Intense Police Stories: Jason Paletta on Things Police See

This is things police see first and accounts with your host Steve Gold.Welcome to the podcast that interviews active and retired police officer about the most intense bizarre and sometimeshumorous moments on the job. It is I old gingerface here with you. Thank you forThank you for being with us today. Thank you very much. Thank you for everybody listening to the show. Thank you for the comments. I truly truly appreciate it.What a week this past week was. This is going out right away this episode. So,it’s I can say something topical and um it won’t be dated, but um man, this maynever be dated. The I just want to comment on Charlie uh Kirk beingassassinated. I mean, unbelievable. And um I won’t get too into it, but kindof shocking to follow how how it’s unfolded on on social media. And uh Ididn’t watch a ton of his stuff, but I liked him from what I saw. I liked just Christian guys. He had pretty standardChristian views. Um I I just I would say that the some of the reactions thatpeople are having are really really disturbing. Like it was really shocking. And I guess people are losingtheir jobs and people are celebrating his death. And all I can say is, you know, if you’re if that if you’re if yousee something like that and your first um your your first instinct is tocelebrate that uh that’s there’s something there’s something dark in youthat there’s some evil in you that that uh that does not make sense to me at all. And I think you need to um use thismoment to take a look inside. Maybe uh maybe look into the prince of peace himself, Jesus Christ. Um and uh do somework on yourself, man. That is that is disgusting. I can’t believe I’m seeing this all over the place. Um man, reallyreally heartbreaking to see u people doing that and a lot of people and people in prominent positions. It’s it’sreally crazy. So, I’ll I’m going to pray for I’ll continue to pray for you and I’ll pray that um you can find the way,the truth, and the life, and the scales will fall off your eyes, and uh you can basically just become a different personbecause that uh that is grotesque. So, God bless Charlie Kirk and his family. Um Christ is king and hopefully as a ccountry we can hold it together and and move on from here. You’ll notice there’s there’s no riots in the streets, nothingburning. pretty peaceful reaction from the conservative side. So to beexpected. Um so anyways, just wanted to comment on that. Felt like it was too big not to at least say something about.It’s really really shocking and and and crazy. So anyways, back to the funstuff, guys. I’m really excited for the show. We got a guy coming up who is he’s a gun guy. He was a copper for manyyears in the great state of California. He did 25 years in law enforcement. Hedid Modoc County, Truckucky City, Yubis City. He was a gang detective, firearmsinstructor, 10 years on SWAT, and now the founder and owner of Pillar TrainingInstitute. Let me bring on the great Jason Petta. Jason,how’s it going? It’s good, man. It’s great to get you on. I appreciate it, man. I I appreciate it.Awesome. I’m sorry we’re late, guys. Just so you know, I was late. I I should know better. I don’t. Do you have kids,Jason? I’ve got three kids. I This is why I totally understand. So, you know, like you have these plansand you’re like, I’ll do this and I’ll be home in time for this. It never works and you’re never home in time. So, I was like 45 minutes late because I went to asoccer game for my for my two boys. But but Jason was very gracious and he said, “Family comes first. I’m ready when youare.” So, thank you for that. Yes, sir. Awesome. Um 25 years in California andhow how when did you retire? When was your last year in LA? Uh, last year. Um, last February waswhen I retired. Gotcha. How’s it feel? You know, I’m going to tell you, it’s,you know, being a training officer and talking to the young guys coming on, you know, I always tried to instill in themthat, hey, never let the job define who you are. You know, never let this job just control you. And then you retireand then I’m like, what the heck? And you don’t know what to do. It was it was bittersweet, you know. I felt like kindof Ricky Bobby. I’m like, I don’t know what to do, you know. So, um, but it wasone, I didn’t know what to do, you know, where does this, you know, where where does my path go from here? Um,but the other thing was it was a huge huge lift off my shoulders, you know,just from the everyday hustle of, you know, hitting the streets and, you know,it’s uh, it’s good. I was blessed. I was blessedwith a great career and you know a retirement is good and youknow I guess I say I got three kids and you know horses and you know training company and everything’s good.That’s awesome man. God bless you. That’s so cool. Yeah I did I took a little break in my law enforcementcareer a little four-year exit and then I came back in. But you’re absolutely right. When you I did like um some likeinvestigative stuff for insurance and I work for as a civilian background investigator and um there it is muchlighter. Everything is lighter and nothing is um there’s uh you know you see people getstressed out in the office that we’re in law enforcement and you’re like what are you so worried about? You know, you know what I mean? Like it does and youworking especially working a 9 to5 or making your own hours. It is no get no being held over no 70 hour work weeks.It’s It’s not bad. No, it it’s good. And especially like 19 years out of my 25 I work graveyard. Youknow, that was just my shift and I like the graveyard. Um it’s just it’s a different clientele and you don’t youknow you’re you don’t have the admin that you’re dealing with at the office. So it was the best of both worlds.Yeah. My father was the same way. He was a he did 32 years and he um did a lot of years on midnights and he just he alwayssaid you know what I don’t have to deal as with as many annoying people and I don’t know if he was talking aboutco-workers or the public and he also said the work that you do on overnightsis