To Die For

I was reading an article posted by Left Brain Female this morning, “Chris Penley, R.I.P”, ( linked via title bar ) She posted pictures of two pistols; both are lethal, which was the reason for the post. In the twinkling of an eye decisions are made, some are most terrible. It reminded me of an incident that I was involved in many years ago.

I was dispatched to work a traffic assignment out on the southwest side of town, taking the freeway from downtown to get there. While driving my patrol unit down the main lanes I happened to look over, something had caught my eye. I was looking down the barrel of a large revolver for a split second prior to leaning heavily on the brakes and getting in behind the vehicle with the pistol. My alert system had gone to Defcom 4 as I got on the radio and asked for a back up unit.

I observed two men in the front seat, one of them had aimed a pistol at me. I pulled the vehicle over on an elevated portion of the roadway and approached the driver side, my pistol aimed at the driver while keeping an eye on the passenger every other blink. I had him come out, his hands clearly visible, and got him to the back of the vehicle where I cuffed and patted him down before having him sit on the pavement next to the guard rail so I could concentrate on the other guy.

I heard a solo motorcycle officer pulling up from behind; back up had arrived. I then had the passenger open his door to exit. I saw a couple of things that were disturbing as he started to exit the car. He still had the pistol in his hand and he was holding a young boy, maybe 5-6 years old in the other arm. My mind was going through all the possible reasons; a hostage perhaps, suicide or worse. I knew that the motorcycle officer was off to my right because I could see his shadow, his pistol aimed at the passenger also. It was then that I noticed that it wasn’t the man holding the pistol, it was the boy. He actually pulled the trigger and I heard the hammer hit the PLASTIC.

The gun was a toy, not that anyone could tell unless you got up to within a couple of feet at which time it was obvious. It was a very nice replica of a Colt 357, complete with plastic wood look alike grips. This was before the advent of the "orange tip" placed on toy guns now. The thumping in my chest changed to anger as I took the toy pistol away from them. I had the driver open the trunk of his car whereupon I threw the toy pistol inside, hard enough to let it be known that I was in no mood to explain my thoughts. Neither the driver nor the passenger spoke English, a whole different issue; but I think they understood perfectly what had happened and what almost had happened.

No report was written and I cleared the incident as “information only”; giving a brief account over the radio so that the dispatcher could close the call. I went on my way and completed the original traffic assignment. Under today’s rules I would have had to take them all down for statements, write reports out the “wazzoo” and visit the shrink for counseling and then dig into my wallet to replace the broken toy pistol I’d tossed in the trunk.

Thanks to Left Brain Female for jogging my memory; I think.