In this episode I sit down with Inglewood Police Detective Dave Carrasquillo. As you might expect Dave had an intensive career working the mean streets of Inglewood, CA. Come walk with me in the boots of a ghetto cop.
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this is things police see first Annacomes with your host Steve goldguys welcome to the podcast the best wayto introduces is just to say the phraseInglewood up to no good this interviewis really intense it’s long but so worthit I interview Dave Karski Oh a friendof mine who was an Inglewood cop for 20years he his stories I didn’t even comeclose to encapsulating all the crazinessthat he’s seen he’s he has many morestories of equal intensity but I gotwhat I could in about an hour a littleover an hour to have something like thatit’s it’s just really intense and reallyI think really interesting I think youguys will really like it I mean wetalked about a Friday like characternamed drumstick he’s a Englewood bloodwe talk about charred bodies we talkabout Steve getting into a situationwhere he has to use his firearm on a guythat’s like a zombie the guy’s attemptedkidnapping he’s blasting the guy the guywon’t die it’s it’s insane and it’sreally really interesting at the end wetalk about some some stuff cops can doand how to help themselves with traumaand how the jobs affected him so I’mjust really excited to get it out to youguys Dave is our super super good dudesuper sweet guy and I’m really thankfulthat he came on so without further adomy interview with Dave Kerr scale Davethank you for come on the podcast man Iappreciate ithey thanks for having me I’m so lookingforward to this I met you about a yearago and you live in or you live you youpolice like one of the most famouscities to police I think in the countrybecause of hip-hop rap all that stuffInglewood California that’s it that’scorrectdude how long did you do that how manyyears did you were you a cop total I wasa cop for 20 years and then prior teenwho would I mean I was in England homefor almost 16 that was at the CaliforniaDepartment of Corrections as acorrectional officer correctional peaceofficer over four years there so workingthe jail’s probably prepared you for thethe mayhem that you’re gonna about toface in the streets of Inglewood youit definitely did it’s you know becauseit was a state prison you know thingswere Ranta friendly then you know likethe the county jail and these guysactually lived you know a population ofabout 5,000 inside you know these hugeconcrete walls and fences and you knowthey function as you know society doesyou know school work he’s like that’s itwas like policing a small city of about5,000 um there were all criminalsmurderers killers and you know what haveyou so yeah it was pretty pretty prettychaotic at times but quite a goodexperience how good did it feel tograduate as it were from being a prisonguard to like becoming a real cop wellyou know the funny thing was you knowgoing through an Academy for the statecorrections you know presented prettymuch the acceptance of you know dealingwith domestic violence issues and thenot having to do like the the cold threeruns and driving a vehicle you know withyour hair on fire what’s the code threea code three is you know high-prioritycall you know an emergency call willrequire lights and sirens and you knowspecial authorization by law that allowsyou to drive in such a manner but theprison was a prisoner you know he haddomestic violence issues you knowbelieve it or not male-on-male you knowyou know that’s his woman and somebodyelse was looking out on the wrong wayand then they go back to their dorm andthey hashed it out you know so he hadissues like that that were domesticatedand he had issues where you know dealingwith drug trafficking and attemptmurders stabbings you know obviously hedidn’t have any shootings for the mostpart but everything else pretty muchexisted as crime was concerned anddocumentation and writing in handlingwas done pretty much the same so it laida good good foundation for dealing witha very volatile very hostile environmentbut it was ait was a great sensation to be able tobe free sort of speak and to be outsideof the walls where I don’t have toconstantly look you know left or rightyou know over my shoulder yeah I mean ina lot of ways it’s like you’re in prisonand you go on your shift you’re you’rein there with them I mean I’m sure youcan’t walk around with your I don’t knowif they had they were doing cell phonesback and when you were a prison guardbut nowadays I know you can’t have yourphone on you can’t be looking at yourphone you can’t be making calls youcan’t really do anything yeah one wedidn’t have the access to having cellphones back then too you know they werelike these big old like little suitcasesright gonna make it really obvious rightbut um yeah I’m into now the standardsare you’re not supposed to be bringingin your own personal cell phones for forobvious reasons you know they canutilize them to you know make phonecalls and and can and conduct criminalactivity so Dave can you take us to youas a young young officer in inglewoodpolice department the first hot call youever responded to like the first call itever really got your adrenaline going Iguess first week first week on a job youknow it was like going throughorientation it was like about two weeksof use of force training and departmentpolicy and procedures as far as drivingand you know responding to calls andthings like that so that took about twoweeks you know in our orientation andthen the very first week on the job youknow it was expected because of the areathat you’re gonna get probably intosomething pretty deepyou know foot pursued if I handle ashooting the homicide or actuallygetting into a shooting yourself so thevery first week on my first shift withmy field training officer and you knowit was nighttime it had to be aroundeight nine o’clock at night it was inthe summertime and sure enough the thehelp call comes out and you hear theofficers on the radio saying that theywere gonna pursuit and they had you knowjust you know responded to 8th Ave andan 84th Street and they were involved inan officer-involved shootingso my field training officer he’sdriving you know like a bat out of hellweekget to the location and sure enough youknow we were just down the street andthere’s you know so you can you can youcan smell it and you can taste it theGunpowder yeah you know and he’s stillin the air whoa this is real and sureenough you know he had to the twoofficers that were involved in theshootingthey had one subject that was inside ofa parked vehicle inside the driveway ofa residence at gunpoint and giving themcommands so we start setting up aperimeter or we started setting up youknow closing off certain things and mypartner at the time which was my fieldtraining officer advised me okay youstay here with the you know at thiscorner right here and go ahead and don’tlet anybody come in so I’m sitting thereand it was a another another a youngofficer who I had been in the Academywith who I’m standing next to you at thetime because we’re both you know he’sgot one into the street I got the otherend of the street and we kind of youknow eyes were setting up the perimetertape say there go hey man this is crazythis kind of crap we signed up for rightbut sure enough you know you see uhexcuse me you see the you know theofficers starting to set up a tacticalplan and apparently what had happenedwas they were chasing two individuals ofthe gangster style life doing thetypical evading the police officers anddriving fast left and right and theyreally actually wind up going to the yothere were actual own residence so itcomes to be later on as I found thatthis was a very well known gang membergang house multiple radio calls multipleamounts of responses to location youknow for gang activity domestic violenceissues drug activity so what happened isone of the occupants inside of thevehicle which was the passenger exitedthe vehicle while he’s exiting the gunthat’s in his hand or in his lap fallsoff and it hits the ground in anyattempt to recover the gun he getsobviously shot at ducks hits over thefence and he’s gonewhoa is this his own house this is knowthat the person’s house was the actualdriver who was inside the vehicle okayso the officer is actually shot and youknow some of the rounds actually hit thecar andit was understood at the time that thedriver who was later identified as youknow one of the who lives at the actualresidence thought he had been shotso for officer safety instead ofpursuing you know the the other suspectwho had just hopped over the fence whichis only like about five feet away theyneeded to clear the vehicle first theystarted giving him verbal commands he’snot responding so they thought they hada should possible you know been shot andpossibly either dead or on its way tobeing becoming dead so that’s wheneverybody else responds we formulated ateam I’m sitting on the outsideperimeter if they go in they check himout sure enough the guy sitting therejust playing possum he’s not even hehasn’t been shot I mean he’s nothing’sbeen happening they’re hitting on youknow and trying to wake him up come tofind out he didn’t you know he hadn’tbeen shot he had him in grazed nothingand they took him into custody and youknow that was that was the first hotcall that I ever had you know as a copwas an officer-involved shooting andthen you know the first week I had youknow had a homicide and gang member hadbeen shot and so so much had happened Imean it was just non-stop right it’slike right away baptism by fire you’rejust in it yeah it was just it was atypical you know what used to be said isyou know you know welcome to Englewoodso was that guy was he just sitting inthe car just not responding lookingstraight ahead or you know actuallyBlaine down well it’s again understanddia the criminal activity or a criminalelement you know the typical gang memberas he’s driving through the neighborhoodhe’s got this hoop to you know hoop doyou think a little piece of shit carright and he’s laid back in the car youknow like the gangster lean they talkabout well yeah it’s a gangster leaninside of a vehicle but they do it for aparticular reason is because he used thekind of the the door jamb you know tofor protection for their head and theyleaned back so that they’re not as as aseasy of a target if they’re being shotat by a rival