usually police work. It’s like real real calls you know.Yeah. take, you know, I’ve I’ve worked, you know, I had to work some rotations of day shifts or swings and you knowwhat the worst part about that was just taking the cold calls or the you know the burglaries or the you the frauds andstuff like that. It’s like n I think I like graveyard better. At least I’m you know going back to the term running andgunning. It’s just like call to call fights pursuits and you know it was somuch better than working days. Yeah, absolutely. The fraud the fraud stuff now is insane man. I mean the theamount of um older people and some of them are kind of lites being trickedbecause of AI and everything. It is it’s too much. It’s it’s too much to even investigate the amount of people thatare getting tricked. It’s crazy. No, it’s it’s disheartening. And one of the one of the things that you know I’venoticed is you know I’m always getting emails for people wanting information or anything like that. you know, the firstthing I go to do, I go to their email and check, you know, what it is because they’ll have a different name up there. I’m like, dude, that’s a spam, you know,Gmail account. No, delete. Get out of here. So, you have to you have to do your due diligence on that to kind ofprotect yourself. Absolutely. Now, now they’re doing a thing where they can actually use one of your loved ones voices to talk to you.And never mind being like not growing up with technology and being much older. like thatthat’s going to fool a lot more people. That opens up the uh their targets, you know? I mean, that’s it’s prettyconvincing. Yeah. I I remember this was a few months back, but I got a spam call and I lookat it and I’m like, that’s coming from my phone number. They they use my phone number to call me. I’m like, come on,you can do better than this. Yeah. Yeah. You know, somebody overseas was like, well, nobody’s nobody’s uh themost familiar number they have is their own. We’ll use that one on them. It’s like, “No, it’s not going to work.”Yeah. Brother, can you can you remember way back to when you were a a young patrolguy? The first call you went to that, you know, gave you a little adrenaline dump. The first call, hot call.Yeah, I still I still remember it playing his day because it was one of those times where you’re like, “Holycrap, this is really happening.” Um it was with Modoc County Sheriff’s Officeand yeah I think this is 1999. Um and I’m a resident deputy up in likenorth way up north right on the Oregon border of California. So we would end up back in other agencies across the Oregonborder up in Oregon. And I remember this call came out um itwas from Meyn, Oregon, and it was the chief Ron Bersardwho had gone to serve a warrant. I’m not going to get into his tactics or anything like that, but he went to goserve a warrant by himself and it was at a migrant camp.when he got there, he located the if it was a female wanted for murder um out ofStockton, California. So when he went to approach her, he grabs her. He’s in plain clothes with apolice jacket. She spins around, exposes his gun, and his gun comes out of the holster. Like she grabs his gun,and the fight was on. So, alls I get on the radio is, “Hey, 10:35, you know, uh,my dispatch gets a hold of me, like, you need to respond code three to, you know, Meena, Oregon.” They give me the addressand I’m probably four or five minutes away. I get there and as I pull in,there are I I would, no joke, probably hundreds of migrant workers just kind ofgathered around. Um, I mean, it’s like I couldn’t even drive through them. It was just so packed. So, I get out of my carand they’re pointing. I mean, they were all like, “Hey, it’s he’s over here.” So, by the time I reached him, he’s onthe ground on top of this lady. Her hands are between her legs. And thefirst thing I’m thinking, I’m like, “Oh, yeah, we got this.” He’s just he’s trying to hook her up and she’s not, you know, cooperating. So, I grab her armsand I pull her arms up and here comes a stainless steel Smith and Wesson umwhich was his. And I’m like, “Gun.” And he’s like, “I know it’s mine.” And I waslike, “You could have told me that before I started going hands on.” Yeah. Right. So,I shove her hands back between her legs and it was it was a brawl. I mean, it was she wasn’t letting go of that gunand, you know, we just, you know, I was punching her. I was, youknow, everything we could do. And then she comes up with the gun and he startspulling on the gun. And I’m like, “Dude, her finger’s on the trigger. Stop pulling on the gun.” Um, and at onepoint I I punched her in the face and she ends up dropping the gun. And thenit was just it was a brawl with that trying, you know, it was it was trying to hurt cats at that point, trying to get handcuffs on her. But we ended uparresting her um or getting her in custody. And I I will say during the wholesequence of that of the events that happened, it was, you know, I I wasn’t thinkingabout anything but other than getting her into custody. Um, and then after thefact, we have her in custody. We’re walking. I’m like, “Dude, what happened?” And he told me the story thatI mentioned, you know, prefacing this uh this call. And I was like, “Dude, whydidn’t you tell me that she had your gun?” and he goes, “Oh, I just wasn’t thinking about it.” He was an old retired Lo captain. Um, so he was up inhis age, but it was uh it wasn’t until I left that call, cleared it,and hit the road where I was just like I was kind of shaken. I was like, “Holy crap, that just happened.”Yeah. You know, it was it could have gone 10 different directions, you know? So, hindsight’shindsight, but you don’t know. until you get there. Yeah, that’s one of those one of the ones you think about before you go tobed that night. You know, that could have been bad. Well, I’m not lying. I was shaken. I mean, I was I was a rookie cop. I had noexperience. No, the FTO length of time was very minimal. You know, I was soinexperienced and, you know, I’m not going to lie, judging that with today’s officers, youknow, and and FTO’s, I