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http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/index.ssf?/base/news-16/1145873130132320.xml&coll=3&thispage=1
For police, firing shots changes their lives
Sunday, April 23, 2006
By Scott Hagen
[email protected] -- 768-4929
Officer Mike Lauer was backed into a corner and didn't have anywhere to go. So, when the man came after him holding a knife and threatening to kill him, he had no choice. He had to shoot.
Thirteen years later he still thinks about it, more now than in the years immediately after he shot Timothy Gonzales. He empathizes with the victim's family and children, and has questioned himself.
Jackson Police already had sprayed Gonzales in the face twice with chemical irritant, but he continued coming after them in a dark parking lot on the corner of E. Michigan Avenue and E. Ganson Street in September 1993.
Gonzales ran away from two officers when one shot at him and Lauer thought he would continue to run away. But then Gonzales turned toward Lauer. "I thought, 'I need to get the heck out of here,' But I was pinned," Lauer said in a recent interview. "To be honest, I didn't think he was going to come at me, I thought he would bluff."
With only about six feet left between the two, Lauer fired three times. Two bullets struck and killed Gonzales, 32. The knife fell at Lauer's feet.
Lauer and his colleagues spent the next few years defending themselves and dealing with criticism from some in the community.
Almost the same situation played itself out last week on Steward Avenue when Jackson Police Officer Lisa Medina and Sgt. Kevin Hiller shot and killed a woman who charged Medina with a large knife raised about her head. It was the first time in 13 years area police have fatally wounded a threatening person and one of a few times in the past 30 years.
Interviews with officers involved with both fatal and nonfatal shootings reveal it is a life-changing event that affects different officers in different ways.
"To this day I can't think of anything I could have done differently," Lauer said. "Maybe tried to fight a guy with a knife with my bare hands, but I didn't think that was a viable option. I have kids, too."
Joe Hankis, a Jackson Police officer who retired in 1997, was patrolling the streets when he and his partner responded to an attempted rape off W. Michigan Avenue. His partner got there first and was quickly grabbed by the suspect, who pulled the officer's gun and held it to her head. Hankis took cover behind a metal railing in an alley. His partner broke free for a second, and Hankis took a shot and missed. Even though the incident ended later that night when the suspect surrendered, firing his weapon took a toll on Hankis for years after.
"I woke up many nights with cold sweats," he said. "I finally went to the department psychologist! My whole things was, 'I could have killed her, I could have killed my partner.'"
Hankis said he still thinks about it all the time and continues to question if he did the right thing that night. Other shootings take a greater psychological toll on officers.
Officer Howard Noppe, who retired in 2002, said he was baited into shooting at a man who he believed was trying to provoke Noppe into killing him in downtown Jackson.
Even though he had no choice but to pull his weapon and eventually fire at the suspect -- who lived -- the incident changed his life.
Noppe, an avid outdoorsman up until the shooting, never went hunting again and hated pulling his gun. He also refused to pull it when two suspects were wielding knives.
"I didn't want to touch a gun," he said. "I would rather talk my way out of something than rely on deadly force. Unfortunately, in our job it doesn't work that way."
He continues to patrol part time for Spring Arbor Township after retiring from the city and continues to hope he never pulls his gun again.
But for other officers a shooting is part of the job, and when realizing they are left with little choice but to defend their lives, and considering the alternative, the conscience can clear.
It is part of the job, as former Jackson Police Officer Dean Schuette Sr., now retired, said.
A 17-year-old teenager was shooting at people at a house at S. Jackson and Morrell streets in 1978, and Schuette responded. He approached the door of the house with a shotgun when the teen came out of the house with his own shotgun and refused to drop it. When the suspect raised it quickly toward Schuette, he took the shot and killed the man.
"It's one of those things you never forget," he said. "But you don't dwell on it. You're going to think about it. If you dwell on it, then it becomes a problem. Your emotions take over."
All officers interviewed said using their pistols is a last resort -- only when no other options are available. Many said it is the hope of all officers who take to the street every day that they will never be involved in a shooting.
