Bruises and Paper Work

At my job I've encountered several scuffles, but none that I really count as all out brawls. Of course, I knew my time would come eventually. And it came this past week.

Unfortunately I was very sick. I had no almost no voice whatsoever and had a terrible cough. One of my teammates offered to chauffeur me around and we partnered up for the night.

For those few random people who read this blog and don't know me you should know I'm kind of a small girl. My partner for the night however is not. He's a good 6'2 -220+ lbs.

It's 4 in the morning, the ground is wet from a freak snow spring snow fall. Myself and my partner, call him J for short, get ready to knock on a house door because we see someone with a warrant had just walked in. Before we can knock that male comes walking out the door towards us.

We exchange a few words (or I attempt to because I have no voice) and our suspect turns to start running. He makes it about 3 steps before he slips on the wet grass. J, who was closer to the male to begin with, tackles him in attempts to keep him on the ground. Now our suspect is probably a good 6'0, 180 lbs. So I am the little Chihuahua in this fight. Suspect starts resisting and rolling around, throwing elbows at J. I jump into the pile in attempts to control our suspect. This suspect now starts throwing elbows at me and pops me in the mouth. I deliver a couple knee strikes but nothing seems to be working.

One thing that is almost impossible to explain and convey until you've been there, is how quickly fights change and things can either escalate or deescalate. Also, as police, we have to react to what the suspect does and match suspect actions, we can rarely act first.

So as quickly as the three of us our rolling around on the cold, wet ground on the lawn and sidewalk, I hear my partner yell. "He's got my gun! He's going for my gun." As you may or may not know, once a suspect begins going for the deadly weapons, we automatically elevate our behavior to deadly force. Believe it or not, those holsters that hold our duty weapons are not impossible to defeat.

So now I'm thinking "Ok, time to shoot this guy who's trying to shoot us." Unfortunately I was a bit pinned by the two heavy guys rolling around who now have rolled onto my lower half. I think I better get into a better position if I need to deliver deadly force so I don't shoot my partner.

As I shimmy on up to get into position the suspect to jumps out. Deadly force is no longer necessary. Me and J are able to pull him back down again.

I've had this tazer attached to my belt for a year now and I've never got to use it. I'm pessimistic in how it will handle but I figure I'd give it a shot (No pun intended...well maybe it was) I pull out my Tazer and drive the prongs into suspects lower back and pull the trigger. I know it's working because the suspect immediately tightens up and I can smell flesh burning.

I was amazed at the instant compliance we received. He shot his arms out from under his body and yelled to us he was done fighting. Me and my partner are winded and of course were all a bit beat up.

It was the best feeling in the world to hear the sirens and see the lights of our fellow officers (as we call it the Cavalry) respond to our location and grab the suspects wrists in order to apply cuffs.

A first fight, a real fight, as I've figured out, was alot of fun and very intense. Unfortunately, it also comes with ALOT of paper work.

But the best words one can hear is all the good guys are OK and the bad guy goes to jail.