Kieth M.
09-05-2007, 10:57 PM
I don't know why, but as I was putting the kids to bed tonight, I thought of an old incident that had liability written all over it, had we 'dropped the hammer' on the "suspect."
Gotta' be over 20 years ago, one night in the Hollywood Hills, there was an all units call of a possible shooting in progress. When the unit arrived, the woman and her pre-teen daughter were scared witless, about the gunfire they thought was coming from next-door. Sure enough, the first units on the scene were talking to them, when BAM! Everyone ducked for cover.:eek:
I was at the station and heard the request for additional units, supervisors, air units, the FD, you name it. I took it upon myself to grab this rather large and cumbersome ballistic vest, with ceramic tile(?) inserts, and the 37mm gas gun (like we'd ever get to use it). We responded and took up high ground positions. Every so often....BAM!....BAM!....BAM!
The decision was made to make entry to the house next-door to the woman and her daughter. As I had the vest (intentionally, on my part, I must add) I was the point, armed with the shotgun. We entered and set off the home's ringing alarm. The owner came running into the living room, wearing nothing but a drunken scowl, yelling, "Hey, what's going on, in here!" He was tackled and handcuffed. Thankfully, no one got freaked and shot at him. As he was being taken out the door, BAM! We cleared the rest of the house. There was absolutely nothing going on inside of it.
We went outside, BAM!...BAM!...BAM! Every few minutes. We returned to our high ground position to try and figure this thing out when I saw it. At the house next to the 'suspect' home, (Yeah, where the lady and her daughter lived) there was a gas heater unit on the rooftop. Every few minutes it would fill with gas, the gas level would reach the pilot light and BAM! it would go off.
I am so grateful, these many years later, that this was a bogus call, where all we had to do was explain our actions, leave a business card, and get on with all our lives.
But, I have to ask. Has anyone else ever been a party to a really big tactical incident which was turned out to be a big zero?
Gotta' be over 20 years ago, one night in the Hollywood Hills, there was an all units call of a possible shooting in progress. When the unit arrived, the woman and her pre-teen daughter were scared witless, about the gunfire they thought was coming from next-door. Sure enough, the first units on the scene were talking to them, when BAM! Everyone ducked for cover.:eek:
I was at the station and heard the request for additional units, supervisors, air units, the FD, you name it. I took it upon myself to grab this rather large and cumbersome ballistic vest, with ceramic tile(?) inserts, and the 37mm gas gun (like we'd ever get to use it). We responded and took up high ground positions. Every so often....BAM!....BAM!....BAM!
The decision was made to make entry to the house next-door to the woman and her daughter. As I had the vest (intentionally, on my part, I must add) I was the point, armed with the shotgun. We entered and set off the home's ringing alarm. The owner came running into the living room, wearing nothing but a drunken scowl, yelling, "Hey, what's going on, in here!" He was tackled and handcuffed. Thankfully, no one got freaked and shot at him. As he was being taken out the door, BAM! We cleared the rest of the house. There was absolutely nothing going on inside of it.
We went outside, BAM!...BAM!...BAM! Every few minutes. We returned to our high ground position to try and figure this thing out when I saw it. At the house next to the 'suspect' home, (Yeah, where the lady and her daughter lived) there was a gas heater unit on the rooftop. Every few minutes it would fill with gas, the gas level would reach the pilot light and BAM! it would go off.
I am so grateful, these many years later, that this was a bogus call, where all we had to do was explain our actions, leave a business card, and get on with all our lives.
But, I have to ask. Has anyone else ever been a party to a really big tactical incident which was turned out to be a big zero?