Lessons Learned: Escapes & Officer Involved Shootings

Today I'll discuss two more of my personal experiences, and the ways in which those experiences have impacted my decision making today.

-LEO

Transcript

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All right, let's do an add-on to that last episode because I remembered another incident that I definitely took something away from. I arrested a girl who was a prostitute and drug addict that we dealt with all the time. She hung around the hotels at 204 and 95. If you know Savannah, it's right where 95, I-95 passes through. And she was always out there putting around, doing her thing. Not really causing any drama. Occasionally she'd have a warrant or something, and you know, life goes on. So one day I'm down there, I'm by the Scottish Inn at 204 and 95, and I see her out there. And so I run her name for warrants, and she's got a warrant. I actually just remembered her name while saying this. We'll call her Crystal. And so I handcuffed Crystal. I got out. I was like, hey, you got a warrant out for you. Put your hands behind your back. I think it was out of Florida. It was either out of deep South Georgia, like further south towards St. Mary's and such, or Florida. And so I went over, I got her cuffed up. She was compliant. She was about 80 pounds soaking wet. So I get Crystal in handcuffs and I turn around to do something. Like she's just standing there. She's not about nothing crazy's about to happen. I think she'd already been searched. And so turn my back for a moment. I turned back around and I cuffed her in the back. This girl is holding my handcuffs. Like, picture both her hands cupping like they're trying to hold a little pool of water. That's how she's holding the handcuffs. And she's handing them back to me and goes, Do you really have to take me to jail? She might have been making a pass. Like, can I do something to get out of this? I don't really know. Or if she was just asking for a favor. But she's handing my cuffs back to me. You know, it's the summer sun in the south. And so her arms are sweaty, they're tiny. I didn't click those cuffs in enough at the end of the day. I didn't tighten them up. I didn't crank them down on her bony little wrist. So she hands my cuffs back to me. She's like, can we, can we not do this? And so I was like, Thank you for the cuffs. Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. I cranked them down, like, you know, the little space between the bones or whatever on the wrist. I made sure that they were tight so she didn't slip out again. Boom. Transported her to where she needed to go, took her to the jail. In the next couple of days, the way they would always do it there is, you know, they they would often sit at jail. I'm pretty sure it was out of state because she sat there a couple of days. And then the other agency came up to get her. And during the transport, they stopped for something. I don't know if it was gas or what, but she's a wily little thing. She slipped the cuffs and took that deputy's gun. It was a female deputy doing the transport and shot her with it. And I don't remember what happened. I know the deputy didn't get killed. I think she got hit in the vest. But looking back on that, could I have warned them that she's a cuff slipper? Yeah, I probably could have told the jail that. I don't think I doubt that I did. I just kind of ate my mistake because nothing tragic or fatal came out of it. But keep that in mind when you're handcuffing these skinny people. You might be trying to be nice, but they may be a killer and be okay with killing a cop. You know, I don't I think her warrant was like contempt of court too. It's not like she had a murder warrant or something crazy, but God knows what she was doing in the evenings. You know, I mean, we all know what she was doing, but God knows what else, what other extracurriculars were what she thought she was wanted for, what she had done in Florida previously, who her and her boyfriend had killed or beat up or whatever, that she thought she was getting a ton of time, or just that crack and heroin habit, you know, overtook her and she had to try to get away. But she did. She shot somebody with their own gun during the transport, which takes me into another story, um, memory lane. When I was working in the jail, a guy got like 24 years for burglary. And so after he got a lot of times, they'd get sentenced and then they'd come back and be pissed off. You know, they're on the phone saying all kinds of stuff, yelling, they might be ready to fight in the pod with whoever. This guy was cool. His name was Michael, and he came back. And then a day or two after he got back, he cut himself. We thought he said that he had fallen, and the corners of the toilets and their cells were kind of sharp. So he had this gash like on his arm, and it was going to require a trip out of the jail to the hospital. Well, this Joker left a note that was something like, I'm sorry for whoever had to get hurt for this. I know you don't deserve it, but it's just like I didn't deserve these 24 years. There's killers in here, there's people that shoot people every day on the street, and I got more time than them. And it's not fair. He'd done like a string of burglaries and was probably like a five-time felon or something. I don't know. But the note got found in his cell, like during normal rounds, while the officer was transporting him to the jail. So they luckily they were able to call that officer to turn him around and bring him back. But don't ever get laxadaisical during transports because that's kind of like, you know, if you're doing a transport from the jail, that's kind of their opportunity. And if you're bringing somebody to jail and they still have a gun on them that you missed, which happens, or they have some big old thing of heroin stuff somewhere that's going to get them all this time, or they gave you a fake name and they have murder warrants. They know when they get fingerprinted, they're busted. There's a million reasons that they could be ready to die and ready to kill to not go in that jail. I have seen people, uh, you know, in the unmarked cars, be it on the federal side or narcotics units, be kind of laxadaisical with their prisoners because the prisoners are slick and they talk nice. And some of the ones planning the most violence are not going to tell you that. They want it to be a surprise. So luckily that guy Michael, we we were able to get him back in the jail and, you know, he's gonna have to deal with his infection or whatever. They took him to the infirmary to get treated there. But no, you can't leave the jail at this point because you're planning to kill a cop. But the way I like to do transports, if I'm not in a vehicle with a cage, if you're in a vehicle with a cage, it's easy to do it safely. If you don't have a cage, man, it's not popular. They need, if they're gonna be cuffed in the front, they need to be in a three-piece suit with the ankle shackles and the belly chain. Or just cuff them in the back. If a lot of time it's it's a short ride and it's gonna be uncomfortable. I'm sorry you have to go through that. But I usually cuff in the back and then I put the seatbelt on and I pull it all the way out to where it locks, and then I let it go back in. So they're locked in place. That they have no stretch to where they can get out. But putting them in front without a belly chain, they just have way too much maneuverability and they could cause so much drama for you, whether they pop a door and dive out because they're made of rubber and they're super athletes, or whatever. They start choking you, God forbid, or you know, grab the wheel and yank you into a ditch. Just don't be riding with them in a non-locked seat belt with their hands in the front, just because you trust them. Even though you're taking their freedom, you trust them to just do you right. So I ask you to take transports very seriously. That's kind of like a free bonus on this episode because I charge so much for my content normally. You're welcome for that huge bonus freebie. But be careful with skinny people and people that can slip out of handcuffs, especially if they're sweaty. And be very careful on transports because it can be the time. Thanks for listening.