My close friend’s father, whom I have known for 15 years now, is somewhat of an alcoholic and was on anti-depressants at the time, he had also been suicidal for quite a while at the time. Circumstances at home ended up with his father (whom I will call Tom just for the sake of keeping this as private as possible) enraged and drunk - the alcohol hadn’t mixed well with the medication. Tom fired off two or three rounds from one of his rifles into the front lawn and the police were called. At this point the situation quickly got out of control.
The neighbors were evacuated, as was Tom’s family. Tom’s oldest son stayed in the house with him to talk him down. By this time Tom had obtained a pistol. Tom and his son were out in the garage, he was becoming more calm - until he heard a noise outside the side-door of the garage, he opened it to find a police officer. Tom quickly pulled the gun to his own head and threatened to kill himself if the officer didn’t leave him alone. At this point the son, only a few feet away, noticed that the safety was still on so he dove at his father and was able to wrestle the gun away. The son ran out-front of the house and was forced to the ground by the swat team that had by now responded. Tom on the other hand had another gun near and quickly retrieved it, returning to the house.
At this point there wasn’t anyone around the house for a block and the gas had been shut off to the house. He was no longer a threat to anyone but himself. This was also about the time I arrived, being kept behind the police line at the end of the street.
Tom locked himself up in the house, talking with a negotiator, continually threatening suicide but never once threatening a single other person. At one point Tom hung up and went out to the garage - at some point the main garage door had been opened. A swat team was at the end of the driveway, upon seeing them Tom pulled the gun on himself again. The swat team moved up the driveway towards him, Tom threatened to kill himself if they kept coming. At some point one of the swat officers shot Tom with a taser. This is where things start to get hazy.
After being hit with the taser the police initially claimed that he started to point the gun at them. Tom was shot, twice. Once in the arm, once straight through the center of his chest. I want to return to this situation later, but for now I will continue telling Tom’s story.
Tom was life-flighted to a nearby hospital. During the transportation he died three times and had to be resuscitated, he received enough blood transfusions to fill his entire body seven times over. (the quickest detox in history, my friend later joked) It was reported to the medical staff by the police force that the officer had “shot to kill” and had nearly done so, missing Tom’s heart by only a fraction of an inch. I am happy to say that Tom recovered, losing half of his right lung and a significant portion of his rib-cage on that side. He hasn’t drank now for almost seven months.
Now to return to a previous point. As I said, initially the officers claimed to shoot only because Tom started to pull the gun on them. A later report would say that he never pulled the gun on them, but had instead been waving it wildly to the current running through his body after being tasered. And one officer was overheard saying in private that Tom had actually been on the ground at the time, the gun not even in is hand. Noone but the police that had shot him know the truth, all we heard was the police screaming at him and the shots. Tom doesn’t remember anything.
This isn’t my main problem with the situation. What I want to know was why the police were on the offensive? They knew he was drunk, they had been told that there was no more alcohol in the house. He hadn’t threatened anyone but himself, and even if he had he no longer had any way to harm them. All they needed to do was surround the house, stay back, and wait for him to calm down. Instead they had officers all around in inside the house. The situation could have ended much sooner had it not been for the cop near the garage, Tom’s son could have talked him out of the situation. But due to the police that was no longer an option. Later, they could have simply stayed back instead of charging up the driveway and into the garage. Instead they chose start down the path that nearly ended up causing Tom his life.
I realize that Tom was in the wrong with respect to many of his actions, but did he really deserve a bullet through the chest? The police clearly overreacted in my opinion. Some of the precise details may be incorrect, not all the information was disclosed and it’s not the type of thing I like to bring up with my friend to ask him more about the details.
Another, unrelated incident happened a few years back while I was in High School. A student (whom I didn’t know - he was in the year behind me) was skipping class, he had missed many classes and was in trouble due to his attendance record. The police officer posted at our school tracked him down and brought him back to his office. They talked for a minute, then the officer left for some reason that I am not clear on. The student waited for a bit then left, running across the officer near the library. The officer grabbed him by the arm to drag him back to the office, the student pulled his arm away and told the officer not to touch him. At this point the officer put him in a headlock and tackled him, the student’s head was knocked against the ground and he was put in a coma for a little over two weeks.
Although I haven’t dealt with anything of these types of magnitude personally, I have been threatened with arrest and a night in jail twice - once because I fit the description of a person throwing rocks at cars, and once because me and two friends were at a city park at 11 PM, after it was closed. I have had three officers pull their guns on me when I was sixteen due to a dmv mixup where my license plates didn’t make it into the system. I have been accused of either drug or alcohol possession or shoplifting, and forcefully searched almost every time, around seven times now. Been pulled over multiple times, once for speeding and the other times for no apparent reason.
You may think that all of these things happen in the City, but surely not where you live, right? Actually all of this happened in a small suburb in northern Utah.
Posted By: dman88