gang member well it’s likea tactical way to operate Serbia yeahyou guys have tactics they have toshe got even credit you know they’resitting there not trying to maintain youknow they try to stay alive so they’lluse the vehicle as you know as a barrierbetween them and rounds coming downrange that’s fascinatingWow all right we had some can you addsome levity here can you remember ahumorous call that you went to somethingthat was kind of funny or situation thatwas funny you know there was always youknow stuff that was happening from timeto time that was funny was it like themovie Friday like everyday except forthe murders and stuff you know yeah itwas I mean to not put you can understandequal it’s a very tiny it’s a verydynamic city and then it’s it’s and whatis comprised of its it’s not just youknow everyone thinks oh you know it’sit’s a bunch of you know plaques to livethere or Hispanics to live there there’severy single race that lives therethere’s white there’s Asian there’s likesome mannequin I met some white hipstersthat lived there I was like what look anangle what am I really okay yeah it’sit’s you know in in you know the thecity itself when you talk about beingviolent it’s violent because at the timewhen I used to work gangs the statisticswere this was in the early 2000s thatout of a hundred and twenty thousandcitizens in the city about twentythousand were registered gang members ohmy goshso you’re looking at I don’t know thatwould be the the percentage there islike about twelve percent of yourpopulation are known documented gangmembers and then it was another sayingthat it was all roads lead to Englewoodwhich is very true because at the end ofEnglewood it’s the mouth on centuryBoulevard it’s the entry to LAX one ofthe most busiest airports in the worldright and so it just it drew so manydifferent people only on any given daywe would have over a million people inthe city because of the airport Iremember when I were my family nevertaking a flight last fall and I calledyou and I was like hey can we hear youlike now can we go over here you’re likenowhy don’t you eat in the airport Stevebecause you know you’re on Google andeverything looks greatoh yeah you know you might even havesome like Yelp reviews that are likeyeah good place to eat just don’t eatthere you know pasty and the Sun settersdon’t like that right you know and thisfunny thing is that you know that thecommunity they grow accustomed to itthey’re used to as like bizarre you knowand I’m gonna go back to you know likeanswering your question but they’re soimmune to it they will walk over a deadbody like it’s nobody’s business or youknow somebody’s been shot and killeddown the street they don’t really carethey need to get from one point to theother because seeing somebody shot inthe street is like it’s not gonna slowthem down they get stuff to dowell no exactly but it’s like it’s it’sit’s typical its typical you knowobviously things have changed you knowlike in general in the Greater LosAngeles area where crime has decreasedtremendously in Los Angeles County overthe years but at the time statisticallyspeaking we had gone through a lot a lotof I mean it was an increase in violentcrimes not just homicides I had done astudy back in the in the early 2000s atthe time where the the peak of the ofthe homicides were had had occurred andit was we were looking at the city ofLos Angeles was having for every squaremile which is about 400 square milesthey were having about 0.6 homicides persquare mile the city of Inglewood beingjust over ten square miles was havingabout 3.5 homicides per square mile Wowso the the tendency and the violence wasa lot greater in the in a smaller Citythan it was in his you know this bigcity of Los Angeles sure so it was avery violent city to live inyou know robberies and shootings andeverything but anyways going back to youknow your question it’s not likeanything fun happened right somethingfunny you know sure it seems were justcomical how somebody got shot or sawsomebody got killed ornot to be mean or the you knowdehumanize a situation but you can youhad a laugh at things sometimes just tokeep me sane like you said it becomestypical it’s like you’re dealing with itday in and day out yeah it’s like yourregular yeah I mean I rememberresponding back to the the locker roomsometimes and I’m gonna have blood on myshoes or I have blood on my clothes andit ain’t my blood you know and it was itsplattered or you know he picked upsomething and there was blood and youhad to be really careful but it was justtypical yeah so something funny okay solet me see here had quite a few funnystuff happened but one that I rememberokay so my partner and I were prettyyoung young cop so you had like twoyears on on the job and we’re in theplace that’s called the bottoms there’sa street called Barton and 10th Ave it’sit’s an intersection and call it thebottoms because he came down the hill ontop of the Oh was at the top on thebottom of the hill was called the bottomright figure that one or it was simplifyit for you right I get it I think butthey were actually there were projectsin the bottom of the hill which was abodice close to about a square mile ofof these buildings you know and therewas you know government housing sectiona and it was just horribleand there’s the gangs that you know itwas a particular game that was downthere was a blood King they were knownfor being extremely violent to this daythey’re still considered to be very veryvery violent and my partner and I arewhat we called you know we’re sittingback in a black and white but we’reobscene drug trafficking you know soit’s hand hand deals you know you gottwo guys one guy is the contact guy hewalks up to the car who’s coming by tobuy drugs you know crack cocainewhatever they’re selling for the daymajority of the time was it was crackokay rock cocaine and you have the twoof the guys that are the lookouts so wesat there and we looked at I would sayokay that’s another sell that’s anotherso we went and we decided okay we’regonna put this out we’re gonna stopthese guys and we did so we had put itout on the air okay we’re you know we’remonitoring drug activity you know houseninis respond we’re gonna go ahead andtake him down so being young we’restupid right you know it’s not waitingfor backup or like now we’re gonna gotake these guys for pussies ya know sothey’re they’re sitting there now we’rewatching I’m sure enough we go take themdown you know put the takedown lights onthem and you know we hit them hardyou know we just bum-rush them with thecar like we’re gonna hit them with thecar but we don’t like right interventionright so they like Starling real quickthey don’t run come out you know we’reat gunpoint like you know rightand they actually follow our commands soas soon as they start you know they puttheir hands up instead of running whichwe really thought they were gonna runthey don’t I recognize quite a few ofthe guys that are there from previouscontacts like two guys were on paroleactive parole another guy was was onlike on probation so those wereviolations alone as where they shouldn’tbe hanging out with one another muchless selling drugs right sureso as we’re calling about the commandswe asked for what’s called a you know a1033 which is emergency traffic only wegot to it you know we got three atgunpointwe need additional units to respond sowe can take him into custodythe crime was obviously drug sales so asthis is going down maybe about thirtyseconds go by to my left-hand side I wasa driver to my left hand side in betweenthe projects and the buildings all of asudden you know shots are fired andshots are being fired right at us sowe’re actually being ambushed now roundsare coming down range you know you knowwhen they hear you know we say you canhear the rounds whizzing by you yeah andit’s exactly what I’m listening to itit’s you know and I take you know I comeback and I take cover get on the otherside of the vehicle and my partnerstarts putting out the information doesa great job of putting that out I I saidI got the shooters you go ahead andwatch the suspects in the front so eventhough there’s only two of us now we gotthree here and I could see the shooterswhich wind up being two and with twomailbox shooting ran at us and by thetime we come back and recoverto shoot back you see the suspects andthey’re running then they’re runningnorthbound up on Crenshaw Boulevardtoward century so we’re kind of betweena rock and a hard place here because nowwe got these guys that are shooting atus and then we got these three guysthey’re most likely will probably have agunwell in the midst of the hosts shootingapparently you know these guys takingopportunity instead of running they dumpso they get rid of their stuff whateverthey has if they did have a gun itwasn’t on them these guys were obviouslythere lay back those of the guys thatwere protecting them you know in casethere was needed to be a shooting theseguys were gonna go and take care ofbusiness for him well they did they didtheir job right so as that’s happeningyou know units start responding I putout locate you know description thesuspectlong story short unit starts startflooding the area and they they can’tfind the suspects you know did theyprobably just dipped into one of theother you know was a abandoned buildingor something they got away so I was likewhat Dave why don’t you shoot back wellyou got to understand it my backdrop wasCrenshaw Boulevard which is probably oneof the busiest streets in Los AngelesCounty so for me to shoot at them let’ssay if I miss in my backdrop is okayhere comes a nice family coming fromchurch Sunday night as they’re drivingme through one of stray bullets you knowhits the kid in the back of the headcome on the side ahead so not a goodthing is you know your backdrops not youknow it’s not safe so we wind up takingthese these guys into custody as we’retaking them into custody there’s alittle bit of resistance next you knowthey’re getting their asses beat yeahyou just don’t resist you know look justput the handcuffs on you’re gonna beokay we’re gonna take you to jail dowhat we got to do so now they startresisting so you know they get they gettuned up you know as he used to be saidlittle pain compliance pain complianceyou know a little pain compliance youknow some of the more senior guys whosenames I won’t mention you know respondedto the location and it’s just you knowstart