. He fired 3 more rounds before he was shot and killed in front of his wife, 2 small kids and his brother. The entire incident only took a few seconds, but I still carry the incident with me as I only have 1/2 of my left eyebrow because the AH shot off the other half. I had just bought my first bullet proof vest that day.

[SHERIFF]

1973. An Albemarle County, Virginia deputy sheriff and myself had responded to a nut case who had left his mother's trailer with a rifle to go into the adjoining woods and commit suicide. After speaking with the mother we stepped outside to decide what to do next. Go into the woods and look for a mentally deranged person with a high power rifle? Wait a few minutes and see if we hear a bang?

All of a sudden we hear the sound of a limb beginning to bend under weight. Looking up above us the guy was sitting in a tree with the rifle pointed down directly at us.

Your entire life does indeed flash before your eyes. How did I get here? How did I let this guy outsmart us and get the drop on us? I don't want to die. I'm only 20 years old and this can't possibly be happening to me. It must be a dream.

To this day I still believe the only thing that saved us was the fact we knew him on a first name basis and we were able to initiate a civilized conversation with him. He came out of the tree and let us take him into custody peacefully. Thank God.

[SektorV]

@Retired96: I was pretty much speechless after reading yours! I still don't know what to say, I'm just happy you survived!


There were only really 2 responses that have "occupied my mind" in my LEO/SWAT career up to know. The second one is a 14 year old that I saw dying infront of me and the first is:

Last year in Autumn I had day shift and there was really nothing on the radio, my partner and myself we're already complaining about the boring day. 5 Minutes later dispatched ordered us and 2 other SWAT cars to an appartment. Once there the colleagues that were there told us the following:
"A guy in the appartment is on cocaine and the paramedics were in there trying to administer some medicine to get him down. Suddenly he went crazy and the paramedics made a tactical fallback (ran outside) and called the cops. We heard from the guys girlfriend that he's got a samurai sword, throwing stars, knives and apparently a gun. He wants to commmit suicide and will try to provoke the LEOs that come inside to shoot and kill him - suicide by cop."
Well they said, it's nothing for them and decided to call us.

We took our positions outside of the flat and I was number 1. I went inside and heard this guy shout: "you don't have to look for me, I'm here at the back". My partner and I went left to him and the other 2 SWAT-LEO went right to secure our back. I went into his living room and he had a huge bookcase you couldn't see through. There was only enough space on the right side for one person and I went through.
Once through I saw this tall guy with a psychopath look in his face and a huge hunting knife in his hand. On his table were a samurai sword, throwing stars and other knives. I also saw another knife in his belt. I shouted: "WEAPON" and felt my partners hand on my shoulder. I couldn't go back anymore, because there was no space and the other LEO also ran to back us up.
I started shouting: "PUT IT DOWN, PUT IT DOWN". This whole thing only took about 5 or 6 seconds, but the things that went through my head were amazing! I thought about putting my gun down and taking my tonfa, pulling my pepper spray. Both weren't an option. I thought about shooting but knew that it was an old appartment and was worried that the bullet would go through the wall and maybe hit an innocent person(!).
He took a step towards me and I kicked him in the stomach. While my leg was going up, his left hand (no knife) went down and held my leg after the impact. He flew backwards and pulled me with him. He still hand this huge knife in his right hand. He landed on the couch and I saw that the tip was still pointed up and I was falling in the exact direction of the knife. I took my Glock/17 and striked him in the face with the butt as hard as I could, his head flew to the left and he dropped the knife. I was still on him and still holding my gun. I jumped away and secured him.
My partner jumped onto him. I put my gun away and also jumped onto him. We cuffed him and it was over.
When I got home I told my girlfriend about it (also a LEO) and she just went white in her face. It was only then that I realised how close to death I was that day and I thought about that for quite a while afterwards.
The next dayshift we spoke about that incident and trained the exact situation in our training rooms (we got movable walls, so we "built" his appartment). After that training I did feel better, because all LEO handled like I did.
I always thought that I would shoot straight away in such a situation.....

This was pretty long, but each time I talk about it, I do feel better afterwards.

Next please..... :-)

[RabbitMPD]

This incident took place on 11/9/74 and still. Went to a domestic dispute at 2300 hrs. The handling deputy decided to arrest one of the drunk brothers. A fight ensued with 2 Deps trying to subdue the brother and I was restraining the other brother. We were face to face with the suspect when he was able to obtain my partners gun and placed the barrel against my forhead and fired. The bullet went thru the upper portion of my left eyebrow. He fired 3 more rounds before he was shot and killed in front of his wife, 2 small kids and his brother. The entire incident only took a few seconds, but I still carry the incident with me as I only have 1/2 of my left eyebrow because the AH shot off the other half. I had just bought my first bullet proof vest that day.
Damn, you win. :mad: That could have been much worse, I'm glad (for the most part) your OK. Just damn.