shouldn’t have been on the streets by myself, you know, making those decisions. Um, so it waskind of it was the epitome of OJT. It was on the job training, you know, nogetting around it. Sink or swim? That’s crazy, man. And that’s kind of rare, too. Like a femalemurderer. And And also, was she a big lady or just wiry and and and just didn’t I mean, anybody anybody of anysize can if they have in their mind if they’re freaking out, it takes a bunch of people to take them down. Was she a abig bone lady or No, no, she was a little wiry. I mean, she had a lot of fight in her and thehomicide warrant was because she killed her boyfriend, her husband down in Stockton,you know, Stockton is I sat next to a lady once. Ibellyied up to the bar when I was on the road for insurance and um lady was from Stockton. She was in town for aconference also. And I did not hear good things about Stockton, California. It’s It’s not I mean they I will saythey’re doing a great job on cleaning it up and getting the police department back to where it should be. Um but it’sstill And there’s a lot of crime there. There’s a lot of crime there. Yeah, that it’s right. It’s not far fromSan Francisco, right? Actually, it’s not far from Sacramento. Oh, okay. All right.It’s just south of Sacramento on 99. Oh, gotcha. Yeah. They sent when I got the insurance job out there, they sentthey flew me up to to get my equipment and train for a couple days. It was right outside of San Francisco. It waslike due east and it was like San Ramon maybe orsuper nice. I mean I the the hotel I was in was like a Hilton and then in that plaza like across the street was a likea Whole Foods and there was like 35 charging stations. I mean, this is five, six years ago. Not like one person wascharging their car. I’m like, why do they have so many charging stations at this place?That’s the Bay Area, man. I don’t I don’t go there unless I absolutely have to. It is a different world. Like, I wouldwalk around at night. I mean, like get a cigar and walk around. And there was um just just crazy water features likeDisney. Like a shoot like a ball of water would shoot out and get caught like 30 feet on the other side of the walkway. And there’s just people walkingaround smoking weed. I’m like, “This place is like bizarre.” Like, it’s so crazy. Yeah. Welcome to California. It’sa lot of money. I wanted to make it into San Francisco, but I had a rental car and every time I looked at like theGoogle Maps traffic, I was like, I don’t want to go in there. I feel like I’ll never get out.It’s crazy. If if I had to go to San Francisco for any reason, it was goearly and then leave by 1:00. Because if you’re not out of there by 1:00, you are in grid traffic. You’re not getting outof there for at least 3 hours. Yeah. I And I wanted to go over the Golden Gate and go over to like Alcatrazand stuff or whatever you can see. Um and that route was it would have been like a 9-h hour round trip.Horrible. Horrible. Um Jason, can you tell us about this the strangest or most bizarre thing youdealt with on the job? man, like we were talking earlier,there’s there’s just so many and you try to, you know, compartmentalize, you know, all these these calls. Um,I I would have to say I I got in a pursuit. So, one night,this is working for Truckucky PD, and we got a call of a carjacking thathappened in a a city that was just uh west of us. And this guy had carjacked ataxi cab with a syringe, you know, gets the taxi cabs and he’s heading eastboundon 80 and that was the last known direction. So, I’m like, well, if he’s heading towards Nevada, he’s got to comeby us. So myself and other officers set on 80 and we’re waiting. We’re waitingand it was like, “Holy crap, did you just that?” There he is. Holy crap. It,you know, he actually showed up. It worked out. Yeah, it worked out. So we get behindhim. I light him up. Pursuits on. He takes off ramp into the trucky. You know, we had a coupleroundabouts at that time and actually one. And he didn’t go around. He wentright through the roundabout. hits the other way. Was just it was crazy. Getsback on 80 uh eastbound andas we’re going it’s just it was crazy cuz CHP ended up spike stripping him.I’m behind him and as he was slowing down he kind of tease into the retainingwall on the uh the right side. As he hits the retaining wall, I see hecomes to a stop. He pops his door and like all the dust settles, just the debris and stuff from, you know, beingon the road. And this this is probably around midnight, 1:00 in the morning.As he gets out, I totally I visualize it like he looks back at me, I see his face, I pop my door, and I’m going readyto go. I’m getting ready to go into flip pursuit. He jumps over the retaining wall. I hit the retaining wall and as Ireached the retaining wall, I don’t know, God was looking over me that day. Um, it was just one of those things thatit changed my perspective on foot pursuits after that forever is after Ionce I got through the retaining wall, I kind of started to jump up, but I looked over to see where I was going to land.Well, it was a 64t drop.Yeah. when he jumped, he landed um I want tosay head first on the rotor tracks down there. Um he he died. Um but it was just thewhole thing. Talk about shaking, you know, like holy crap, I almost went over this thing and I would been laying rightnext to him. Um, and that was, you know, one of the calls that you never forgetand how it kind of changes your perspective on how you handle the situations like jumping over fences or,you know, I’ve known officers I’ve worked with officers that have jumped fences and ended up getting shot by thesuspect what, you know, on the other side because they didn’t take the time to look over. Um, so it’s uh that wasprobably the craziest one of the craziest times that that’s crazy. That’s sketchy, man.It it was I don’t know how to explain it, man. I was like, “Holy, you know, you start shaking. You’re like, I almostdied. I almost died because I didn’t take the time to look over where I was going to be landing.” Uhyeah. I It’s funny that not funny, but that story