going to town you know becausethese guys were known there were violentcriminals we knew who they were they hadbeen you know guys had been in in prisonfor a tempernot dealing with some nice guys hereright so they don’t put them intocustody and we didn’t have anything elsewe didn’t find the guns we didn’t findno drugs obviously they ditched themwhen they started shooting at us theyreally didn’t have anything other thanthe fact that these guys had you knowbeen smoking weed and their word hadbeen drinking alcohol so what do you gotdrunk in public right right so no harmno foulyou know the the casings were recoveredand you know we go back to the locationyou know and we’re a couple of the unitsrespond they take two of the guys and wewere left with one of the guys and hewas one of three brothers of of thisblood gang who and you know his hesitting in the back of the police car wegot him in custody so we’re doing youknow all the contact information we’redoing our field-interview cards and youknow yeah sure we just been ambushed butthat’s the way you did in Inglewoodwe’re fake you know we’re fine now we’resafe you know everybody’s clear and theother guys we’re gonna finish up ourpaperwork and we’re the only unit nowthat’s left so it seems weird but thisI’m telling you man this is ain’t noharm no foul everybody’s okay nobodyscratched you’re fine okay shake it offlet’s go Wowget back to work yeah and here comes nowone of the brothers is in he is he had amoniker the guy in the car his monikerwas elbow don’t ask me why dad was hismoniker okay but I can tell you themoniker the other brother that’s comingup his name is drumstick yes his name isdrumsticks Oh drumsticks walking up tome and I looked at him and I go hey manwhat’s up drumstick because I reallyknew this guy right he goes man what thefuck man what you doing my blood insidea car I look a drumstick man you got togo they saying about you all right yougot to go yeah but you got my bloodinside the car and it was literally hisblood right brotherand we knew this you know so I’m tryingto tell him I go look dude not a goodtime go righthe’s obviously faded meaning he’d beendrinking so he was drunk but funkyou know drunk you know able to walkpeople you know to to manage he wasstill in control of his faculties Iguess you can see so the funny thing ishe’s got this big bucket of chicken nowhe was known perhaps chicken and it’sfried chicken and guess what they’re allthey’re all drumsticks right they’rechicken legs yeshence the nickname the moniker drumstickbecause this guy was always eating itwas Louisiana fried chickenand it was on it was situated rightthere off a century Boulevard just westof Crenshaw so he sits there and youknow he said actually he’s standingthere and I’m at the you know at thetrunk of the car finishing up mypaperwork and he just won’t go awayhe’s just being a nuisance and he’strying to you know look inside the cartalk to his brother and I finally I goif you don’t walk away you know we’regonna have an issue so the last thing Iwanted to do is sit here and have morepaperwork to dotake another guy to jail because I haveto already go back to the station writeup a report about this whole you knowhow this whole thing went down the drugyou know sell the shooting and beingambushed and all this other crap I justdon’t want to deal with it anymoreso I tell him I go you need a man he’dkick rocks you need a bounce he justwon’t leave so I I just I literally gotupset like you know it’s like why won’tthis guy you know he’s just just leaveme alone just leave yeah because I youknow for the most part yeah what shouldI – he’s interfere with a you knowpolice investigation California via youknow California Penal Code 148inhibiting or stopping peace officerfrom doing his duties so he just won’twalk away and I walked up to him finallyand he’s holding this bucket of chickenright just at his chest right rightcycle what am I gonna do to piss thisguy off to get him to get the hell outof here so I go I go Trump’s de-what andas soon as he does that I come up withan open hand uppercut and I sweep up hitthe bottom of the bucket of the chickenout of his hands and all of a suddenchicken wingI’m drumsticks are flying everywhere Imean they’re just like all over theplace he goes man why’d you do thatI go get the fuck out of here man Ialready told you keep your shit and gohe goes man you fucked up so he goes andhe gets his empty bucket of chickenpicks it up and I’m like or at leasthe’s picking up the trash instead ofjust walking away he gets on this it islike his hands and knees and he startspicking up every single drumstick andputting it back in a bucket that goaldamn I didn’t expect them to pick up andclean up that good but what the hellhe’s doing it yeah so as soon as shegets the last drumstick in there helooks at me he goes man you fucked upand he starts walking away and I’mlooking at him puts his hand inside thepuck of the chicken pulls out a trumpstick and he starts going to town searchpaint this thing and I’m like holy infucking Inglewood manthat’s awesome Dave can you tell usabout the like a very strange or bizarrecall that you went to here’s onenonviolent and I’m like you knownon-criminal I guess you can say it isstrange weird yeah yeah okay so I gotthis one so work at night and I’mgetting a call of a house fire so wewind up responding to the location toassist the fire department and there isno way we are able to run because thisplace is like fully engulfed of withflames and flames are coming out windowsare popped and Fire Department had justgotten there and it’s like okay this iswhy I became a police officer is my eyesain’t running into this burning buildingyeah your turnyeah yeah tag you’re itso yeah sure enough I mean withinseconds the fire department you knowopened up you know water or they’redoing their thing so you know let theprofessionals do their job the fire getsextinguished and you know for safetyreasons we do a walk through with thefire department make sure everything isokay and as we walk through you know wecan see you know the source of the fireand the source of fire came fromactuallywhich was pretty bizarre which was fromit was a raised foundation and it camefrom the floor so as I’m walking throughthe living room as you walk in they hadone of these floor furnaces I’m not sureif you’re familiar but a lot of theraised foundation houses here inCalifornia the older houses I would saypredate it like 1940s like an old steamradiator or no it’s actually it’s kindof like an old steam radiator in a sensebut it’s not exposed is actuallyunderneath in the rouse the raisedfoundation okayso there’s like a vent sort of speak andit’s a duct and then you know the hotair comes through okay so the you knowthat this is usually it’s right next tothe wall and it comes out maybe abouttwo feet you know I like by two and ahalf kind of rectangular shape so wherethis is situated where it should be atis now this huge hole which is about Iwould say close to like about three anda half feet in circumference right andit’s as you walk up to it you can seethey go the hole goes all the waystraight down to the bottom of the flooryou know through the foundation all theway down the crawlspace or basement oryeah well raised foundation usually it’syou know it’s a crawlspace it’s usuallyabout like two feet up okay love youknow the ground so we’re looking downthere there you know smoke still comingout I got the flashlights and then yousee what appears to be a charred bodyand the charred body is on the on the onthe floor and you see this person whichyou couldn’t make out you know as youcan tell if it was a man or female oranything and why is it being later on wefind out that it was a female elderlyfemale it was like in the middle of theSIRT burnt circle inside of it that’sweird so from the wall it’s about threeand a half feet out you know I’m notgonna die in it in a diameter and yousee this person it looks like you knowthe leg was kinda like if your lays flatdown on your back and like you’re doingcrunches or you’re gonna do a sit-upyou’ll see your feet you know like thekneesyou know bent up yeah and I can see thatand then I can also see the flesh and Ican seem dieremember specifically seen the bonescompletely exposed on the lower leg likethe lower legs were completely nothingbut bones charred and then on the upperthigh and of the upper body you knowwhat’s the meat which you can say justsmelled horrible oh man just this nastysmell and you know of burnt wood and youknow whatever chemicals or whatevermaterials you know metal plasticwhatever it wasinsulation boiled human whoa yeah Lilycharred human it’s just like it’s justnasty but to look at it and to see howbizarre that was it was like wow so whathappened was this lady it was an elderlylady and what happened apparently one ofthe ducks underneath there was like aleak and the flame opened up becauseit’s a gas it’s it’s gas operated wellapparently it started to leak out andthat started to catch fire underneaththe wood and when the wood startcatching fire when she went to go overto investigate her body it had burnedthrough so much already but flamesweren’t coming out okay she stood overit and it collapsed it just completelycollapsed and it fell downwhoa that also opened up you know thegas flame and they just set the place onfire apparently when she went down shebroke her legs she couldn’t get up shewas trying to you to get out yeah therewas evidence of that and she just burnedto a complete crisp that you know I’dhave to say I saw quite I would sayprobably my career saw close to about 8to 10 bodies like that similar fashionof people burning in residential firesone of them was my last one which windedup being we were credited with savingsomething like about a hundred elderlypeople and a seven story building youknow the guy caught on fire he wastalking to dispatch and he was on awheelchair and he got you know fellasleep smoking in classic his clotheswas on fire he’s gone talking aboutdispatch and then the rock caught onfire and he was trying to say hey I’mstuckcan’t move because my shirt my jacketgot stuck on my wheelchair and I can’tget out of here Oh Laura’s on firenightmareyeah and he’s trying to get out welllong story short we wind up being a unitthe response we get there I was workingovertime we have just finished dealingwith a man and a woman in a domesticfight the females trying to cut him upwith a machete and we