"Nobody wants to shoot anybody," Hankis said.
For police, firing shots changes their lives
Sunday, April 23, 2006
By Scott Hagen
[email protected] -- 768-4929
Officer Mike Lauer was backed into a corner and didn't have anywhere to go. So, when the man came after him holding a knife and threatening to kill him, he had no choice. He had to shoot.
Thirteen years later he still thinks about it, more now than in the years immediately after he shot Timothy Gonzales. He empathizes with the victim's family and children, and has questioned himself.
Jackson Police already had sprayed Gonzales in the face twice with chemical irritant, but he continued coming after them in a dark parking lot on the corner of E. Michigan Avenue and E. Ganson Street in September 1993.
Gonzales ran away from two officers when one shot at him and Lauer thought he would continue to run away. But then Gonzales turned toward Lauer. "I thought, 'I need to get the heck out of here,' But I was pinned," Lauer said in a recent interview. "To be honest, I didn't think he was going to come at me, I thought he would bluff."
With only about six feet left between the two, Lauer fired three times. Two bullets struck and killed Gonzales, 32. The knife fell at Lauer's feet.
Lauer and his colleagues spent the next few years defending themselves and dealing with criticism from some in the community.
Almost the same situation played itself out last week on Steward Avenue when Jackson Police Officer Lisa Medina and Sgt. Kevin Hiller shot and killed a woman who charged Medina with a large knife raised about her head. It was the first time in 13 years area police have fatally wounded a threatening person and one of a few times in the past 30 years.
Interviews with officers involved with both fatal and nonfatal shootings reveal it is a life-changing event that affects different officers in different ways.
"To this day I can't think of anything I could have done differently," Lauer said. "Maybe tried to fight a guy with a knife with my bare hands, but I didn't think that was a viable option. I have kids, too."
Joe Hankis, a Jackson Police officer who retired in 1997, was patrolling the streets when he and his partner responded to an attempted rape off W. Michigan Avenue. His partner got there first and was quickly grabbed by the suspect, who pulled the officer's gun and held it to her head. Hankis took cover behind a metal railing in an alley. His partner broke free for a second, and Hankis took a shot and missed. Even though the incident ended later that night when the suspect surrendered, firing his weapon took a toll on Hankis for years after.
"I woke up many nights with cold sweats," he said. "I finally went to the department psychologist! My whole things was, 'I could have killed her, I could have killed my partner.'"
Hankis said he still thinks about it all the time and continues to question if he did the right thing that night. Other shootings take a greater psychological toll on officers.
Officer Howard Noppe, who retired in 2002, said he was baited into shooting at a man who he believed was trying to provoke Noppe into killing him in downtown Jackson.
Even though he had no choice but to pull his weapon and eventually fire at the suspect -- who lived -- the incident changed his life.
Noppe, an avid outdoorsman up until the shooting, never went hunting again and hated pulling his gun. He also refused to pull it when two suspects were wielding knives.
"I didn't want to touch a gun," he said. "I would rather talk my way out of something than rely on deadly force. Unfortunately, in our job it doesn't work that way."
He continues to patrol part time for Spring Arbor Township after retiring from the city and continues to hope he never pulls his gun again.
But for other officers a shooting is part of the job, and when realizing they are left with little choice but to defend their lives, and considering the alternative, the conscience can clear.
It is part of the job, as former Jackson Police Officer Dean Schuette Sr., now retired, said.
A 17-year-old teenager was shooting at people at a house at S. Jackson and Morrell streets in 1978, and Schuette responded. He approached the door of the house with a shotgun when the teen came out of the house with his own shotgun and refused to drop it. When the suspect raised it quickly toward Schuette, he took the shot and killed the man.
"It's one of those things you never forget," he said. "But you don't dwell on it. You're going to think about it. If you dwell on it, then it becomes a problem. Your emotions take over."
All officers interviewed said using their pistols is a last resort -- only when no other options are available. Many said it is the hope of all officers who take to the street every day that they will never be involved in a shooting.
"Nobody wants to shoot anybody," Hankis said.
