Armados y Peligrosos

June 13th, 2014... 2200 Hours

Signal 32Tango

Suicide Threats in Progress

It's an unfortunate thing, but when you work in a place as dark, twisted, and filled with sadness as I do, hearing a call come out where a subject is threatening to end his life doesn't really surprise you anymore. The calls come out more frequently than you might think.

The Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, also known as a Baker Act, allows Law Enforcement to involuntarily institutionalize and require examination of an individual without their expressed consent. It's a power we use WAY too often, but not because we can... because we have to.

The call came out pretty early in my shift. The sun was gone and the full moon was high in the sky. It was Friday the 13th. A wonderful combination for the superstitious. A man, we'll call Caesar, was armed with a knife, had threatened his family with it, and then turned it on himself. When I arrived at Caesar's home, I didn't know what to expect, I just knew there was a man in his home, threatening to kill everyone inside, who didn't speak a lick of English, and who was armed with a 10in kitchen knife.

I walked up to the door, which was open, and I could hear the sounds of Spanish profanity coming from within the house. There was no time to wait, no time to sit idle and assess the situation. I walked into the house and the first thing I saw, was Caesar, standing right by the door with his knife only a few feet from my face, pointed right at me. "Fuck you cop! I kill you too!" He screamed at me. We had never met before, but already he wanted me dead.

I immediately reached back and pushed the deputy behind me in the chest, "Back out, back out!" I said to him. I felt my muslces react just as I was trained, and I reached back for my pistol and drew it, holding it at the ready. I didn't know who was inside... aside from Caesar.

As we stood in the doorway, we maintained eye contact with Caesar as he spoke on the phone. He was deathly angered and appeared quite sincere in his desire to want to cause harm, to someone. I've been in situations like this many times before, but this was one of the first times I really had the forethought to think to myself, "I may actually have to take a life, right here, right now." It was the last thing I wanted to do.

As another deputy approached, I instructed him to draw his TASER. If we all had our pistols drawn, then there was no chance for a more peaceful resolution. I began talking to Caesar. I couldn't be sure he understood a word I was saying, but I had to try.

I can't say for certain if anything I said got to him, but as some point in my conversing with him he decided to begin acting even more suspicious. He put his hands behind his back and hid the knife from our site. Only a few short seconds passed by, and then he threw the knife on the couch, then put his hands back behind his back, almost as though he were trying to confuse us. I was lucky I saw him throw the knife. "Come outside!" I said to him nearly ten times. He finally complied.

When he stepped outside, he began to brace himself, as if he intended to fight. "Turn around! Put your hands on your head!" We screamed at him to comply. He seemed to understand what we were asking of him, but the moment we laid our hands on his back, the fight was on. Casaer reared back and struck me with his elbow, and began flailing his arms about like a wild man reaching for whatever combat maneuver he could find. One quick sweep of the leg and a push at the neck, and we were down on the ground.

It's amazing, something a lot of people don't know, but when you fight with someone who has nothing to lose, they become 10x as strong as they ever could have been. He was giving us a fight, one we would inevitably win, but would still come out from exhausted. My backup deputy, who had arrived just prior to this engagement, drew his TASER again and looked right at me. A simple nod was enough to relay the need to end this fight before someone got badly hurt.

The TASER was placed in his mid-section, a drive-stun. It was enough to cause pain, but very little in the realm of neuromuscular incapacitation. Caesar screamed and hollered. He was ready to give up. He stopped fighting, accepted detention, and allowed himself to get the help he so desperately needed.

I don't speak Spanish very well, so I'll never truly know what was going on in his head as this incident unfolded in front of him. I'll never know his reasoning for doing what he did, or why he wanted to this deputy, his family, and himself. Thankfully, however, he was able to find some peace and some help at a local psychiatric facility. I just hope by the time he is released, he's gotten the help he needed.