get up there andyou know we stop her like Dave alsothere’s elderly people on fire could yougo together oh I’m sorryso yeah so we took the lady on yeah wetook the lady into custody on macheteand then that’s when we responded overto the the building it was on the thirdfloor the place was on firesure enough couple of guys in front ofme they kick open door as soon as theykick open the door because we can hearthe man screaming oh yeah and as thecall was being dispatched we can hearthe man screaming it was just horribleso as soon as he kicked the door openit just engulfs the whole hallway withsmoke and the heat was so intense getdown on my knees and we and and elbowsand just crawl the hell out of theretill we got to a safe spot far enoughfrom the open flame and the smoke andthen we started evacuating people andwaiting to put valuating something likeabout a hundred they said they credit uswith saving about a hundred lives we’reliterally lifting up elderly peoplecarrying them out of the building to getthem out of harm’s way and it was abouttwelve of us on the team that wound uplaying around we wind up again awarded amedal of valor for our multiple attemptsof going back and forth of rescuingthese elderly people because they saidit engulfed the flames and the smokeengulfed so much that the people thatwere in the neighboring units were wouldhave been affected by the Wow that’sincredible oh my goodnessso yeah it was pretty interested in usto see the body afterwards come back hewas another guy they was here againbones exposed crispy critter fireinspector was there and he says my godyou were one of the guys who was in hereand I go yeah I was in here he goes letme show you something he comes up andyou you know is the you know the exitseyes that are like usually lit up ingreen yeahhe goes let me show you as he goes lookat this he goes this and I go what isthat and it looked like this melted boxof some form or another that was justplastic and metal that was just you knowburnt – you know – unrecognizable hegoes this is the exit sign that hangsover there oh yeah he goes in order forthat to happen it has to be 1,200degrees plus because you guys were in1200 degrees that’s crazy you knowsitting here like oh fuck that shit youknow but uh yeah I mean interestingstuff you know seen dead people you knowa lot of people think that cops for themost part you know they’re you knowarresting people fighting shootouts andstuff like that but there’s a lot ofstuff that cops do that just havenothing to do with police for some timeand sure you know definitely going intoa burning building you know rescuingpeople that’s not something usuallytypically that cops do firefighters doright but anyways so yeah weird stuffcan you tell us about your most intenseor terrifying call on the job I guess Icould say the you know the one thatstands out means more it’s it was anofficer-involved shooting that I was inand I again working overtime majority ofmy stuff happened when I was workingovertime especially as a detectivebecause you know it was usually in theoffice or we did search warrants andstuff like that but I was sitting with agroup of detectives it was about ten ofus we were all having breakfast on aMonday morning and we were at this placesitting down eating and we heard a radiocall come out we called a three-tone itgoes beep beep beep you know any unit toclear and handle you know possible 211shooting victim now at and they put outthe location which wind up being a oneof those Cemetery flower shops so likethey’re usually like just outside of thecemetery and obviously they sell flowersand gift cards and things of that thingsare those that nature and busy place inEnglewood yeah yeah of course this islike nine and you knowin the morning right right so you knowwe all looked at each other and okay wejust kept eating just another typicalthing that they got patrol officers thatare responding to the location we wereworking like a gang suppression unit onovertime so it was like okay well unlessthey mentioned the word gang right we’renot responding right so you know youjust start responding very quickly theygot on scene and somebody puts out youknow information regarding suspectinformation you know that there was ashooting victim and it was a robbery itwas basically a botched robbery suspecthead you know he’s a gunshot that theowner of the store manager and takingthe money and left a location in thedirection of travel Mel black you knowdriving a Saturn SUV rusted color goingdown Manchester Boulevard westbound sowe’re okay well somebody will catch himyou know it’s like hey or he’s in thewind as we continue to eat within threeminutes or so another call goes out ofanother robbery taking place at theRadio Shack matching the indenticalsuspect criteria he’s on a roll he’s ona roll at that time I looked at one ofthe guys who was working the robberytask and and I looked and I go a K byKing I think this is your guy thatyou’ve been looking for anything you hadbeen looking for a guy who was a serialrobber and he was looking at him forlike about 25 robberies that he had donelike in a week span exact samedescription of this guy dude that’s gotto be your guy so he just pretty muchhad finished our breakfast on let’s golet’s go let’s go let’s go catch thisguy so we all get into our cars and someof us are driving black-and-whitesomeone was wrong you know driving indetective cars you know a plain rap andwe start responding to the location andwe say hey you know we going to sub likea sub tactical channel go hey I’m gonnarespond here I’m gonna respond here I’mgonna respond here so these guys alreadysay hey they’re gonna go respond towhere the shooting took place andthey’re gonna go respond to the radioshacksubtype to coal channels it’s not themain police frequency you guys rightright so we can hear the main channelbut then we go off so it might be likeon your handheld and then the car radiostays on the main channel right so youcan hear what’s going on and so we westart responding I told my partner cuzhe’s driving I go hey man I go Louis whydon’t you try Manchester and InglewoodAvenue I guarantee you this guysomething telling me that this guy mighthave gone over to a 7-eleven becausehe’s headed down that direction rightand he’s heading in the directiontowards LAX Airport and there’s the 405freeway there which is one of the majorfreeways and you know if you’re gonnaget out of town and you want to do therobberies you jump on the freeway andget the hell out so we do and they wouldsoon as we get into that location and bythe way it’s pouring it’s an October andit’s just raining they say it doesn’train in California bullshitit was raining that day for damn sureand it was pouring so I start you knowwe start slowing down and I’m lookingover to the right which happens theprobably one of the busiest 7-elevensI’ve ever seen in my life is likecompletely empty and I don’t see anybodyin there I go this is nine o’clock inthe morning 7-eleven I know this fuckingsomething wrong yeah it’s not good rightin inside look it is I’m looking at lookto the left-hand side across the streetthere’s a small little parking lot wherethere’s an alley and sure enough thereit is it’s a backed up rusted color SUVSaturn vehicle with the male black we’rein black and you know black over blackhooded shirt or hoodie you know a hoodieon matching the identical descriptionthat was given out by the officer andthere he is I go you know whatever myunit callsign was at the time I put itout and I go hey be advised we got thesuspect in you know in sight well atthat time we had entered an intersectionwe had a in order for us to safely youknow be able to move over to the rightwe had to negotiate a u-turnby the time we negotiated the u-turn inheavy traffic vehicle traffic and inrain we got back to the where the personwas which was a bottom 200 feet away guywas gone nowhere to be seen or found wego up to the first and the third veryfirst next Street see him we looked atout I go I go probably cool hitManchester in century and I put out thetraffic you know units be advisedsuspect traveling possibly inManchester’s and unit to responsiblelocation you know cold one so we getback on Manchester we start headingtowards La Cienega sure enough we seethe suspect at the left turn pocketgetting ready to turn left as he’sdriving up to it and there’s an eagleunit be advisedfacing you know eastbound on Manchestersuspect is coming right towards youbecause he a black-and-white rightacross the street coming towards theintersection as soon as I say that thesuspect is on the run a fresh red lighthe you know he he he takes the light andthe fucking chase is on okay gets rightinto the entrance on the freeway and nowwe’re chasing this guy wind up chasingthis guy for about 33 miles from thecity of Inglewood high speeds of about120 miles per hour in the rain in nineo’clock traffic which was bizarrebecause normally there’d be a lot oftraffic in the South Bay Area that’scalled the South Bay pin on the 405 andwe intersected on to the 110th well whenwe got to that location we were what’scalled the secondary unit so thesecondary unit and a police chase willalways put off the radio traffic theprimary unit won’t you know focus onstrictly chasing the guy not being onthe radio focusing on the actions of thesuspect so we continue to do that butthis guy hit it I mean at one point hemust have be hitting about 140 plus wellbecause he pulled away from us and Ilooked at my partner he’s going about125 130 and we’re like having a hardtime keeping up with this guy so theprimary unit loses them within the rainand I told my printer to slow down toslow down and I on the sub channel Itold the other unit in front of us thecheating it you continue to go down the405 south we’ll take the 110 to see ifhe merges over to the 110 just thebeasts on a safe side we’re not gonnalose this guy now mind you this guy’sdriving around if he’s driving in therain high speeds with people on the roadfor the most part you know a watchcommander wouldHansol that patrol chase because he’sputting more people at risk right butwhy are we not stopping why are we notstopping to chase this guy well becauseof the violent crimes that he hadcommitted we still don’t know if thisguy’s gonna live or die who he’s shot sowe got a potential homicide suspect withmultiple robberies guns involved so yesyou want this guy yeah this guy’s goingto jail so you know we continue