I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. (J.R.R.Tolkien, The Two Towers)

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force.

Marko Kloos "Why the Gun is Civilization"

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Burglary


Saturday morning about 2:30 AM we received an alarm call at one of the local funeral homes. (Funeral homes are frequent targets of burglaries because of the embalming fluids and powders. Junkies use these with their favorite drugs to smoke because it intensifies the high they get.)

I go around to the back and find a window broken out and can hear someone moving around inside. My partner is at the front covering it until our back up arrives. Two county deputies arrive and they and my partner are preparing to make entrance from the front when we hear a shot from inside the funeral home. They think I have been shot and I think they have been shot. One of them yells they see the suspect running towards the back carrying a rifle and a large belt of link ammo.

He opens the back door and runs straight into my .45 in his face, I order him to drop the gun and he throws it down so hard it busts the rifle stock. He runs back into the building and hides in a back room where we find him hiding in a cabinet. While getting him out of the cabinet and struggling with him one of the deputies hurts his knee and has to go to the emergency room.

It turns out he is a local boy (22 years old) we have delt with before. This was his second break in at this same funeral home. He has 7 felony convictions on his record and almost twice that number that have been dropped or not processed for whatever reason. Since he is a convicted felon, we also charged him with felony possession of the gun and ammo. That charge alone will be good for 20+ years in a federal prison.

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7 Comments:

At 10:18 AM, Blogger Madcap said...

Holy ****. Harold, I'm so glad you're okay.

Was he stoned? I'm trying to account for the gross stupidity.

 
At 11:51 AM, Blogger H. Stallard said...

He was so drunk that he kept passing out in the magistrates office. But that doesn't account for the gross stupidity. He's stupid even sober. We've delt with him before.

Coming out the back door with that rifle was one of those times you are always hearing about that the officer has just a split second to decide to shoot or not. I knew he was coming out my door, I knew he was armed, and I knew that shots had already been fired.

The first thing I saw was the barrel of the rifle. I had already started putting pressure on the trigger when he popped out the door. It was like my mind took a picture of the scene and froze it for me. He had the rifle tucked under his arm and his hands were full of the other stuff he was carrying. If I hadn't realized in that instant that the rifle was under his arm and not in his hands I would have shot him because he was turning towards me and the rifle was pointing straight at me. We later found that it was loaded.

 
At 1:47 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

My goodness, it sounds like someone should have put the kid away a long time ago.

 
At 2:25 PM, Blogger Kiss Dont Kill guild leader said...

well he got what he deserves (sucks for him)

 
At 2:56 PM, Blogger H. Stallard said...

Dragonfly, on at least one of the 7 felony convictions he drew a 20 year sentence BUT the local judge suspended 19 years and 6 months of it. We've decided to turn the firearms/ammo charge over to the ATF...that will move it to a federal court where he will get more than if we did it through the state system.

 
At 8:47 PM, Blogger CG said...

Good job friend. Congrats on not making him take the eternal dirt nap right then (if only for the way it would make you feel), and maybe 20 federal years will do him some good.

I love the line, "He's stupid even when he's sober."

 
At 10:49 PM, Blogger H. Stallard said...

The contrary goddess said..."(if only for the way it would make you feel)".

Yeah, I know...I've been thinking about that a lot. It wasn't just his life that hung in that split second.

 

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