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MAY 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 5 - Austin Cover

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MAY 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 5 - Austin Cover • National Police Week • Memorial Services in Austin, Houston & Harris County • Are You Prepared to Stay Alive: A Officer Survival Guide • DC Cops race, crash, and get beat up by one officer's momma • Warstory/Aftermath - White cop shoots black teenager in the back

“You have the right to

“You have the right to remain silent and not make any statement. Any statement you do make could and will be used against you at trial. You have the right to have an attorney prior to or doing any questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand these rights as I’ve explained to you?” Over the years, I’ve read those rights to hundreds of suspects, but have never had them read to me. As we drove away from the scene, a million thoughts raced through my mind. Who was this kid I shot and why did he do what he did? Why did he shoot at me? Who is his family, and did they know their 15-year-old kid was out at 3am committing crimes? Where did he get a gun? Whose gun was it? Was the gun used in other crimes? Has he committed other crimes? How old was he when he started this life of crime? Is he a dropout or does he go to school? Are his parents good or bad? Are they crooks too? Who taught this kid how to shoot a gun? How many people has he shot before? Has he killed anyone? How are the two carjacked victims doing? Has the ME showed up on the scene WORDS BY SGT. WHITE and how are my guys doing back there? I wonder if they called my Captain. I wonder if the news is there. Oh shit, do you think they’ll mention my name? What if my wife sees the news? Oh shit, what if my mom and dad see the morning news? Surely, they won’t name me. I need to call my family as soon as we get to the station. Damn, what about my unit? Who’s going to drive it back to the station? Did I leave the keys with my guys? What if that kid’s mom sees this on the news and goes to the scene and sees her son laying on the bare concrete, in an alley under a sheet? I can’t even imagine if that was one of my kids. Wait! He was shot turning around. The round hit him in the middle of the back. You don’t think they’ll think I shot him on purpose in the back? That’s not what happened. Who’s going to write that down? Who’s going to make sure they know he was shooting at me? Did they collect all the bullets fired at me? I wonder if those rounds are in my car? Where was I when I shot back? Let’s see, I was standing just outside my car…. that means the rounds ejected to the right and …. should have landed inside the car…yeah, they’d be inside my car…someone needs to find those rounds. Wait how many times did I fire… twice …yeah twice…or was it three times…yeah maybe three times. I need to check my clip so I know who many rounds I fired and then look for those casings. Wait, they have my gun. Who took my gun? Yeah, this guy’s partner. You think he’s looked at my gun? I wonder when I’ll get it back. Wait? How am I going to drive home without a gun? I mean, surely they’ll want to test fire it…collect a sample of the round…compare it to the round that struck the kid? How long will that take? What am I supposed to do for a gun in the meantime? I guess I can borrow one. Wait, I’ll be on desk duty, I don’t need a gun….no stupid, you must carry a gun it’s policy. Unless they make me stay home? I wonder if they’ll make me stay home. I know I’ll be on restricted duty pending an investigation. I wonder how long that will take? I mean it was a good shoot, right? The kid was shooting at me. Wait, who was there with me? Who saw him shoot at me? Oh yeah, his bullets hit my car. They’ll see that right? So, he shoots at me, I return fire and strike him…. that’s a good shoot right there….so I’m good. But what if they ask about why he was hit in the back? How could he be shooting at me if he was facing the opposite direction? But he WAS facing me. He was shooting at me. Wait, a bullet broke glass on my car… that’s what all these cuts are. Someone saw all these cuts and blood, right? I need to show this to the detectives when we get to the station. I’m sure they will help me document all this so I’m cleared of any wrongdoing, right? But wait, these guys work for the Das office. Why would they help me? They work to prosecute people. But I’m a cop not a crook, I didn’t do anything wrong. Right? Oh shit, I shot the kid in the back. But they can’t just assume that’s the way it happened. They’ll have to investigate and recreate the shooting to see what really happened? Right? I mean they are cops, and they must investigate. Recreate the scene? I wonder if they are doing that right now? Who is leading that I wonder? The Captain, he must be out there looking into this by now. He likes me. We work great together. He’ll want to know what went down, he’ll get to the bottom of this, recreate the shooting and know I did the right thing. Yeah, that’s what’s going on back there. Isn’t it? Let me go through this one more time. “Sgt” I was headed down the alley… “Sgt” … looking for a black male with blue jeans driving a… “Sgt” … He fired a shot at me and broke out my window and I shot back… one, twice maybe three times …... and then “SGT WHITE! …. What? I looked up and the Detective was standing outside the door of waiting for me to get out. I’m sorry Detective I guess I was somewhere else. “No problem Sgt, let’s go inside and get started on all the paperwork. Do you want to call your union rep before we do?” Union rep? Uhhh yeah, yeah, Union rep? I guess so. Do I need one? Is he asking me or suggesting that I NEED ONE? Yes, let’s call my union rep and union attorney please. “Okay Sarge, will do. Follow me to my office. We’ll wait on them before we take your statement, unless you’re comfortable getting started without them?” I have nothing to hide, why would I wait? Oh shit, are they going to try and make a case about shooting him in the back? Uh, I guess I’d better wait. “Are you sure, it’s pretty routine?” Do I trust this guy? Wait, he read me my rights BEFORE we left the scene. No, I’ll wait, if that’s ok? “Sure, Sarge, whatever you want to do is fine.” We walked down the hall to the DAs interrogation rooms, he opened the door and escorted me inside. I’ve been in here before. A couple of times actually with a couple of big cases I worked with one of the DAs lead investigators. I pulled out a chair to sit down. “Hey Sarge, can you sit on the other side of the table please? Thanks.” In that very instant, I realized I wasn’t the COP in this room, I was the SUSPECT. I was the guy sitting in the hot seat. I was the bad guy facing the two-way mirror and the cameras. I was the one being questioned. The one about to be charged with a crime and if you come clean with us, we’ll go easy on you. Just tell us what happened so we can work with you. If you did nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Would you like something to drink before we get started…. holy crap…I’m so fucked…. “Sarge…. Sarge …. Sarge?” Uh yeah what? I’m sorry. “Would you like something to drink while we wait for your attorney? OMG it’s really happening. No, I’m good. Wait! No, I’ll take a bottle of water please. An hour later, my union attorney showed up. The very first thing he said was, “Please tell me you haven’t talked or said anything to these pricks? They are not your friends, and they are not here to help you. They will fuck you every chance they get. So, from this point forward you only talk to me and no one else, got that?” Yes sir, I understand. I have like a million questions. “One thing at a time, but hold on” He stood up, walked to the door and yelled at the Detective standing outside the door. “I need a few minutes with my client. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANC- ES ARE YOU TO BE RECORDING US …GO MAKE SURE THAT FUCKING CAMERA AND MIC IS OFF, UNDER- STAND?” “It’s off sir, but we’ll make sure. Let us know when you’re ready and we’ll get started” “Ok, thanks” …. ”fucking pricks” For the next few hours, I recounted my story. Once for my attorney and about a dozen times for the detectives. I had to write everything down in a statement and my attorney had me change it like a dozen times, not the facts, but the way I described 62 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 63

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