tofollow this guy and it sure enough weget to the to the 110 405 split we can’tsee him and all I see I remember on thecorner of my right eye I see uh like ablast of dirt spitting up on the arealike you know it’s gonna spray of dirtyou know the the yellow sand containersthat are on the intersection on the whenyou merge onto a freeway yeah they’refilled with water or sandy right yeahright and they’re used you know thosepeople you know they they miss andthey’ll wind up hitting that to thebarrier and you know to make sure theydon’t kill themselves right so it’s likea safety barrier well though he hits oneof those things in that the sand is goeseverywhere and I go there he is so theother unit stops brakes and it has toyou know back up and get through what wewe continue to chase right on so we’refollowing him on the 110 freeway towardsSan Pedro and as we continue to followhim now the weather’s starting to clearupas we get closer to the ocean the wateryou know the one the the raining youknow subsides and we’re continuing tofollow this guyso we’re alone for the longest time andwe get up on this guy and we can telland I’ve got a good description and I’mlooking at this guy and I’m seeing okayso it appears to be a male black insidematching the description of the you knowof the the previously mentioned you knowsuspects at the shooting and after theother robbery right the advice I alsobelieve that you know he had also robbedthe 7-eleven it sure enough came back beadvised yes he has he did rob the7-eleven right right so he now we got aguy who’s robbed three different placesall within five minutes or so oh I shota guy right and now he’s continued theircheesy you know we’re chasing them andhe’s running away from us but we’re notgonna let this guyaway so he gets off on surface streetsdown in Santa Pedro why is him goinginto a hospice called a little Companyof Mary he gets into the parking lotditches the car and now we’re on footpursuit so it’s me and another officerwe go on foot pursuit of this guy and hehops over fence and he’s a good good Iwant to say about uh you know thestraightaway on a football field youknow he hit the curves you slow down inthe straightaways you sprint him rightsees about us you know he’s astraightaway away from us okay I don’tknow maybe 200 to 300 feet or soso he’s hopping where the fence is andas I run up to the fence I look at I gohold there’s a door you know thesecurity of the big door you just kickit right so kick the door went over thatand we go over the fence makes knowingthis huge big parking lot in the back ofthe hospital and there’s people you knowin and out I mean it’s like 10 o’clockin the morning people are going to theirappointments and as we get towards thethe outside of the perimeter of theparking lot we see him come up to oneindividual it’s a female white lady whoalso you know you can see her she’s likefrantic she’s got her hands up and youknow he’s facing away from us so I can’tsee where his hands are at right yeahthe whole time I’m yelling now at thispoint I go please police you know getinside because I see a whole bunch ofpeople and I’m flanking them towards theleft hand side and the other officer islike directly behind him were yellingpolice well he looks back and sees usand again we’re about 200 feet away fromhim so he ditches her it sees anotherlady who’s trying to get into her carand she successfully does she has abassinet or not passing it by the thebaby basket well the first lady goingback to the first lady she was actuallylike eight months eight months pregnantthis is like near the reception area thehospital or no no this is and theparking lot of the of the hospital okayat the back end of it so the hospital isto the left and this parking lotsdirectly right in front so you can seeit’s just moult it’s like a sea of carslike if you go to the mall right okay soit’s not it’s not near the entrance okayexactly so the malls to the left andthen all of a sudden you know theparking lot staring these guys filteringthrough the parking lot just looking fora target looking for a target I need toget into a car I need to get out of hereso he tries to attempt carjacked two twoladies one pregnant woman with a childthe second lady is able to get into hercar and she locks herself in and thisguy is banging the you know to come tofind out later he’s banging the pistolon the wall on the wind on the windowtrying to get in and she just you knowcovers her head she gets you know ducksdown she’s like no you know don’t youknow don’t do nothing to me well at thattime a vehicle starts to back up andit’s occupied by an elderly female blackin her 70s and then you know a youngermale black who was in the you know mid40s winds up being her son this guy wasthere for hospital appointment in Kidaor the man suffer from cerebral palsyright so he couldn’t move and he wasstuck inside the car for the most partcan’t do anything the the suspect runsup to it as its skin ready to moveforward it opens the door he gets hegets an opportunity opens up the doorany lady stops frantically and you knowshe puts it in park and she was likewhat do you want the fuck out of yourcar you know get out of your car andshe’s like no I’m getting out of my carwithout my son I’m gonna stay in the carwith my son my son you know he can’twalk so at that point now I’ve comearound and I’ve caught up to the backside of the vehicle and I’ve taken youknow a tactical position you’ve been onfoot this whole time I’m running soyou’re leaving I’m sure that was I wouldsay I wasn’t really really really goodshit I would have been heaving so I meanthe running portion didn’t really aphase me that much but you know I at thetime I was in really good shape and so Iyou know start giving out the commandswe start giving out the commands I’vetaken cover the other officers come upand he’s in the wide open space directlyin the aisle over where this vehicle isthat and as soon as you see how pleaseput your hands up guy turns around andofficer-involved shooting ensue soexchanged gunfire between usspeaking deals officer I hit the suspecthow close is this guy to the potentialvictims that he’s trying to he’stouching him like he’s inside thevehicle like literally like got one handinside the car so these rounds areloosened are you being real careful veryvery very careful so I mean my backdropis somewhat his the other people butvery proficient with my shooting and mytactics I wound up hitting the suspectat that time I went up hitting themthree times in the chest and a ten ringWowhe turns around so he turned now he’sstill standing up right he’s stillstanding I’m still functional I’m likethinking what the hell I saw him get hitwhoa you know I like everything slowsdown at that more what caliber is thiscuriousI got a 45 okay it’s not a little aroundaround yeah I got a man stopper 230grand yeah 230 grains you know justunder a thousand foot per second youknow law enforcement plus P rounds hitsome three times right dead center thatjazz and I go what the fuck I just Ijust I I am yeah you know in this guy’sthrone I thought this motherfuckersgotta have a vest on or something sayshe’s just turning around and I see himgetting ready to motion to get into thevehicle I start running towards him andas I’m running I take another shot boomsmack in the back hit him it doesn’tfucking face this fucker one bit how ishe a huge dude he’s a big guy he’s abouta good 6 1 6 to about 240 250 ok yeahhe’s easy so he’s he is come to find outlater on this guy had just gotten out ofout of the pen he had been in prison wehad put him in a police car man I puthim in 14 years before that oh wow Iguess what the same fucking thing oh mygod a 10th murder and robbery so he gotout early early release on good behaviorso they’re excellent right the reasonwhy he was there at that hospital wasbecause his girlfriend was a nurse thatworked there and he had borrowed hervehicle and taken off and say hey babe Igot to go find some work get a nurseit’s a girlfriend the money they makeand you screw that up hey what is hedoing looking for work he said he wasbutnetwork he was putting quality work yeahso he winds up being inside this youknow this car you hit him in the backand he still gets in the car still getsin the back yeah I hit him in the backhe still gets in the front seat of thecar and he’s in the driver side and atthis point now he’s trying to manipulatethe vehicle to move but what I can seeis now the elderly lady has gone fromthe backseat back in towards the frontseat and she’s in the fight of her lifeto get him out of the caryou know because she’s not leavingwithout her son sure now when I come upI run up to in you know to were the doorjamb is that the other officer had takenbecause he had gotten fired at he windsup taking cover and I advanced forward Isee this guy trying to manipulate theshift in the vehicle which is you knowright close to his right knee he’s gotone lake on the outside of the car andhe’s got one lake on the inside of thecar and he’s got the right leg you knowwhere the gas pedal is at now as youknow with modern cars for the majorityof the cars I think since then you knowearly 2000s you’ve had a step on thebrake in order to engage the shifterright the gear shifter ain’t gonna moveunless you got that that brake depresswell he ain’t moving but he ain’t gothis foot on the brake either and I canhear the cunt the engine revving likehe’s trying to take off but nothing’shappening well I think the guy had beenin prison for so long that muscle memorykicked in yes before it’s like steppingout of a time machine what was thisthing right you know you would just youknow you can not have the foot on thebrake and you wouldn’t manipulate thegears right less safety features yeahand it would take off on you so you knowthat he’s trying to he’s trying tomanipulate me get it to go into gear buthe can’t do itso at that point now I’m seeing thislady she’s screaming she’s growing youknow again old elder lady and she’sscreaming and yelling at him andfighting with him and he’s pushing andtugging and I and I see this guy so Ireach in with my left hand with my righthand on my gun and I grabbed this guyfrom the front of the shirt of his chestand I yanked this guy out talk aboutadrenaline becauseas I’m a pretty strong guy you know meSteve um you know Dave I think Pinterestis four or five hundred pounds she’s nota small right man right so you know Imove way pretty good and especially backthen