CA PI
Member
This is the story of an event that happened to my training partner and I thought some of you may find it interesting... and, hopefully, educational -
A very good friend of mine was down in Santa Ana last week on business and was the victim of a 211 (armed robbery) - Real interesting story, I'm going to try to re-tell it to the best of my ability. Now, please understand that I will be vague on some parts, the two suspects are hard core bangers down there and I wish no problems on the friend of mine. Besides - I wasn't there and do not know everything.
So here we go...
A very good friend of mine retired after 30 years of wearing a badge from a city here in Central CA. Date of retirement 2-26-07. While he officially wore the badge he was involved in 3 officer involved shootings (I like to argue with him about that, the last one in 00 or 01 was him getting shot in the forearm and never returning fire. SWAT responded and the suspect surrendered after a couple of hours of standoff. Luckily he is fully recovered from that. But I think he was still only involved in 2.5 officer involved shootings...). He has been the dept. firearms instructor for over 20 years. He is/was the academy firearms instructor and has taught for other depts. in northern CA. He has been an adjunct instructor at Gunsite on a number of occasions. He has taught a great number of civilian classes as well. To sum it up - He is INCREDIBLY well trained with lots of experience to back it all up, the whole "Been there done that" thing.
He is now working for (Has for a while but he is now doing more work for them) a target making company as a field rep. and was down in Santa Ana visiting some ranges and a couple of the local PDs from what I understand. He is spending the night at a hotel on "Hotel row" or whatever it is called down there. Mostly business men staying there so you can assume it is a target rich environment for criminals and the bad guys can, USUALLY assume that their victims will be unarmed.
So my Buddy (That is what I will call him for this story) gets done eating at a placed called “Spoons” and is walking back to his hotel room along a sidewalk. Coming towards him he sees a man in a suit talking on a cell phone. He also notices 5-6 guys similarly dressed in the parking lot of Spoons. Buddy passes the suit and nods to him, just acknowledging him. Then he sees two adult black males emerge from some bushes about 10 feet away. They had been trailing suit man but Buddy saw them and made eye contact and they immediately advanced on him. ABM #1 is wearing a bandanna across his face with the hood of a sweatshirt pulled up over his head - He will now be called bandanna boy. ABM #2 is wearing a sweatshirt with a turtleneck with a zipper, it is zipped all the way up to cover the lower part of his face (wasn't there a character like that on Fat Albert?) - He will be called turtle boy.
Back to the story...
Bandanna Boy and Turtle boy advance on buddy and stop within 3 feet of him. Buddy is now triangled by the two. Buddy is carrying a S&W snubby in an ankle holster, jeans, shirt and a baseball cap. Surveying the area Buddy sees no immediate cover and no one seems to have noticed these two bad guys. Bandanna boy demands all of Buddy's money or Turtle boy is going to shoot him. At this point Turtle boy, with his arms crossed across his chest, displays a Beretta Cougar (Buddy ID'd it immediately - we are both gun nuts like that). Buddy pulls out a $5 bill and says, honestly, that is all he has (he is married like me). Bandanna boy takes the money and angrily says that he must have more so to give him Buddy's wallet.
Now, Buddy is carrying his clean wallet in one pocket and another wallet in his other pocket that contains his retired badge and retired ID. Buddy gives up his clean wallet and bandanna boy gets angry again because there is no more money in it. Bandanna boy shoves it in his pocket and now demands Buddy's cell phone. At this point Buddy decides he doesn't know where this is going to go so he decides it is time to stop being a victim.
Buddy starts pulling his cell and more or less argues with bandanna boy about it being his work cell (it is). All the while raising his arms in exasperation and dropping them and shuffling his feet. His goal is to get bandanna boy between him and turtle boy, the possible shooter. He makes it. During his "Temper tantrum" neither bandanna boy or turtle boy move. With bandanna boy between buddy and turtle boy Buddy makes his move. He throws his cell at bandanna boy and nails him in the face. The startled response by bandanna boy causes turtle boy to jump to. In an often practiced move Buddy squats down and smoothly draws his revolver and rises screaming at boy suspects to show there hands and drop to the ground. Buddy also takes three quick steps back - remember distance is your friend! Turtle boy turns as if to run but instead nose dives into the pavement. Bandanna boy takes a half step back and hesitates... Buddy screams again "Show me your hands! Face down on the ground or I will KILL YOU!" Bandanna boy makes the smart decision, possibly the only one he made that whole day. He drops to the ground with his arms spread out.
Buddy yells out to anyone listening "Call 911 tell them an off duty cop is involved in a 211!" and quickly follows that with "Call Santa Ana PD and tell them a 211 is in progress and an off duty cop is on scene!" Please remember that if you dial 911 from your cell phone it will call CHP. Give your location first in case you are disconnected. When you call CHP it will ring at the first open dispatch line, that may be on the other end of the state. After about a minute Buddy has an epiphany, all those civilians who say it takes forever for PD to respond are right! At least it seems like forever!