is similar to Mark Tappen came on. He’s got K9 Mattis. I don’tknow if you’ve seen him. He’s got like three or 400,000 followers. But that’s what happened to Mattis. They werechasing a suspect and he started to put the brakes on and the dogjust jumped off like a 60 foot ledge and you know was horribly injured but okayin the end but um yeah man that is you know I take it for granted how well Iknow where I work I work in western Mass for you know a little regional twolittle towns combined to have a police department and um I know the nooks and crannies of this place you know what Imean I know the fences and the it’s it’s you know rural policing but it’s not a huge area I’m not like you know I’m notgoing on chase pieces miles away. So, I I kind of know it. So, when I hear you guys say that, I’m like, damn, that’strue. Like, if you’re you’re in cities or out on highways, you really don’t know what’s on the other side of stuff,where there’s a drop, whatever. You know, and and one thing, you know, that I’ll add is like at night time, yousee the retaining wall, you don’t see anything. You don’t know it’s just pitch black out there. So, you don’t know ifit’s, you know, a 4ft drop. you don’t know if it’s a 60port drop. Um, sothat’s that’s just one thing to keep in mind when you’re getting into these split foot pursuits. You got to be cognizant of what’s on the other side ofthat that wall or that fence. Yeah, absolutely. That just for some reason brought to mind um did you everhear about the the I think it was a it was down around LA during that big umearthquake they had that like did all the damage um maybe 20 30 years ago. I Iforget the name of It was like a seven on the Richter scale, but there was a motor cop that was driving andhe didn’t feel it cuz he was on his motorcycle, you know. He didn’t or he didn’t he must not have. But he went togo over a little bridge overpass and it wasn’t there. But he never even slowed down. He just cuz, you know, it’s it’sdark out. You expect the road to be there like it’s a, you know, and he just I mean, how horrible, you know, crazy.Um, tragic. Yeah. Let me ask you a side question because you’re a gun guy and I know youknow about this controversy because there’s no way you don’t. Um Oh, come let’s not talk about Sigs.Yes. True or not true? What is your opinion?Uh my opinion on that is I really don’t have one. Um I I kind of stay out of itthat you have everything that has come out on social media. Um, you have peopleshowing videos of guns go, you know, of the gun going off by themselves. Um, I’m not a Sig guy. I think my first dutyweapon was a Sig 229, which was way before the 320s. And they’re great guns, by the way. I mean, they’re like they’re like theyshoot really well. Yeah. And I think I shot a a student’s gun, a 320 in a class, and it is shotnice. Um, but withall of the controversy that’s come out, you know, regarding the 320 and those variants, um, I think there’s too muchout there to not believe what’s going on. That’s how I came. So, there must besomething. There’s got to be something. Um, and just so the audience knows that they’re not gun people, the Sig P320 forthe last few years has been there’s been situations reported where it’s like going off in people’s holsters, which isshocking cuz SIG is like a high-end like they’re right up there with Glock. Like they were like military, police,everybody uses them. So, it was a very it was it was a big controversy. Yeah. And then you have to bring inconsideration, you know, is were any of these guns um modified? You know, didthey modify the trigger? Did they, you know, the trigger bar? Whatever. Um so,I mean, like I said, I really don’t have an opinion on it. Um, I know,you know, teaching for a lot of, uh, law enforcement conferences is they’re onboard and nobody allows those guns in the classes right now just because it’s a, you know, it’s it’s a liability.So, I get where they’re coming from. Um but yeah, and bring in consideration,you know, the backlash that SIG’s gotten for, you know, this problem and howthey’ve handled it. You know, whether it be how they’ve come out uh publicly andaddressed the situation or, you know, saying that it’s fixed and it’s not fixed. I don’t know. It’s there’s a lotof controversy out on it and there there’s really really no opinionon my part of it. Okay. Yeah, I remember that they they like they denied it first, then they said there’s not a problem, but we willreplace your trigger mechanisms for free. And it was kind of like, well, there isn’t a problem. You’re going to do it for Yeah. So, but any I’m notdishing on them because my dad carried at work a P2 uh P2269 and I love thatgun. I still shoot it when I can. you know, it it’s a great gun and I and I hope they’re a great a great company.They’re not far from me up in New Hampshire. Um they have a really cool um facility. They have like amazingtrainers that were all special forces and and high-end police officers. Um I hope they recover from it. I hope they Ihope it I hope it goes away. But it is something that’s like you just you just hear about a lot in the in the gun nerdworld is that whole controversy. And like you said, like I don’t really it’s really hard to to parse something outlike that to really find out like to to have a hard stance on it, but like kind of like the classroom thing. I’m notgoing to appendix carry one. Like I I’m not going to do that. You know what I mean? Cuz I appendix carry a Glock 43Xand it’s pretty much pointed right at my artery when I’m sitting down. And I’mthe the safety the the I’ve been through the armor’s course. The safeties on the Glock are solid. that thing ain’t goingoff. I’m pretty comfortable with that, you know, so I’m gonna stick with that for now. Right. And then you got to look at thefact that, you know, just the times that we’re in is social media has not helped them one bit, you know, and and how muchcan you how much can you actually believe that you’re seeing? Yeah. That Yeah, that’s the other thing. You see all these videos, people hittingthe back with a hammer or throwing it, and