[SOCALCOP]

Reading these reminded me of another incident.
I can't recall the incident but I remember I was in foot pursuit of a guy. He crossed a very busy street twice and I was on him pretty close. As he continued to run away I saw him, as he is running, reach into his rear pocket. I then focused completely on his hand. He began to pull out a small black handgun. I first saw the small handle. I thought to myself, "if he points the barrel at me even slightly I am going to shoot him." He struggled to get it out of his back pocket. I am still watching. When he gets it out of his pocket it drops straight to the ground. I caught him and took him in.

I think all these stories show how much restraint America's Police Officers have in shooting someone.

[madlyn]

Well first of all I would like to say thank god we are all here to tell these stories as some of these were extreamly frightening to read. My situation occured while I was still riding whith my FTO. We were dispatched to a call for people smoking dope on the front porch, when we arrived at the address there was nobody to be found.. So we back in service with a g.o.a.. As we turned the corner on to the next block there were about 30-40 teens in the middle of the street fighting/screaming and running around. We throw on our lights and hopped out, thats when we heard "they have a gun"! A girl pointed to two teens sitting in a parked car. We drew our weapons and started yelling let me see yor hands let me see your hands! the driver immediately threw his hands in the air, but the passenger only put up his left hand. As my FTO took position 15 feet away from driver side door i swung around front of car still yelling at the passenger to show his hands, he kept pulling his right hand up half way then putting it pack down, as i stood at the passengers front headlight/quarterpannel he then had this look/gaze of a crazy person and was starring right into my eyes. I thought this was it he is going to pull this gun out and start shooting. After about another 30 seconds of me yelling at him he finnaly raised his right hand . Turned out he had a chrome plated pellet gun and was pointing at the other teens in the street. He was booked on brandishing,and poss of a weapon. He wound up spending x-mass and new years in jail, sux for him as we went home safe..

[j706]

Damn, you win. :mad: That could have been much worse, I'm glad (for the most part) your OK. Just damn.
Yea-what you said!! :eek:

[Redders]

May of 2004 I was out of the academy for a little over a month. Working for a small S/O, of 1 sheriff and 4 sworn. It was a sunday and my day off I had cooked steaks for my mom and dad (still living in mom and dads basement.....Yeah Yeah......HA HA) Dispatch called me and asked me to roll on a domestic in the town where I was. Of course agree and roll on. When I go on scene, I turn on the in car and start recording. The other dep gets out of his car and says to me as I exit mine "you gotta see this" he opens the door of his patrol car and there is the most meth'd out 23 year old, used to be hot chick, who's boyfriend has DRAGGED her by the hair on the pavement in front of their house for 1/2 an hour. He has dragged her so much the skin is gone off of her elbows, tops of feet, knee's and palms of her hand, he stopped because the hair he had a hold of ripped out.

I look at the other dep and ask if he had medical in route "no I thought we would arrest him first". I just said he's going know matter what........What a prophetic statement that was. Here is the no matter what.........

We approached the guy who was crouching down beside a vehicle (me an the other dep had a discussion after this was all over) Other dep is contact, I am cover. Dep says turn around place hands behind back, guy says why and assumes aggressive stance. Dep says you assualted her, guy says **** you and takes off running. He was blocked to all four sides by the vehicle, bushes, other dep and me. He only had a little area to slip through because I kept a little more distance because of the circumstances. I played college football (MLB) and my instincts took over and the chase was on. It only lasted about 10 steps before I was on him and we engaged so to speak. It became an all out fight and the other dep didn't get there as quick as possible. Ended up taking a punch in the stomach, but when we went to the ground I seperated his shoulder, his nose got grazed on my open top cuffs and was bleeding/broken. Well he got his hands on my holster, mine is the safariland rotating hood type, I secured it and started shouting to stop resisting. He's shouting I'm going to kill you motherf*****

Girfriend see's us fighting and gets out of the passenger front seat, and comes shouting like mad ready to fight because he's going to jail. Other dep disengages to deal with her, not realizing what was happening with me. I start to radial strike the guy across the forearms with my left forearm and I can't get him to release. I was getting really tired and everything slowed down. I can distinctly remember telling myself one last strike and if I can't get him off I'm going to have to take the chance to kick free, draw and shoot the guy. it was like third person as I drew in a breath and delievered the last radial strike that broke his right forearm and get him to let go. I gave him a few more strikes in sensitive places for good measure. Finally get him cuffed and picked drag him over in front of the car and start the pat down. I never noticed it until we looked at the tape but when we went down the impact blew snot and mucus out of damn near every orffice on this guy and his face looked BADDDDDD.

I rode with him all the way to the hospital 10 miles away for security. When I got there the on call doctor took one look at me and sent me into a room. (My mom was her office manager and receptionist) I guess I was white as a sheet, and covered in blood and they weren't sure who's it was............


Long story made short......Still to the day I remember the smell of the fresh cut lawn next door and how close I came to killing someone........

Sigh...............