Then suddenly one of the suits in the parking lot calls out "All of the emergency lines are tied up!" That was not something Buddy wanted the suspects to hear! Bandanna boy starts saying/whispering things to turtle boy. One thing buddy hears is "when the cops show up tell them this guy tried to jack us." Buddy, the whole time transitioning the barrel from one to the other tells them to shut up, if they try to move he will kill them. He has already determined that at least one of them has a firearm. If bandanna boy were to get up and try to attack him there will be problems with turtle boy. The decision is to nail turtle boy first because he has the one gun that Buddy has already seen. But Buddy doesn't see it now even though he can see all four hands.
Buddy starts hearing the low roar of engines so he pulls out his badge and holds it over his head. Suddenly a spotlight his shined down on him from a helicopter so he is trying to make sure they see his badge too.
The first uniform arrives and Buddy lowers the barrel of his gun, to take it off of the suspects but still keep it available and yells out "I'M A RETIRED COP! DON'T SHOOT ME!" Uniform #1 acknowledges that and Buddy asks if he has them covered because he is going to re-holster. Buddy is worried about the adrenaline dump the other responding officers will experience; he still doesn't want to be shot on this night. The other cop says don't re-holster yet more units are on the way. Buddy starts waving his badge at every driveway and street as three more marked units show up. Finally with the four uniforms on scene Buddy retreats a bit more and shoves the snubby in his pocket and pockets his badge.
Bandanna boy starts yelling out to everyone that "This guy tried to jack us up!" That didn't go over to well with the uniforms. Bandanna boy, now with his hands cuffed behind his back is trying to rub his chin on his chest to pull down the bandanna. One of the uniforms pushes him against a unit and grabs his chin. While he was doing this he was also yelling at one of the other uniforms to grab a Polaroid camera. They are able to catch a picture of him with the bandanna across his face and his hood pulled over his head. Wouldn't you guys walk around town like that too? Turtle boy was able to get most of his sweatshirt off his face but it is still covering his chin.
The uniforms find Buddy’s wallet on bandanna boy along with Buddy's $5 bill. Bandanna boy the whole time yelling that he didn't know how that got there! It took a couple of minutes to find the Beretta. When turtle boy had nose dived he threw his arms out too. That caused the Beretta to end up almost under some bushes. It turned out to be an airsoft pistol with the orange end painted black.
The suit that had passed Buddy came back after the cops showed up and thanked Buddy, acknowledging that he had been there target. Because he was so engrossed in his phone conversation he hadn't seen anything until the yelling started. Suit insisted on buying Buddy a beer at Spoons. When they went in all of Spoons gave Buddy a standing ovation. Drinks were all on the house.
The next day Buddy got a call from the DA's office. Thanking him and telling him that he is the talk of the departments.
Good Guy Wins! The two bad guys picked a hell of a victim too.
A very good friend of mine was down in Santa Ana last week on business and was the victim of a 211 (armed robbery) - Real interesting story, I'm going to try to re-tell it to the best of my ability. Now, please understand that I will be vague on some parts, the two suspects are hard core bangers down there and I wish no problems on the friend of mine. Besides - I wasn't there and do not know everything.
So here we go...
A very good friend of mine retired after 30 years of wearing a badge from a city here in Central CA. Date of retirement 2-26-07. While he officially wore the badge he was involved in 3 officer involved shootings (I like to argue with him about that, the last one in 00 or 01 was him getting shot in the forearm and never returning fire. SWAT responded and the suspect surrendered after a couple of hours of standoff. Luckily he is fully recovered from that. But I think he was still only involved in 2.5 officer involved shootings...). He has been the dept. firearms instructor for over 20 years. He is/was the academy firearms instructor and has taught for other depts. in northern CA. He has been an adjunct instructor at Gunsite on a number of occasions. He has taught a great number of civilian classes as well. To sum it up - He is INCREDIBLY well trained with lots of experience to back it all up, the whole "Been there done that" thing.
He is now working for (Has for a while but he is now doing more work for them) a target making company as a field rep. and was down in Santa Ana visiting some ranges and a couple of the local PDs from what I understand. He is spending the night at a hotel on "Hotel row" or whatever it is called down there. Mostly business men staying there so you can assume it is a target rich environment for criminals and the bad guys can, USUALLY assume that their victims will be unarmed.
So my Buddy (That is what I will call him for this story) gets done eating at a placed called “Spoons” and is walking back to his hotel room along a sidewalk. Coming towards him he sees a man in a suit talking on a cell phone. He also notices 5-6 guys similarly dressed in the parking lot of Spoons. Buddy passes the suit and nods to him, just acknowledging him. Then he sees two adult black males emerge from some bushes about 10 feet away. They had been trailing suit man but Buddy saw them and made eye contact and they immediately advanced on him. ABM #1 is wearing a bandanna across his face with the hood of a sweatshirt pulled up over his head - He will now be called bandanna boy. ABM #2 is wearing a sweatshirt with a turtleneck with a zipper, it is zipped all the way up to cover the lower part of his face (wasn't there a character like that on Fat Albert?) - He will be called turtle boy.
Back to the story...