it’s like I you don’t know these people. They’re not professionals orjust, you know, and they want clicks. That’s the ultimate that’s the end. Yeah, that’s the means to the end. Um, Jason, can you tell usabout your most intense or terrifying call?So, back in 2014, um,we had, this is with the Huba City PD, um, we had a domestic violence call thatcame out, um, and several and the suspect had possiblyleft the apartment. We got up there, we we set up a perimeter um well, we had acontact team um to try to go locate him, you know, in or about the apartment. Umand after a while, they’re like, “Hey, he’s gone. He probably broke the perimeter. You know, let’s just, youknow, search the area for him.” So, this is again, like I tell my kids, man,nothing happens out good after midnight. Um this is about 1:00 in the morning. And so we break down the perimeter andI’m driving around. I’m blacked out, lights off, everything. And I’m I’m cruising maybe three or four miles anhour just kind of looking around, looking down side streets. And as I pass this one side street, Ilook down and I see two silhouettes walking. And I was like, “All right.” So I turndown that side street. I’m still blocked out. They they had no idea I was even there. I was just kind of creeping. Um,I put it out over the radio uh that I had two subjects walking. Um, gave outmy location and I waited till because it was a really dark street and I waited till they got to the next intersectionwith had a the street light and everything. As I reached that um intersection,I pull up and I get out and I start talking to him. It was a male and female.As I’m talking to him, you know, first word, you know, hey, anybody on par, probation or parole? You know, let’s Andthe guy’s like, “Hey, I’m on probation.” I’m like, “Okay, why don’t you come towards me?” I’m in front of my car. Hecomes over to my car in front of me. I turn around and I’m starting the the the search. I tell her, I’m like, “Hey, havea seat on the on the sidewalk.” And she doesn’t she’s non-compliant.She doesn’t want to sit down. I’m like, “Hey, have a seat.” and she just kind ofsquats down with her hands kind of in her, I guess, belly area around her beltline. So, I have him in front of me. I’m searching him. I have two more unitsshow up. I give them the low down. I’m like, “Hey, I’m searching this guy. He’s on probation.She is not complying. I told her to sit down.” So they go over there and it’s kind of like,you know, you have this front row seat to what’s what’s about to go down. Andso you have an officer on her left, an officer on her right. Obviously, she’s in the middle, and they’re all facingme, and I’m probably 15t away in front of my patrol car searching this guy. Andso they go up to her, they’re like, “Hey, stand up.” And she’s like, “No, I’m not going to stand up.” No, you needto stand up. I’m not going to stand up. So, they both grab an arm and it once I saw that she was really likenon-compliant. I throw cuffs on my guy. I set him on the ground. This is after Isearched him. And they pull her up to her feet and as they pull her up, a guncomes out of her waistband in that area.As the gun comes out, it falls and it hits the back of the uh slide anddischarges. Talking about six. Wow, that’s crazy when it’s talking about that.It wasn’t a sick. Um, so as it discharged, the round goes throughthe front of her right leg and kind of ricochets off her front. like her shin.It goes and and just takes the path goes around her shin and it’s it’s in an upward direction and it it exits theback of her calf and the officer that was on her right, it strikes the officer right there rightnext to his formoral artery.It was it was so surreal and it was likeeverything just kind of slowed down. Um cuz at first we did I was like what happened? Cuz the officer just kind offalls back and he’s like dude I think I’ve been hit. Umso the other officer gets her in handcuffs. Um we secure the gun. Uh atthat time I was actually the SWAT medic on the team. So l I had all my medical gear with me. Um and I go over there andI start addressing you know what’s going on? Where are you hit? He’s like dude Ithink I’m hit here. you know, right right in my my left side by my uh umright by my crease, you know, between my leg and my upper torso. Yep. So,I’m looking and I see this little hole um in his pants. I’m like, “Oh crap.”I end up taking off his gun belt. Um cuz I was I started ripping his pants tolook at it and it was like a just too much stuff on it cuz it was so high up near the belt line. So I take out his pants and I startedjust moving everything out of the way. I pull his pants out of the way and yeah there’s a gunshot wound right by his femoral artery. Umand this goes back to the training portion. I was like he trains so much. Hey tourniquets, you know, high and tight on the tourniqu you couldn’t evenget a tourniquet on it because it was too high up. Um, and so obviously we put all this on theradio and I just start applying pressure, you know, right there on the on the gunshot wound. Um,once the medics, the fire department and the medics get there, you know, I kindof hand it over to them. They put in, you know, obviously they can’t use the trim or anything either, so they put himin, I think they’re called mass trousers, whatever the compression tr uh pants they put on them to apply pressure and everything, kept everything down.Um, and I ended up following them over to we set up an LZ for a lifelight.Wow. So we get there um they fly out and then wefind out that um he survived um but the bullet had lodged less than an eighth ofan inch from from his artery. And it wasit was crazy. It was scary for me because he was my beat partner, you know, we worked together all the time.Um so but anyway, he survived. He was out for, you know, a few week quite a few weeks and then making a fullrecovery. He came back to duty. Umthe two he ended up he was arrested forI think he was he was actually on parole. He wasn’t on probation by the time we found out. Um and then wearrested her um for the gun and everything. Andanyway, they ended