911:Shit happens;be prepared (long venting)

[Guest guest]

Tree,

Admitedly I'm a newcomer to this venue but have learned a lot from

" listening " and occasionally throwing in my two cents. I read your posting

and decided that I needed to speak up.

Thank you - it is an incredibly inadequate phrase, but I mean it from my

heart. I have been dispathing for 5 years now in a little county up here in

Montana. We don't have many " major " crimes that the big cities do, but in my

5 years here we've had several homicides and last month the first officer

involved shooting in 13 years. I was working it and have never been so angry

and afraid in my life.

It was a domestic - nothing unusual, but there was something " wrong " about

the whole thing that I couldn't put my finger on. The caller was a 12 year

old girl who had locked herself in the bathroom while her father yelled at

(and beat) her mother in the livingroom. The girl was calm at first and then

began to panic as the voices in the livingroom stopped. Then the gunshot

followed. We were able to get the little girl out of the house via a

bathroom window - she was on a cordless phone so we were able to keep in

contact to " hear " what else was going on. Deputies arrived just as we got

the girl out of the house - but they reported smoke coming out of one of the

windows. After telling the girl that the officers were there she stated that

she knew that because they were inside searching the house (it wasn't an

officer, it was the father. . .looking for her). The end result was that the

father charged out of the house searching for his little girl (with gun in

hand) and promptly was challenged by a Deputy to drop his weapon. He didn't,

he attempted to get a sight on the officer and fire. The Deputy fired first

and the suspect became a DOA. The full story came out afterwards - the

suspect had beaten the female victim so violently that he literally knocked

every tooth out of her mouth, then he shot her twice in the head at point

blank range.

The Deputy involved came to dispatch afterwards to talk to the 3 of us

working - I hugged him and wept. We did have a Critical Stress Debriefing

and for once dispatch was included. They hadn't thought that we needed it

before, you know since we weren't on scene. But we were there - imagining

the layout of the house, where the father was, where the girl was. We didn't

know about the gun until it was almost too late. I still dream about that -

about being too late. I'm told I'll " get over it " eventually. I truly doubt

that.

We are a small community around 75,000 and Beaver Cleaver doesn't live here

- but things like this " aren't supposed to happen here, it's Montana - not

like those big cities " . Sadly the big city problems aren't limited, they've

come here. Thank you Tree - I needed that. (Sorry if this was too long -

<sheepish grin>)

Up in Montana

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