Pistol Pointing Pressure

I had a strange realization the other night. It is a good thing...just strange.

We get a call for a subject outside a residence trying to break in. As we arrive, I see this white guy with no shirt on running towards the backyard. I calmly put out, "322, white male no shirt, blue jeans running from us towards the alley to the west of the residence." I jump out of the car to the fence that is blocking my entry to the front of the yard. I pull my weapon out. At this point, I do not know if he is armed or not and I really have no idea what is going on. He could have just murdered someone for all I know.

One of our units goes to the back of the house and this guy comes back to the front yard. I notice he is bloody. I point my weapon at him. My partner is closer to him on my right.

PARTNER: "Hey! Police Officer. Keep your hands up and walk over here."

I put out over the radio, "322, we have the suspect in the front yard, one at gunpoint." The dispatcher quickly responds with, "10-4 322, one at gunpoint in the front yard, 10-33." 10-33 basically means the channel is to remain clear for us until we are safe.

NOSHIRT: "Why?"

PARTNER: "Because if you don't, we are going to shoot you."

NOSHIRT: "Oh, ok."

So he walks over to us. I keep him pistol pointed, my partner has him at taser point and another officer hooks him up, searches him and stuffs him in the back of his car.

My last transmission at this point was, "322, one detained 10-34." 10-34 means the 10-33 clearance is over. We are safe.

Now, here is where my realization came in. I am not breathing hard, my heartrate is not elevated and I am very calm. Jump back a year ago on a similar situation and I would have been shooting through the roof, sweating, breathing hard and in an adrenaline rush.

I think I have pistol pointed enough people and been in enough moderately stressful situations that I am getting used to it. That is a very strange thing to get used to. Pointing a weapon at a person who just committed a crime and is bleeding.

Now this "gentleman" had done nothing more than violated a protective order and cut himself running from us on a fence, but I am sure you can imagine how many different scenarios this could have been. He was drunk too and kept yelling, "Bonnie! I love you!"

I made a decision a while back to transfer to this area because it is a REALLY bad area. I did this after I made a stupid mistake on a code 3 run. I let the stress get to me and I was not thinking. I realized that I needed to be exposed to this kind of call more than once a month. I now handle calls like this once a night.

I love my job.