up pleading out to to something, but it was that was probablythe one of the craziest moments um that I had on patrol. Man, that is insane. Is there anytrying to think is there, you know, you get her for the legal possession um of the gun. Is there anything you cantack on for it going off and shooting him for that like negligent discharge? You know what I mean?That’s it, man. I yeah, I don’t know what the DA ended up doing with it. Um, because they ended up playing out and that was 2014.Um, but it was, you know, you can only prove what youcan prove. Um, but obviously looking at the whole pictures, I think as soon asthey saw me pulling up, he hands her the gun. Yeah. You know, so that makes sense.I don’t think it was totally secured in her waistband. it was just kind of in her shirt that she had wrapped up andwhen she got up it just fell out. Um so but thankfully um again you know God waswatching over us that night and you know he uh made a full recovery and he hejust he retired last year as well I think. Damn. I get him on the pod to tell thestory. Yeah. I’ll I’ll give you his info. Could have I mean horrible situation but likeyou know could have could have hit the artery. Could have hit his wiener. That would have been terrible. That would have been Yeah. Well, andit’s funny because everybody reacts to the stuff different. It was kind of the joke, you know. It’suh as I pulled his pants and everything down, I’m like, “Holy crap, dude. It must be cold out here.You have to. You have to.” Yeah. He was like, “Shut up.” I like this kid.That’s funny. Damn, man. That is insane. I was not expecting that. That’s crazy. Um,yeah, it it was crazy. Do you have any heartwarming stories? Any stories that warm the cockals ofyour heart from your career? You know, I have I have one that um italways stuck with me because it it ended up being it was heartwarming because, you know,it was a kid in school. Um, but it was also, man, it just kind of pisses youoff and how these kids get treated by their parents. Um, because I’ll say one thing about this job is it’s it justpeople are mean. People are rude. They’re self-centered. And youknow what? It there’s just not very often does something happens that you go, “Okay, you know, I just restored myfaith in humanity.” It’s so Anyway, I get called to a school fora kid. um that never got picked up. Andso I go there because they were trying to get a hold of a parent, but they couldn’t get a hold of a parent or anything. Um so Iended up going and talking to this kid and it’s it it was kind ofhe wasn’t giving out information, you know, he didn’t really care for police. Um,but looking at him and I’m he’s just disheveled. His shoes look like he’dprobably put a 100,000 miles on them. They’re all tore up, you know, but they were his favorite shoes cuz I think theywere a pair of Air Jordans, you know. Um, and they were just a wreck. It’s like they you couldn’t even lace themup. That’s how bad they were. Um, and so I just felt that, you know, man,I feel bad for this kid. He’s got a you know, I’m sure, you know, kids probably make fun of him. He’s not very social.Um, so I ended up giving him a ride to his house where I was finally able toreach uh his mother. Um, turned him over to the mother. What’sup? You know, she’s like, “Oh, I was running late.” And, you know, there’s there was no crimes being broken. It wasjust one of those instances where, okay, well, here could make sure that you have, you know, stuff set up where youcan get your kid safely home from school. Um,so during that time, I forget when it was, I was like, “Oh, you know, I was makingI was like, “Oh, what size shoes do you wear?” You know, just kind of making conversation. And so he tells me, I drophim off and then I go to, I think, big five sporting goods or shoe store and Ibought him a brand new pair of Air Jordans. Umthe next day I go in to the school. I’m like, “Heydude, I got you something.” And he saw these shoes.You can’t put a price on that. Yeah. He was estatic, you know. His eyes litup. He was just so excited. He couldn’t get those shoes on fast enough. youknow, he got some new Jordans and the the part and I think I I ended upgiving him a ride home from school that day, too. And we get to his house and Iknock on his door. His mom answers and this is where I went south. You know, itnot really south, but it it kind of just like, you know what, screw you. You’re you’re a horrible personbecause you like, well, you don’t need to be buying my kids shoes. and this and I’m like the shoes he had on weren’teven I don’t think they qualified as shoes, you know. Yeah. Um,so I I think like I said it was heartwarming because just the look on his face. Um, but also the fact thatpeople are just mean and unappreciative and you know for her this isn’t abouther. This is about herself. And you know it it was heartwarming just to see thelook on his face. Absolutely. I mean that’s a that’s a serious gift. Jordans are kids. Lovethose sneakers. And they’re not cheap. No, they weren’t cheap. And I, like I said, it was just I was fortunate andblessed enough to be able to go out and use my money to buy him something thathe couldn’t afford or his mom wouldn’t buy him to make his life better. Right. And she took offense.Yeah. People are funny. You know, this is kind of along the same line. Years ago, I wentto a call. I think it was doing a canvas for like a breakin or something and just wrapping on doors and nice house, niceyard. Had like a gravel gravel dirt driveway. Lady comes out very nice. Shehas this dog looks like a year old. This is my first day in my tour for the week. Pressed uniform, you know. I’m likecarefully walking down the stones. I don’t want to get my boot screwed up, you know. And her dog is jumping allover me with money paws. And it happened twice. And I was kind of like like I Iput my knee up. I was like down down down. The whole time I was talking to her, she did nothing. She’s just apuppy. Oh, he likes he wants to play with you. I’m clearly I’m wearing like almost a black uniform covered in mudand to this lady totally