[sert115]

I'm on patrol one evening when I get dispatched to a fight between 2 brothers, while enroute, dispatch advises me that the mother has broken up the fight, but still wants to talk to an officer. Upon arrival I'm met by mom in the driveway and observe 2 B/M's, one on the porch of the house, and one in the yard seperated by about 75 feet. While talking to mama, trying to find out what was going on, I hear "you motherf*#@er" come from the B/M in the yard, and observe him start to run towards his brother with an approx. 10 inch bladed chef's knife raised above his head. I draw my weapon and yell "drop the knife before I drop you", he keeps running, I start to squeeze, I yell "son don't make me do it" I continue to squeeze, and it flashes through my mind "your career is over, he's black, your white, your done" Just as I'm about to shoot he stops and hits the ground. I took him into custody, turns out he was 15 yoa, and the starting runningback for the local high school. I spoke to some of my partners who all agreed that if I would have shot, my career would have indeed been through.

[e-man]

I think all these stories show how much restraint America's Police Officers have in shooting someone.
Here is my restaint story
2003 Me and partner get a domestic call around 1230-0100. Hubby drunk {gee are there NO OTHER Variables in this world} destroys all the Christmas presents in the basement. No crime yet. He in underware in kitchen squaring off at me and partner {partner 6'2" 240 solid, me 6' 220 kinda solid :D } NOt thjreatening us just drunk idle crap. HE says "you might as well arrest me now, no later" Hmmmm foreshadowing maybe??
We take her and daughter to get protection and eviction papers. She comes to station aroun 0400 to serve them. We ask another unit in the station to assist as we GOT THAT FEELING. One of the other units guy is 6'1" maybe oh 280} We get to house and its all dark, no lights. We go in and find hubby in underware on his bed eating. I walk around bed to give him papers as he says "I told you you should have arrested me earlier" AS HE PICKS UP A MEAT CLEAVER and raises it over his head. :eek: I draw down and retreat to other side of bed. NOW for about seems like hours, maybe 30 seconds SCREAMING DROP THE WEAPON. All 4 of us. He lowers it, I yell at him to lay back on the bed but does he?? NO, he grabs a 13 inch STEAk KNIFE and Raises it over his head, still NOT turned around facing us but still within the 21 ft. rule. He finally drops it and falls back on bed. Partner secures { I like that word} his head in the bed and NOW he reaches under the pillow. FOr what? I thought gun. We turn him over :D and cuff him...He had 4 guns aimed at his center far ***** mass and would have died in his underware in his own bed if he even flinched around towards ME, I was first in his line of site.
Wife even told us later, thanks and when she heard us yelling DROP, she ran up the street cause she didnt want to catch a stray bullet.

Sorry if its long but it pales to RETIREDs story and G-d bless for him being here to tell us his...

[DawgAPD510]

Thanks for the stories guys and gals. They are really helpful for a young officer like my self. Stay Safe.

[badge4436]

Had many close calls working patrol in Southern California varrios and the ghetto, but this is the one:

I was working dayshift in a one man car. Gang investigators had asked me to find out what I could about a guy who had rented a house in my area. He was Mexican Mafia.

I noticed a car parked on the street out front of the house and ran the plate. There was an arrest warrant for a male mexican indexed to the plate. I drove around the block and when I returned a male was in the middle position on the front seat with a female to his right and a female hispanic standing just outside the open driver's door. I got out of my car and approached from the front. I figured I'd just I.D. everyone, the warrant was for a mickey mouse traffic violation, just probable cause stuff as far as I was concerned.

The female at the driver's door seemed nervous and started talking the harrasment crap right away. I glanced through the open door and noticed the male had a white towel on the drivers seat next to his left thigh. It took a few seconds but I noticed a strange bulge under the towel and then saw the bottom of a pistol grip peeking out from the bottom of the towel.

I yelled at the guy and his girl to put thier hands on the dash as I pointed my Beretta 92f at their heads and screamed at the guy I'd blow his brains out if his hand came off the dash (and meant it). I got the woman standing in front of me to prone out in the street, and radioed for help as I watched all of them. It seemed like the longest five minutes of my life before the first backup got there.

I pulled the weapon out from under the towel. It was a TEC-9 submachine pistol with a full 30 round mag of 9mm and one up the pipe. It later proved to be full auto.

I busted the guy and the woman who was at the driver's door because it was her car.

It turned out the guy had committed two homicides the prior evening with the Tec-9 in a nearby jurisdiction.

Why the guy did not take me out as I approached from his front I'll never know. He had me cold.

I had four similar instances in my career where the bad guy had me cold and for whatever reason didn't pull the trigger.

God definitely protected me. I can't figure it any other way.

[RabbitMPD]

I had four similar instances in my career where the bad guy had me cold and for whatever reason didn't pull the trigger.

God definitely protected me. I can't figure it any other way.
It makes you wonder about the thing you didn't know with other bad buys. Scary stuff. Glad you're here to tell the story.