Chapter Four......The other side....

As a police officer you develop a sixth sense if you will. I call mine, my "spidey" sense.......and mine was extremely acute. I had a certain ability about me as a police officer that others did not. No matter the day of the week, the time of day, or my location I could find a "scumbag" or otherwise trouble to get in.....I was affectionately dubbed a "dirt magnet" by my fellow officers for my afore mentioned gifts/abilities.......

It's late fall, near dusk, probably about 5 pm when I observe a gold colored older Ford Probe pull out from the parking lot of the "Church of Christ". Normally this wouldn't raise any red flags with me but as the Probe pulled out, it was accelerating heavily, breaking traction (peeling out) and nearly losing control as it swerved into the south bound, inside lane of travel and quickly was driving about 50 MPH in a posted 35 mph zone. I pulled within a hundred feet of the vehicle, just close enough to read the license plate. I called the information in to dispatch, which always starts with your radio number, mine being 302........so the call sounded something like this.......302 rolling 28/29 check southbound 22nd and J hwy......which means "Officer Miles was requesting information about the vehicles registration and a stolen check on a moving vehicle, and by giving the location usually means an impending vehicle stop. I usually ran vehicle plates, if I had time, before making a car stop so I might have the heads up if the vehicle were stolen, or the registered owner might be a dangerous felon......The return came back on this car as "no stolen" to a "John Doe" on a 1989 Chevy.....This let me know that the plate was on the wrong vehicle, and was just one more reason for caution. I let the sector car for the district I was in that I was going to be stopping this vehicle shortly, and if not busy requested that they assist. The car was now approaching a red stop light, and I planned after the light turned green, that I would initiate the stop, but the Ford Probe's driver had other plans. He ran the solid red stop light at 50 MPH, and narrowly missed cross traffic. Apparently this guy was going to force me to stop him before I wanted to. I slowed at the red light, turned on my emergency lights an siren, and safely pulled through the intersection. The probe instantly bolted, quickly accelerating up to near 70 mph, and it quickly turned on the first cross road. I informed dispatch that I was now in pursuit and my speed and location. The radio sounded an emergency radio tone and then the following traffic...."Officer needs assistance, vehicle pursuit at such, and such location"......3 units responded that they were en route to assist. After about 2 miles I quickly realized that the driver of this vehicle was out of control, and the charges I had did not out weigh the threat to the public on and near the streets, so I terminated the chase. But as luck would have it, the probe crashed into a parked car as it tried to negotiate a fast turn onto a side street, just as I radioed I was terminating. The driver instantly bolted, and I was now in foot pursuit. It was now surprise to me to see my suspect didn't have a shirt on, and had the balding leftover of a mullet flowing behind him. ....(just a quick interruption to my story, and this is primarily to new officers that may be reading this, if someone your dealing with doesn't have a shirt on, 9 times out of ten they are going to fight you, run, or otherwise be the focus of your attention, it's like a red-neck warning system, so I suggest when arriving on a call to find a shirtless subject, go a head and cuff them as soon as you can)..... I quickly caught the subject within a block or so. Even when bad guys are thinner and younger than you, they are rarely in good cardio shape and rarely have any ability to run further than a couple hundred yards. The cuff's went on smoothly, and the winded dirt bag starts yelling that he wasn't driving (even though he was the only in the car and I saw him behind the wheel). As I walk him back to my patrol car he starts the tough man strut, telling me how lucky I am that he's in handcuffs of he would "fuck you up"......I remind him that he was cowering like a frightened kitten when I caught him....... I can tell this guy is under the influence and soon discover this is an all to common arrest for me.........the care is not stolen, but the license plates are, he has no insurance, he has a revoked driver's license with a ten year denial, and numerous misdemeanor traffic warrants, child support warrants, and for failing to appear warrants. Also radio advises me he has an active restraining order against him, and that a sheriff's deputy will be en route to my location to "serve him". He is about 22-24 years old, 5 ft 10, 140 lbs. Dirty, smelly.....lots of poorly done tattoo work let's me know that he has been in prison. His dirty blond hair, is actually dirty.......He soon starts the familiar crying act as he sits in the cage of my patrol car, he also begins the all to often begging for a last cigarette, and saying how thirsty he is.......I deny the cigarette and his asking for water is a sign that he is under the influence of drugs......More often that not, people on street drug's, especially meth tend to be dry mouthed, with white crusties on the edges of their lips, and they tend to be incredibly thirsty..........He finally quiets down during the 10 minute ride to the jail. As I open his door and grab him, to stand him up, I notice that his skin is cold and clammy, as well as sweaty, even though it's maybe 65 degree's in my patrol car. I also notice that his speech is increasingly becoming slurred, and he seems to be getting to the top of his high.........

As I am waiting to release him to a booking officer, I take his pulse.....it's about 45 beats per minute...........I took it again 5 minutes later, this time it was 140. I tell the in-take medical officer, they tell me that I am going to have to take him by the ER to get him medically cleared before they can accept him.

Arriving at the ER, I have them assist me in getting the subject inside.......My prisoner starts being disruptive and starts spitting, and threatening staff, so the nurses decide to bypass triage, and take him directly to a room. His behavior worsens, and the medical staff place him in leather restraints, and they put a spit mask on him. Over the next ten minutes, as they are working on him, his pulse fluctuates from 30 beats per minute to almost 200, also his blood pressure is going back and fourth as well. AS they are hooking up an IV to him they tell me that he has most likely over-dosed and ask if we had found anything at the scene, which we hadn't but I tell them I suspected meth use within the last few hours......at this point the medical staff seems fairly concerned with him, but everyone is still joking around. Cops and emergency room staff see each other often enough that you are usually on a first name basis with each other. The prisoner's eye's start to roll up into his head by now, and his talking to himself when he loudly and clearly blurted out " No, no.....no I'm not ready. Don't take me, don't take me!" and then he immediately flat-lined..............Now I have seen people die before this, and a lot of already dead people, but this was different. Immediately the air in the patients room became cool, and thick. You could feel that there was a presence there, and that "they" were there to take him..........The medical staff tried to revive him for about 40 minutes, with no success......

Everyone was quiet after this, and we were all a little bit freaked out. We all knew that something from "the other side" had walked amongst us, and taken him. It was really creepy to consider, but the angel of death had been there and chosen him, and not us. One thing that really bothered me was that this guy really didn't sound like he wanted to go with them.......and I pondered that maybe he wasn't going someplace good.....

I had to call my supervisor, who notified detectives, and the medical examiner....anytime you have an "in-custody" death of a prisoner it is a big thing.....after an exhaustive review it was determined that I had not done anything wrong, or contributed to this subjects demise and that he had died from a massive over dose of methamphetamine taken probably as he was fleeing from me......

Up until this point in life I really wasn't sure if I believed in life after death, but after this I did for sure, and it scared me......I felt sorry for this guy, and wondered to myself how different he and I really were. What little things in his life had sent him down this road, and what a waste it was. Somewhere there were children that called him dad, and someone who called him son.