fine. So eventually like he hit me from behind like right below my buttcheeks on my mid thigh two big pot. I’m like, “Listen, can you put your dog in the house? Like this is I’m covered inmud.” To her and when I when I asked that, she was kind of like, “You don’t like dogs?” I’m like, what are how arewe not how are we not seeing the same thing? I am covered. My pants are almost brown now. It was insane. And I left thefeeling the same way thinking, how were you raised? Like, I don’t understand how how you how your brainworks. Yeah. It’s not that I don’t like dogs, but right now I don’t like your dog.Right. I wash this uniform once a month, whether it needs it or not, and I can’t have mud all over it.Exactly. Yeah. People are just They’re oblivious, man. I don’t I don’t get it.I I have a very small circle said I I’m not a big fan of people. Um you know,unless they have something that, you know, we can associate together or something that we share. Um but mostpeople walking out and about. I don’t like going to big crowds. I don’t like, you know, I hate going to the mall, youknow. Yeah. Yeah. My wife and I were just talking about this, like going to concerts when we were younger and bumping all these strangers and blahblah. And I’m like, especially now, especially with what happened last week, it’s like I I would that would I wouldbe so uncomfortable at a big concert or any big event, you know, with a bunch of strangers. I don’t know. I’d be like,”H, get me out of here.” Yeah. I went to They dragged me to my niece’s, it waslike her 14th birthday or whatever, 13th. Um maybe younger, but it was aGwen Stefani concert. Oh boy. Yeah. I was like, “All right, I’ll go.”So, we go and it is just standing room only. I got people like spilling beer onmy leg and on my shoes and I’m just, you know, I’m going to go back over here and stand to the corner. I’ll keep an eyeout. Have fun. Yeah, you’re too old for that. But, but umgood for you for giving it a try. Trying to appease Denise. UmJason, popular question on the show. Advice to new police officers. people are thinking about doing it. They’re onthe fence. They’re in backgrounds. What would you tell somebody just getting to the job now in 2025?You know, like I talked about, you know, don’t let the job define who you are. Um, I think one of the biggest mistakesare when people are in law enforcement is they surround yourself with lawenforcement friends, you know, who they work with, do this. Um,and so that means that you’re basically 24 hours a day isall you’re doing is thinking about the job, you know, because you can’t tell me that you’re not going to sit there with your friends and talk about the, youknow, a call that you were on a week ago or, you know, whatever. Um,you know, you have to surround yourself with people outside that circle that aren’t in law enforcement. you knowthere there has to be that barrier and and that’s one thing that I thought I was doing right you know again you knowwhen you retire I think it is a whole different story because it’s the only thing you know you’ve been doing it for so long uh excuse mebut uh thefact that I had friends that weren’t in law enforcement um you know it was people I wrote horseswith or people that you know I you know build you know Mustangs or whatever carswith. So it was just it was totally outside the law enforcement thing. And I think that’s a that’s the best way todecompress from all the crap that you see when you’re working. Um so that’s goingto be that’s I’ve always said that don’t let the job define who you are. You have to have that barrier and that escape. Umotherwise, whether you know it or not, it will start wearing on you. Um youknow, there’s always those calls out there that you’ll never forget.You know, to this day, there’s always there I have one call. We didn’t even discuss it, but it’s it was likehorrible. Um and I’ll I’ll never forget it. But youknow as a your body you know you take that call and that experience and you kind of shuffle it away into a box andin the back of your head what’s going to stop that from comingout eventually you know and how you’re going to deal with it. Um and I’ll discuss the call if you want. If you gottime I’ll talk about it but Sure. Uh it was uh so we get a uh there’s a call ofa guy that was hit by a vehicle. Um on a main thoroughfare between twocities. We get out there. This guy is laying inthe middle of the road. He wasn’t hit by one car. He wasn’t hit by two cars. He was hit by three cars.Umthe sad part is is the first two did not stop, you know. Um so we get to him andhe is like his groin he was split like in half. Dang dang near. Um his shoeswere 100 yards down the road along with his testicles. I mean, he had his,you know, um, insides were kind of just hanging out. Um, and we were one of thefirst on scene. So, I get there and, sorry, I start holdingC-spine auto. As I’m holding C-spine, he’s just like,he’s still alive. He was scratching at me. He’s like, I can’t breathe. Um,oh my gosh, it was horrible.Ambulance gets there. We get him in the ambulance. I ended up riding in the ambulance with him because I had theC-spine. So, we get to the hospital. Um,and he ended up dying, but the hospital was like, “Holy crap, we’venever That is probably the the most blood that we’ve seen in 20 years at this emergency room.” You know, it wasthat’s saying a lot. It wasthe floor of the ambulance like we are standing in blood. It was just so much.Um, so anyway, that’s the kind of stuff that you see that youdon’t talk about a lot. Um, but it gets locked back here. Yeah.And, you know, sometimes it’ll come out, sometimes, you know, it will just kind of stay in that stay in that one spot.Um, but that’s the importance of, you know, having a good support foundation for you, your your home life, yourfriends, your family. Um because a lot of stuff goes on thatpeople don’t don’t understand. you know, the statistics of, you know, and I’m going to screw up the numberscuz I’ve seen so many of them, but how many, you know, people usually experience maybe what, a handful ofcritical incidents, you