ON duty encounter with OFF DUTY officer brandishing weapon.

[boardwurx]

I had a sketchy scenario unfold this week.

My partner and I were dispatched to a "boy / girl trouble" call at about 4:00AM. We were very close to the call so we were on scene in less than a minute.

When we arrived we saw a man chasing a women around a car and yelling at her. I approached the female and my partner approached the male. GUESS WHAT.. he ran. (I can almost see the suprised looks on everyones face.) My partner gave chase, and I went around the building the other way to cut him off.

REMEMBER. We have been on scene for less than a minute at this point, and had no verbal contact with either subject so we have NO real idea what is happening yet.

As I round the corner of the building I see the man my partner was chasing, but NOT my partner. Just as he reaches the street a large man throws him to the concrete and screams something to the effect of "I am going to shoot you M*Fer' at the top of his lungs.... GUN IN HAND."

I immediately draw down on him and go through the standard "Drop the gun" speech.

His immediate response is "You stupid M*Fer' I am a cop." (this is the first I have heard about him being a cop. He said nothing that I heard to the person he dumped on the ground to ID himself as a Officer.)

I respond with something to the effect of "I don't care right now, we will figure that out in a minute." And again order him to drop the weapon and back up. He does so, but continues to critique my performance with a flurry of F-bombs.

He then proceeds to reach for something against my orders to not move so I repeat the order and get ready for the "fit to hit the shan".

JUST THEN, my partner comes through and hooks the guy up saying something about this guy (the OD) being "O.K." She recognizes him and that part of the drama is over. Her ID of him was good enough for me.

Ends up he was reaching for his badge, which he proceeds to throw at me... along with a few more F*er's.

I tried to explain, and ask him to see what I saw, as well as telling him that I understand he was upset. BUT, he should still know how dangerous a situation that is, and understand how I responded.

I don't fault the officer, I understand the fox/rabbit mentality. He saw a cop chasing someone and helped out. Probally didn't realize what he was even doing for the first few seconds. But I tried to explain to him that we work in a city of 2000+ cops and hearing/seeing what I saw, and not being able to recognize him immediately..

I HAD TO CONTROL THE SITUATION WITH WHAT I KNEW AT THE TIME.

I told him that my immediate thought was that he was somehow the reason why the couple was fighting. Maybe the "new guy" or something. Or maybe the protective "super drama" family member that seems to show up out of no where all the time.

He calmed down, and I think we are good. I didn't recognize him, and I don't think he went about identifying himself to me in a very good way. But it all ended OK.

We have been always told to ID ourselves with our employee ID numbers in a situation like this, and to FOLLOW THE ORDERS OF THE ON DUTY OFFICER -- PERFECTLY!

This is a horrible rant, because I myself can see both sides. I quess I am just looking for someone to agree with how I followed through.

Thanks for listening.

[Name Taken]

Blah...in this situation you have to do what the uniform says.

[JI603]

Seriously... and if he had thrown his badge at me, I would have thrown it on the roof.

[Stewie]

Seriously... and if he had thrown his badge at me, I would have thrown it on the roof.

Just because that guy is acting like a 5 year old does not give you the right to act like one too.

[1970k10]

funny things happen when the adrenaline starts pumping.

[krim0205]

Sounds fine, guy should of just told you "hey man I'm a cop, my badge is on me, can I get it to show you? " or something along that fact. Might of went a bit better.

[CO1259]

http://www.odmp.org/officer/19149-detective-christopher-a.-ridley

How bad things can turn for an OD officer who fails to comply with on duty officers.

RIP bro.

[rookie2006]

I know you did the right thing. He did not. He has probably been a cop for so long that he thinks you should just know it .Keep up the good work. It could have been a lot worse for him.

[IMachU]

You did good, man. Don't worry about it, and hope he doesn't work too close to you. I'd hate to get stuck on a containment with him. Who knows....he may have wised up by now and can see he acted wrongly.

[Narco]

you did the right thing. i had a similar encounter w/ an on duty UC officer from a neighboring county who I almost shot. in 8 years i've never come closer to killing someone as i did this guy. he had a bad attitude. my supervisors took care of that w/ his superiors in short order.

off duty/plain clothes ALWAYS yields to marked/uniform...no matter what the circumstances. there's too many things that can go wrong if you do it any other way.

[511R]

"During the struggle, Detective Ridley's handgun fell to the ground and discharged..."

Jeez, what was he carrying, a Peacemaker?

[Rescue492]

You did right...I'm prepared that if I need to get involved in something off duty, when the uniforms get there, my firearm will be dropped. Don't want anyone to be confused. In that situation, I would have understood being cuffed until it was sorted out.

[Seventy2002]

His immediate response is "You stupid M*Fer' I am a cop."
...he was reaching for his badge, which he proceeds to throw at me... along with a few more F*er's.

This guy needs to have his attitude adjusted, if not his medication.