I was a lot stronger but I don’tcare how strong you are you can’t justreach into a car with one hand and yanka 250 pound man out of the car with onehand right pretty impossible unlessyou’re on some super like adrenalinerush or you know methamphetamine or PCPor some bullshit like that right so Iyanked this fucker out of the car hestill got one leg out of the car one legin the car and he’s standing up hunchedin with his head in and underneath youknow inside the vehicle and I can seehe’s kind of Smith and wasn’t 45 in hisright hand and I know it’s a Smith &Wesson 45 because I had a gun like itidentical to it and I go what the fuckthis guy still got the gun in his handand I might drop the gun motherfuckerdrop the gun all of a sudden he you knowyou said okay okay okay okaywhy is a plain possum on me by sayingthat gives himself enough time he useslag time against me to swing aroundthrough his left hand side from thebottom and he’s reaching like he’sfacing forward but his hand comes acrosshis face with the gun and shoots behindhim he winds up shooting behind I meanhe hits me the round that he should sayshe winds up shooting off two rounds thefirst round as I see a movie and I’mlike moving back imagine the the matrixremember the movie The Matrixoh yeah can you raise right I do likethe you know the matrix move in slowmotion and like a movie exactly exactlylike still everything is like superslow-motion it’s like so I lean back andI’m like fuck I’m gonna get fucked upman this motherfuckers gonna kill me andas I lean back I feel like somebody justhit me with a fucking sledgehammer in myface and the rounds go off and as he’sdoing that I still have him held I’mlike walk this and I had it you know thepistol is in a Kanak position in myright hand your elbows like in your sidetucked into ribs you know it’s atactical position that mostlaw-enforcement agencies do at closequarter combat right and I just startpumping off fuckin rounds right into itsfucking back rounds go into his fuckingback I popped the fourth round his bodygoes limp instead of turning left heturns righthe drops he looks at me his eyes rolledback and I go I’ve seen that shit beforeI know what the fuck that means thisfuckers conned right and he hits theground well he hits the ground andinstead of falling on his back he fallshe his body rotates back and he fuckingfalls face down with his handsunderneath his his waistband right I gowhat the fuck you know and I see his gunis on the right now on the floor thisguy won’t want to cooperate even indeath in dead motherfucker Joe has beenon your back so you know he’s on theground now he’s facing down so I got afucking I got a bead on thismotherfucker I still got my pistolpointed right in his fucking head atthis point I go i’ma give him thefucking coup de Gras this motherfuckercomes up I’ll fight in the fuckingzombie right hey I’m looking at ya I’vealready hit him three times in the chestone indirectly in the back and I justpumped another one the guy is he playingpossum with me again God so as I do thisI hear this very distinctive sound likeout of the side of my ears and it’s likewhat the fuck like it’s coming straightout of my ear and it’s like I don’t knowif you can hear that but it soundssomething like yeah like that what thefuck and I had heard that sound beforea lot many years before when I waschasing some a robbery suspects out of adrycleaner had just committed to dryclean I ops them see running out of thestore and I chased this guy long storyshort he goes into an alley he goesunderneath a car and he’s hiding from mebut I heard him stuffing money insidethe wheel well of this fucking car likehe’s gonna come back and get her so Iremember that sound exactly the same andit took me back to that moment for likea fraction of a second why and it takesme back and I can visualize everything Ijust told you I that went through myhead while I got this guy in gunpointright oh that’s fucking money and it wasmoney that had fallen off of hisperson onto the floor and the wind wasblowing it and it was wind blowing andlike stephen i’m not sure if you’ve beenin a shooting or not or in a tensesituation I’m not gonna shoot enough butor some type of intense situation whereyour your everything your hyper-vigilantvery much soit sounded like it was just like I wasin the act and this money was movingnext to me and I can just heareverything like what the fuck I can hearthe wind rustling you know the the moneyjust flying everywhere you can pick itup like it was right outside your earexactly you know and it’s like what thefuck in it so I looked down and I seethe 45 pistol that he had on the groundI seen the money flying and there’s likea bag full of money that had fallen theyjust gone everywhere 20s you know fivestens everywhere and I looked to the sideof my eye and I look and I see clumps ofblood that were on the door jamb where Ioriginally had shot this guy and they’rejust like it’s dripping blood likeeveryone what the fuck it’s a lot ofblood well going back to the suspectwhen I got him gunpoint two otherofficers came up I coul be careful Ithink this fuckers got a vest on becausethere’s no way I could shoot him thatmany times and him just fucking stilltrying to get into the car right driveaway have the presence of mind to sayokay okay okay don’t you know and havethe fucking presence of mind to be ableto turn around and shoot at me hit mewell which by the way the round thatfirst round that he shot off it grazedme and it fucking hit the tip of my nosethe concussion was so great from comingon the muzzle from coming out of themuzzle the muzzle blast I thought I hadgotten hit and I thought I was missingmy teeth I thought I wasn’t becauseeverything felt so fucking numb yeah soI tell my partner after he Hicks hooksum he handcuffs this guy and you knowtypical we don’t know fuck if he’s meanhe’s a fucking zombie as far as I’mconcerned he’s gonna have break throughsome some handcuffs we’re through somemorewe’ll get rockin now right excuse me sohe you know I told my partner Koki checkme outI think I’m fuckin shot bro he waswearing he was fucked he got a bunch ofblood all over her faceit’ll fuck you like won’t just check meout man I just make sure I’m alright sohe does he goes nah dude he goes you gotyou know a cut on your nose becauseother than that you don’t you seem okayand I’m like he you know he literallyhe’s like lift up my shirt put hisfingers through my vast underneathyou’re so hopped up you wouldn’t evenknow right he wants just make sure theylike I’m hidden okay so you know when Ilook back at the whole situation youknow I’m like fuck why would he have somuch blood on the doorjamb well whathappened was the first couple of roundsthat I told you I hit him with he wasclinically dead this that the fuckingrounds ruptured his heart so the bloodthat was on the door jamb was like thickfucking blood that was pumping out ofhis chest whoa and it hit through thelittle holes and threw his sweatshirtonto the door jamb that’s how much bloodhe was like losing right Wowso that was crazy cuz I never forgot thedripping and watching the dripping fromthe like its sliding down it’s justdripping on the bottom of the vehicleyou can just hear it dripping the gridpaint yeah and you know to come to findout this guy didn’t have a fucking veston and yet the toxicology report cameback then the only thing he had had inhis bloodstream was marijuana no cocainehe’ll PCP like I said the marijuanadidn’t chill him out at all huh I don’tknow you know but that was prettybizarre you know through the wholesituation and going through that and youknow I had been been involved in otherthings where you know you see certainthings and you know it’s always theperception of being involved in the in asituation like that and you know likethe majority of society things that whydo the police officer shoot him so manytimes or why did the police officersdidn’t shoot him in the armor in the legwith thathere’s case in point you know where youshoot somebody you know and I seeyou know guys get shot with one fuckinground and the fucking chest and they’redead right you know that’s why they sayit’s shoot to stop right shoot to stopthe threat not to kill but yeah I meanhe wasn’t stopping I mean wasn’tstopping to do I definitely let’s saylet’s look at it like this if I if I didyou know they’ve based on the shootingif you look at it I definitely shot tokill because we’re at you know man rightright we should always everybody shouldagree we should err on the side ofsafety for the good guy so you if thisguy has to die to make sure that you cango home right that’s what I guess whatI’m saying is so it doesn’t getmisinterpretedif you looked at it technically wherethe shots were placed and what damagethey did all intensive purposes theshots that remain in the the the impactthat had on his body with the bloodactually gushing out of his body youwould say those are kill shots welltechnically they were kill shots he justhad an extra thirty seconds or a minuteright left his adrenaline was so highthat he just kept going on so it isshoot to stop the threat not shoot tokill because if you can shoot if youshould to kill you might just be deadright heel server obviously he survivedthe initial volleys the four rounds thatwent into his body he was a dead man atthat was a bad man but he was still thathe was still funny and right wow that’slike a zombie you know really right damnso paramedics were summoned we were inLAPD and Sheriff’s borderline so LosAngeles Fire Department responded to thelocation and they start to him you knowthey administered first aid to this guywhich I get it you know they’re gonna dowhat they got to do they stuck out thethermometer and his liver and a fuckingthat still had well duh the guy was justfucking alive like a minute ago when hepicked his body temperature to be likeand then they started working on thisguy so they start ripping off their allhis clothes and everything and all of asudden you talk about a bizarre viewingof something as they’re doing the chestcompressions I’m looking I had to lookcloser Michael what the fuck theexpended rounds being pumped out of hischest and I literally saw them comingout through the exit woundmic and they were pumping out and I sawlike three rounds obviously there weremy rounds right that had gone throughand through these are the ones had itbeen the ones from close comp you knowclose quarter combat directly to