know, in their lifetime where law enforcement has a thousand,you know, so it’s you really have to have a good support foundation for that whether youthink think it or not. You know, you always got officers like, “Oh, no, I’m good.” said, you know, this is just thejob. I don’t care who you are. You know what?Every everyone puts on their pants, you know, one leg at a time, you know, just like, you know, me, yousomething’s bound to happen sometimes. So, absolutely. Yeah, it is. It is crazy howit works. Like, I’ve talked to guys on here before that same idea um kind ofstuff stuffing things away. Excuse me. And um some people go totheir grave with it and live till they’re 85 cop and you’re like wow. And then a lot big percentage of cops don’tlive that long. And some percentage of cops are standing in line at McDonald’s or wherever and all of a sudden have ahorrible panic attack and they’re like I’ve been retired for 15 years. What the hell’s going on? And eventually they getsome help and they tell them they well first of all when a cop starts talking to a therapist the therapist is like uhyeah that’s it’s totally okay to have some trauma because you’re you’re giving me PTSD hearing your stories you know Idon’t think that like you said it becomes we get so galvanized or callous to it that you think um you know it’sit’s just a job it’s no big deal but yeah it’s really it’s not we’re not I don’t think we’re really designed to see that stuff. I mean, you go to war, yougo to battle, and it’s over. You come home, recover, screws you up. But to do 25, 30 years and to be exposed to it onand off for all those years, it’s just it’s just not I don’t think we’re physiologically designed to processthat. Most people, you know, I think it it just it just does damage to you. And you got to, like you said, you can counter it by taking care of yourself,you know, whatever it is for you um that helps you. But yeah, and also I’ll comment on you with hanging out withother cops. You know, when you’re a young cop, you always are first few for years. It’s like all about the job. Cop cookouts, cop this, cop that. And when Ilook back, I I like I just feel bad for my wife cuz, you know, we don’t shut up about the stupid war stories, you know,at the cookout or whatever. The wives must have been like, “Guys, enough. It’senough with the cop stories, you know.” it. But it’s hard because like you knowI still obviously keep in touch with you know my old my gang partner you know when I was in the gang unit and you knowwe’ll go out to dinner with you know our wives or his girlfriend whatever and what do we end up doing? Dude, do youremember that call dude? That was so crazy. Um but a lot of it’s in humor anymore.Um or the ones that we talk about you know we don’t dig up the you know the bad ones. We just think of the goodtimes that we had, you know, on the road that might have been a bad time for somebody else that maybe wasn’t law enforcement that saw the same thing,right? Yeah. Absolutely. Jason, tell us about uh Pillar Training.So, I own Pillar Training Institute. Uh it’sa law enforcement training company. you know, I really focus on ummostly firearms. Uh but really lately, I’ve really got into umnot just the firearm portion of it, but you know, close interaction. Um I’ve been I’ve had a class for that I’vecreated years ago and it has evolved into the point where okay now we need totalk about um you know how are we approaching these people you know suspects or people you know subjects onthe street because if you look at um FBI knivers all these statistics um you knowyou have over 60,000 officers a year that are assaulted during either arrests or you know searches or transportations.Um, but there’s really nothing. You know, they talk about how searching people is,but how do you react to it? Um, so a lot of my my classes, you know, I teach for,you know, the uh Ohio Tactical Off Association. Um, in fact, I’m doing a class next weekend for CaliforniaTactical Officers Association, uh, Texas, and then Indiana also. Uh,wow. Good. You get around. So yeah, you know, and this is something this class is like really near and dear to my heartbecause, you know, I created off of statistics. I created it off of, you know, experience. Um, what I’mexperienced on the on the streets. Um, so that’s what this is, you know, thiscompany’s mainly about. And you know what, it’s if if an agency wants to host me, it doesn’t take much to get methere. Um, it’s it’s just one of it’s it’s a passion, you know. So that’sthat’s my that’s Pillar Training Institute. It’s pillarraining.net. Um and then my Instagram ispillar_training_institute and you can people can reach out to meon there or follow me on there. Awesome. I will put that in the show notes so people don’t have to go searching. They can just follow you orcheck out the website, hire you on for some training. Um Jason, it is an honor to have you on, man. Great stories. Ireally appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. My pleasure. Can you hold on just liketwo minutes while I do the outro? Yep. Awesome. Ladies and gentlemen, the great JasonPleta. Um, crazy stories. Um, one of these guys, too, where he was uh he saidwhen I sent him the question, he’s like, I don’t know if I have stories for this. And of course, he does. He’s got a ton of them. I’m I’m saying that becausethere’s guys out there that uh you don’t think you have the stories to come on, but I’m telling you, if you have five years or more on almost any agency,you’re going to have some stories. And I was telling Jason before we started like, “Yeah, I used to when I started the podcast, I was at LAPD backgroundsand as a background guy and um you know, 30-year veteran would be like, “Ah, let me think about I don’t know if I have the stories to come on.” I’d be like,”Dude, brother, you have the stories.” And uh yeah, Jason had some wild ones. Those are really fun. I appreciate himsharing those with us. Go check out his website and his training. And also follow him on uh Instagram. 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