Tag Search Result: Shots Fired

During the last hour of his shift, soon-to-be-retired Lt. Roger Sanders of the Des Moines Police Department was headed back to the station when the call of a fight at Walnut and 8th went out.

SWAT Officer John Sims, Jr. had a frustrating day at the range and a worse night on patrol.

It had been a busy shift for Officer Philip Bozarth and Officer Juan Sanchez of the San Diego Police Department. They had spent the chilly early morning hours of Jan. 17, 1998, answering an unusually high number of domestic violence incidents, complaints of narcotics trafficking, reports of gunfire of ill-defined origins, and traffic violations.

Armed with a kitchen knife, a deranged man attacked three officers, resulting in chaos and death at close quarters.

Orange County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Deputy Jennifer Fulford had a lot on her mind on May 5, 2004. Having just paid for her wedding dress, the logistics of her nuptials were weighing on the 31-year-old deputy as she began her patrol. There was still so much to do, and time was a precious commodity.

It was a damned cold night for central Florida. Officer Keith Cowart wasn’t getting any argument from Smokey Stapleter or Gary Markowski on that score. His fellow Melbourne, Fla., police officers had congregated with him for a windshield conference and coffee. Stapleter rubbed his arms to get his blood circulating.

It’s one of the maxims of working patrol: No matter what day of the week, no matter what time of night, things can go to hell in a heartbeat. It didn’t take long for Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Claus to learn how true this saying can be.

At the sight of the silver patrol car with the bumble bee stripe, the children came running. They came running not with the usual curiosity of kids asking for perfunctory activations of lights and siren, but to tell Officer Todd Kobitz of the Valparaiso (Ind.) Police Department about the man who had harassed them.

Possessing a rough-hewn face and a rawboned build, Richard Johnson, 31, of Grand Prairie, Texas, was already wanted for a series of aggravated robberies in Ft. Worth by the time he took up a gun and fired a couple of shots at his mother. She escaped unharmed. But then Johnson turned things up a notch, stabbing himself in the stomach and setting fire to the converted mobile home they shared.

Ron Redding needed a rest. The duties of a lieutenant and SWAT officer with the Gulfport (Miss.) Police Department had drained him.

When Derek Brinkman was born in January 1985, his father, Doug Brinkman, couldn’t believe his good fortune. He passed out cigars and received many slaps on the back.

It was two days before Christmas 2004, and Sgt. Randy Wills of the Pueblo (Colo.) Police Department was a case study in sleep deprivation. It had been a busy holiday season with very little peace on earth and even less good will toward men. Wills needed rest.