itsback and I’m seeing him pump out Michaelthat’s fucking weird I’ve never heard ofthat yeah that is bizarre it was bizarreand you know everything was being heldas evidence in the funny thing was thisguy named an officer big fuckin guyalways you know a lot of guys didn’tlike him too much he was kind of likereally you know serious officer and thewhole bit yeah I never had a peep withhim I liked the guy a lot but he came upand he was one of these guys are likereally stickler for the rules type thingand kind of certain way about him thatkind of would annoy you very savvy verycocky tax Abby kind of guy electronicsall that that was his that was his forteso he winds up coming up to the sceneand he’s helping me preserve the sceneand one of the paramedics want the gunto be moved he goes i am i moving we’renot moving the gun man that’s evidencehe goes you’re fucking you need to movethat fucking good for our safety he goesthe fucking gun ain’t moving you move itI’m gonna fucking arrest your ass I waslike here we gogot you no cops and firefighters no he’sa pretty big guy and I was like thankgod this guy’s here because man fuck youwere probably yeah I’m dope but yeah atthat time I it’s like man I just it’sfunny thing is like I you know I don’tever wish bad upon anybody you know likeI wish this never would have happenedyou know how jeez man this happens to meand I and I kid you not from ever sincethe shooting you know where that theimpact of my I go I forget stuffsometimes really I get to not it happensto me like right now I’m trying to thinkof the word I can’tthat was me all the time too I have noexcuse it was very unfortunate that’sthe word I was looking for and it’s sadthat you know a life had been taken andthe experience that the victims were allplaced in you knowfrom the store owner the people thatwere in the storewhen the shooting took place the peopleat the Radio Shack what they had AGundergo the 7-eleven folks the firstlady who was pregnant who happened to bea wife of our Harcourt Disick attorneyOh end up being a tremendous witnessduring this ordeal and yeah we we workedwith her husband for years onhigh-profile Cain cases and then thelady who’s inside the vehicle with youknow who tucked in there right quickwith her baby in a car seat and then youknow the last two victims which were theelderly lady and the the the man whocomes out and I remember him coming outafter the whole shooting was done he hadthis one of these Walker’s you know itlooks like a young guy but he looks likehe’s all busted up he looks right at meand he says sir I am so sorry I havecerebral palsy I couldn’t get out of thecar and I remember when as he’s doingthat they’re working on this guy doingfucking chest compressions and I callplease bring that fucker back to life soI can beat the fuck out of him forvictimizing these poor fuckers andpeople you know tons of trauma from thatone guy right one of his legswhy couldn’t you a fucking bit how comeI could have been your first stop rightyou know victimized me Pam there it isbut then look what it took for me totake this guy and you know subdue hisbehavior to stop the threat you know itwas it was quite a significant effortthat was taken by all the officersinvolved in that situation that day andto mention you know the dealing officerthat was with me and myself and thesacrifice that I did in order to makesure that this guy wasn’t going to killthese people inside this car because hewas only gonna take so much of her batonhim upside the head while he’s drivingforestry without putting around it youknow in between her eyes right so youknow you know and risking you know menot seeing my family and shooting me solook at all these victims that tookplace all because of this negativeelement so yeah it’s a very unfortunatesituation but you know it happenedbizarre thing happened the lady that wasin the carthe elder lady when he was strugglingwith her he literally breaks her arm hedoes like a spiral break on her arms ohso because we’re in the hospital wementioned you know she was administeredinning and given immediate treatmenthospital staff was amazing you know itjust took her straight up and x-rayedher what he wanted a break in her armhere’s the bizarre thing about four orfive months later I’m sitting at homeand I walked out in front and I see thisfucking guy looking at I mean up broaddaylight he starts walking up towards mehe said oh you’re not gonna a heavy footyou know pace you know I’m you know I’mlike I don’t have my gun on me oranything like that rightand this guy’s call me down he goesDavid care skill I was like here we goyou know I’m looking this hands and I’mlike oh he’s got papers in his hand whatdo you want he was serving you subpoenato appear in court what the fuck for hewas well aren’t you an officer with ingua police department I go yeah what giveshe’s like oh this is about some ladythat’s saying that you shot her in yourwhat the fuck you talking about so Istart looking at it and I recognize thename I recognize the keys and Irecognize everything I could and youguys you know he wants it being prettypretty cool kit you know not good kid itwas a man and I started talking to himhe was like explained to me yeahapparently she said that you you knowwhat are your bullets you know straightand hit her in the arm ricocheted in thebroke her arm during the altercationreally yeah and I go what else you gottabe fucking kidding me I go this is and Istart laughing I go fucking typicalbecause I knew that we had like on theonset within minutes of the incident shehad an x-ray right what the fuck do youthink the x-rays gonna show in it suresure enough I did it was a spiral breakyou know from him torquing her armwell this fucking lady wants a gettingyou know advised by somebody to go andfucking file a suit against the city foryou know you know for damages you knowto her vehicle for you know the shootingbeing shot by a police officer andline of duty so was her arm hit or no noblows my mind but where she got caughtshe had put an insurance claim and gotpaid well she gotten paid by the cityfor the vehicle and a fix everything andshe went to go make a file with theinsurance claim long story short she wastrying to double-dip on this whole thingand then blame me for breaking her armyou know through you know with aroundit’s unbelievable that put yourself outthere like that absorb that much traumathat you carry with you to this day onyour day off some guys like hey by theway your your double right right forthis and I reached a never forget Ireached out to our City Attorney’sOffice and I go what the fuck is thisthere’s like oh my god David we’re sosorry they reach we just found outourselveswe didn’t anticipate that they weregonna reach out and try to subpoena youwell we’re gonna take care of thismatter and long story short what windsup happening is the city actually filedagainst they’re successfully prosecutedher for fine and a false police reportand the double-dipping shit Wow so youknow yeah they’re gonna go with yourinsurance company you’re gonna go withyou know with the city and the city hadalready taken care of the problem andnow she’s trying to make these falseclaims and you know and then it was allback to all my rounds were accounted forinside the suspect you know for theexception of the ones that leaked outafter the compressions again that wasbizarre but um yeah I mean it’s it’s thefunny thing is I you know we’re sittinghere talking about it and it’s not everyday that you hear an officer go throughsomething like this you know it’s notvery typical but the sad thing is a lotof officers have gone through stuff likethis or they’ve been in a position wherethey were almost in a situation I’m sureyour turn at your time as a policeofficer many of the situations that youwere involved in you stopped the actionsof the suspects because of your trainingyour ability to read situations and youknow your drive to continue you know youstood your ground and things worked outto the better right of everybody youknow for everybody somebody went to jailoh well it’s only went to prison oh wellbut nobody got killed that day or nobodygot hurt that day or nobody was scarredfor the rest of their life as a victimas this guy had donebut I guess it doesn’t stop the actionsof a lot of police officers you know andwhat they do in the trauma that theyendure I had a lot of suspects that Ihad arrested during the of course theyears were you know they were pistolpointed had a gun to the back of theirhead and I go I will fucking kill you ifyou fucking move no I will shoot you Iwill fucking kill youI will blow your fucking head off if youmove and why did you do that becausethey have a reason because it worksright well it went it worked and it wasthe only language they understood rightand to because I saw the butt of the gunas her hand was on it right a lot ofofficers would have just said just shoothim I’m like I can’t because you knowwhat they’ll you know when I talk to hima certain way they listen to me and theyput their hands up handcuff them got thegun yeah it was I taking a chance wellyou know what I think that’s why we allsigned up the only that we had to takechancesabsolutely you know but we always had todo the right thing you know integritywas big integrity was always been bigfor me and that I’m gonna be able tosleep at night exactly and that’sexactly was my thing at the end of theday do we still have nightmares as copsI think we all do some of us have somereal horrible dreams you know I stillhave dreams about you know the shootingyou know whether it’s like you knowpulling a gun I think every cops hassomething similar to this where you knowyou’re in a in a situation a sudden youpull out your gun also and you squeezethe trigger anyone the gun won’t fireright you know the bullet drops rightoutside of the muzzle and it’s like allsorts of weird shit or that the roundshit the suspect and the suspects likelaughing at you or some shit like cementfeet you can’t move yeah yeah so it’slike really bizarre so you know right myhands out to those that are you knowhave done who’ve been there and arestill doing this job and who are stillapplying to become police officerswhat’s your advice Dave for someone tohelp to help keep that trauma fromaffecting you too much you know any meanbecause it you don’t want to let itbuild up and then most guys I talked tolet it build up over a career orwhatever and then finally they talk