Bandanna Boy and Turtle boy advance on buddy and stop within 3 feet of him. Buddy is now triangled by the two. Buddy is carrying a S&W snubby in an ankle holster, jeans, shirt and a baseball cap. Surveying the area Buddy sees no immediate cover and no one seems to have noticed these two bad guys. Bandanna boy demands all of Buddy's money or Turtle boy is going to shoot him. At this point Turtle boy, with his arms crossed across his chest, displays a Beretta Cougar (Buddy ID'd it immediately - we are both gun nuts like that). Buddy pulls out a $5 bill and says, honestly, that is all he has (he is married like me). Bandanna boy takes the money and angrily says that he must have more so to give him Buddy's wallet.
Now, Buddy is carrying his clean wallet in one pocket and another wallet in his other pocket that contains his retired badge and retired ID. Buddy gives up his clean wallet and bandanna boy gets angry again because there is no more money in it. Bandanna boy shoves it in his pocket and now demands Buddy's cell phone. At this point Buddy decides he doesn't know where this is going to go so he decides it is time to stop being a victim.
Buddy starts pulling his cell and more or less argues with bandanna boy about it being his work cell (it is). All the while raising his arms in exasperation and dropping them and shuffling his feet. His goal is to get bandanna boy between him and turtle boy, the possible shooter. He makes it. During his "Temper tantrum" neither bandanna boy or turtle boy move. With bandanna boy between buddy and turtle boy Buddy makes his move. He throws his cell at bandanna boy and nails him in the face. The startled response by bandanna boy causes turtle boy to jump to. In an often practiced move Buddy squats down and smoothly draws his revolver and rises screaming at boy suspects to show there hands and drop to the ground. Buddy also takes three quick steps back - remember distance is your friend! Turtle boy turns as if to run but instead nose dives into the pavement. Bandanna boy takes a half step back and hesitates... Buddy screams again "Show me your hands! Face down on the ground or I will KILL YOU!" Bandanna boy makes the smart decision, possibly the only one he made that whole day. He drops to the ground with his arms spread out.
Buddy yells out to anyone listening "Call 911 tell them an off duty cop is involved in a 211!" and quickly follows that with "Call Santa Ana PD and tell them a 211 is in progress and an off duty cop is on scene!" Please remember that if you dial 911 from your cell phone it will call CHP. Give your location first in case you are disconnected. When you call CHP it will ring at the first open dispatch line, that may be on the other end of the state. After about a minute Buddy has an epiphany, all those civilians who say it takes forever for PD to respond are right! At least it seems like forever!
Then suddenly one of the suits in the parking lot calls out "All of the emergency lines are tied up!" That was not something Buddy wanted the suspects to hear! Bandanna boy starts saying/whispering things to turtle boy. One thing buddy hears is "when the cops show up tell them this guy tried to jack us." Buddy, the whole time transitioning the barrel from one to the other tells them to shut up, if they try to move he will kill them. He has already determined that at least one of them has a firearm. If bandanna boy were to get up and try to attack him there will be problems with turtle boy. The decision is to nail turtle boy first because he has the one gun that Buddy has already seen. But Buddy doesn't see it now even though he can see all four hands.
Buddy starts hearing the low roar of engines so he pulls out his badge and holds it over his head. Suddenly a spotlight his shined down on him from a helicopter so he is trying to make sure they see his badge too.
The first uniform arrives and Buddy lowers the barrel of his gun, to take it off of the suspects but still keep it available and yells out "I'M A RETIRED COP! DON'T SHOOT ME!" Uniform #1 acknowledges that and Buddy asks if he has them covered because he is going to re-holster. Buddy is worried about the adrenaline dump the other responding officers will experience; he still doesn't want to be shot on this night. The other cop says don't re-holster yet more units are on the way. Buddy starts waving his badge at every driveway and street as three more marked units show up. Finally with the four uniforms on scene Buddy retreats a bit more and shoves the snubby in his pocket and pockets his badge.
Bandanna boy starts yelling out to everyone that "This guy tried to jack us up!" That didn't go over to well with the uniforms. Bandanna boy, now with his hands cuffed behind his back is trying to rub his chin on his chest to pull down the bandanna. One of the uniforms pushes him against a unit and grabs his chin. While he was doing this he was also yelling at one of the other uniforms to grab a Polaroid camera. They are able to catch a picture of him with the bandanna across his face and his hood pulled over his head. Wouldn't you guys walk around town like that too? Turtle boy was able to get most of his sweatshirt off his face but it is still covering his chin.
The uniforms find Buddy’s wallet on bandanna boy along with Buddy's $5 bill. Bandanna boy the whole time yelling that he didn't know how that got there! It took a couple of minutes to find the Beretta. When turtle boy had nose dived he threw his arms out too. That caused the Beretta to end up almost under some bushes. It turned out to be an airsoft pistol with the orange end painted black.
The suit that had passed Buddy came back after the cops showed up and thanked Buddy, acknowledging that he had been there target. Because he was so engrossed in his phone conversation he hadn't seen anything until the yelling started. Suit insisted on buying Buddy a beer at Spoons. When they went in all of Spoons gave Buddy a standing ovation. Drinks were all on the house.
The next day Buddy got a call from the DA's office. Thanking him and telling him that he is the talk of the departments.
Good Guy Wins! The two bad guys picked a hell of a victim too.