tosomebody or they find an outlet oror something but I I believe stronglythat in all I answer your question but Ibelieve strongly that we are allproducts of our environment and whetheryou know it you had a long career whereyou didn’t do much or you didn’t have alot of major incidents there was alwaysthat one thing that was in the back ofyour mind is like this could be the lastthing I you know I I live right or youknow you were the cop that it happenedto on a regular like my career kind ofwas where is very active and thensometimes you don’t even think about itbecause you become immune to it so bothare very damaging to youyou know the anticipation thatsomething’s gonna happen the anxietyassociated to this could be the last dayor you know what this has happened somuch I don’t give a fuck anymore if ithappens it happensthey’re both detrimental to you yeah myadvice is no knowledge in one that youwant to work in an environment that thiscould happen to you too knowing yourlimits your strengths your weaknessesknowing that at any given time you havethe ability to just walk away it’s acareer you’re not being mandated to dosomething you’re not being you knowforced to do something not by anycontract or anything no one’s gonna sayyou have to go out and patrol the cityof Los Angeles or Inglewood or you knowCape Cod right nobody you don’t have toyou don’t have to it’s a choice inunderstanding that one it’s a choice andthat if it affects you to that much thatyou need to be able to speak to othersabout it talk to your wife’s about ittalk to your girlfriends talk to yourhusbands talk to your therapist therapyyes fuck yeah fuck yeah therapy I thinktherapy is fucking great I came from anenvironment where it was like you getinto a shooting you went to go talk tothe psychologist and you said the rightthing so you knew that you can go backand be fit for duty to go back to workright and you said what you needed tosay you know oh yeah I’ve been sleepinggood yeah I know hey listen I felt badfor the you know situation the kind as acop I had to do what I needed to dothat’s what I swore to uphold you knowthe peace and the safety of thecommunity he was a he was a big threatto the communityhad to take action I don’t feel you knowI did what I needed to do I know I don’tfeel happy about killing them but I hadto do it right or whatever thissituation is right right but insideyou’re keeping this or your or youryou’re surrounded by the hero systemwhere your colleagues are coming at mefucking good job and that’s how youfucking do it you know right good boygood job you know it’s like fuck you Ijust killed somebody doesn’t feelfucking right there isn’t no fuckinggood about that there’s no good boythere’s no attaboys it’s like yeah youknow how about and Eve I’m sorry you hadto go through that shit that’s prettyfucked up shit manif you need it you know if you need totalk let me know and guys who have beenthrough it like I had worked with guysand they’ve been in so many fuckingshootings man I worked with two guysthat had been something like 20 some-oddshootings and it had killed somethinglike 17 people Oh as partners I kid youwar I kid you not and both of them onewants my supervisor another one stayedas a patrol officer did they both didlike 30 years on the job they were thenicest guys and you know what there werethe guys that would come up and therewould be the reasoning voice it was likehey man I know it’s tough I know this ishard you’re gonna be okay you know takesome time off if you need time off theseare the guys that when they wereinvolved in something then he was in theearly 80s they were involved in theshooting one night of a robbery suckedand long story short the guy had a gunthey wound up killing this guy they shehad to shoot and kill him now by thistime it was something like their fifthor sixth officer-involved shooting we’reyou know similar action had taken placeand they literally said hey you knowwhat can you give us some time off and Ithink I think we need some time off youknow and they’re like no man we’reshort-staffed we need you back here thenext day oh gosh that’s terrible so thevery next day they go back to work aspartners and something very similarhappened next II know they fucking shootand kill another guy the very next dayWow at that point they finally said yeahokay you want you boys take some timeoff so you knowI can guarantee you that’s not the firsttime that’s ever happened maybe it ismissing it isn’t but I mean similarbehavior has been known through historyof police work military my advice toother people is to understand yourlimitations understand your strengthsunderstand your weaknesses don’t ever beashamed to have to speak to somebody ifit doesn’t feel right it’s probablybecause it isn’t right or maybe it’s thelack of understanding you know your lackof knowledge of understanding what youremotions are like I realize I hadpost-traumatic stress and it wasn’t justfrom one in particular incident it’sjust from a career of incidents you andI have talked about various incidentsand things that you yourself have beeninvolved in to this day when you talkabout them you can tell yeah your bodybehavior it’s like you know seeingsomebody ripped up and shredded up ordead and in in a bizarre horrific way Idon’t care how you put it it’s it’shorrible it’s just horribleIII I like get all teary right now whenI’m driving down the street and I see alittle squirrel that guy ran over youdidn’t do nothing to nobody no guy youknow and it’s like it’s weird now youimagine doing that to a human yeah goodor bad I mean it’s just the whole youknow when you look at the totality ofthe circumstances that surrounding youknow somebody being of a criminalelement or somebody being involved inthat and you take the history of thatperson and go back where did they gowrong if you can put back at the timesof the hands of time and go back couldwe have fixed this situation you knowand it makes you think about that thinkabout the maid they were probably littlethey were not probably they were littlekids at one time exactly we’re likeeverybody else there they were playinghide-and-seekthey were quietly cops and robberscowboys and Indians whatever the casewas you know yeah there were they’rehuman beings there’s somebody’s daughterthere’s somebody’s son that somebody’sparent you know yeah there was a youtubevideo after this guy that got involvedin the shooting with and it was like twoyears later somebody called me up and gohey man I you should check out this linkso they they send me the link and I goand I had no clue what it was about so Istarted watching it why did it being thethat he had three three boys and theywere talking about his dad and theydidn’t accuse the police department ofkilling them they didn’t say nothing andthey even admit one of them in me manyeah my dad said he did some bad thingsbut we want everybody to know my dad wasa good man we loved him he loved us andI’m like this is a fucked up video forme to watch right now yeah you know andit wasn’t that they meant to anythingnegative or wrong about it they justwant to remember the goodness of theirdad even if it was small yeah you knowor maybe it was the greatest part of himbut the sad thing was is his bad part ofhim overwhelmed his good parts yeah youknow they took over you know at thatparticular moment you know so yeah youknow it’s it’s not something that’s easyto talk about sometimes it’s notsomething that’s easy to deal with but Iwould recommend therapy talking to aprofessional talking to people who haveactually been involved in situationseverybody I know and I’ve talked tosomebody myself and you always feelbetter oh yeah it’s always a littlebecause sometimes you think you’re theonly one right and when you realizeyou’re not the only one that’s gonethrough this it makes you feel betterit’s like okay I’m not by myself hereabsolutely you know feeling bad feelingguilty feeling shameful like you know Icome from a very strong religiousbackground and you know and I my parentswere both ministers and it was like thewhole throughout my whole childhood itwas thou shalt not kill you know one ofthe Ten Commandments and sure you knowit’s like you know it’s in your headit’s like what the fuck this ain’t coolyou know and then he realizes like wellyou know it you know there’s a I wish Icould quote it right now but it’s inRomans in the Bible you’re not to getbiblical or religious here but it doestalk about you know basically seeinglike law enforcement having to do theirjob yeah and you know to the for the youknow it’s the safety of community and toyou know to do the right thing so youknow it’s just a broader understandwhat happened so I can only say you knowseek seek assistanceyou know if somebody in it doesn’t haveto be a shooting it could be a fuckingaccident sure you know it could besomebody who commits suicide right infront of you and jumped off a buildingand you know when when they hit theground you know the blood splatter allover you you know any horrible thingshappen in this world right and it’s notnormal and it’s sad when you’re soexposed to so many of those things andit becomes like second nature it’snormalyeah that’s that is you know it’s likeyou know and I know that I went througha career of doing that like you knowlike seeing cops laugh over the body ofa dead person it’s not because they’relaughing at the body or the situation isthat they have to they’re coping they’recoping they have to alienate themselvesfrom that horrible situation that itgoes because if I sit there and I cryabout this or if I see this kid you knowget ran over it you’re not gonna lastright yeah you know you know fiveminutes much less 30 years so yeahthat’s that’s that’s my Amen I reallyappreciate you coming on Dave that wassome good stuff all right man we’lllisten I hope it you know your channel Ireally appreciate and thank you for thework you’re doing I know that you knowthrough your your commitment your wordsyour wisdom hopefully you can reach outand touch a lot of people not just copsbut mainly you know the general publicthat have a very limited knowledge ofwhat it is to become a peace officerwhether it’s you know in a busy citysmall city big talent doesn’t matter youknow I appreciate you putting debt thatthat image the message out there andreaching out to us the faith I can do Ican help appreciate you brother thankyou I appreciate that
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