Archive for December, 2008

I’d like to take this time to thank to all the police and forensics experts who make this site possible. Without their time, effort, and dedication there would be no Graveyard Shift, and the world would be a very scary place to live. You guys are the best.

* More tomorrow. For now…

“Happy New Year, everyone. Please don’t drink and drive!”

*    *    *

Don’t forget To enter the new 200 word contest. The winner will receive a three DVD set of the entire first series of Crime 360! Details here.

(DVDs courtesy of A&E Television)

The call came in as “Shots fired. Several people injured.”

This was nothing new. Hell, it was Saturday night. Well, technically it was Sunday morning – 2am. I don’t think closing time at Fast Freddie’s Hip Hop Lounge ever passed by without some sort of fracas – cuttings, stabbings, fist-fights, or shootings. I still sport a nice scar across the palm of my right hand I received while taking a rather large knife from a guy who thought he was tougher than the alcohol he’d consumed allowed.

Bill, my partner, and I were only two deputies working the entire county, and we were already headed in that direction. Closing time at Freddie’s was a part of our weekend agenda.

I switched on the lights and siren and stepped on the gas. “10-4. Enroute,” Bill said into the mic. “Send an ambulance, but have them wait down the road until we send for them. It might not be safe.”

Freddie’s mall-size parking lot was filled with people running in all directions. Cars nearly rammed us as they left with tires yelping against the heavily littered pavement. I threaded my patrol car through the crowd and traffic, stopping near the front entrance, a set of double glass doors that had been freed from their hinges by the escaping crowd of panicked people.

Bill and I stepped out of the car and immediately heard the burst of automatic gunfire. Dirt exploded at our feet. My first thought was of my Kevlar vest lying under my bed at home. It was a hot night and I’d decided not to wear it. Dumb.

Bill dove inside the car. I ran toward the building. My portable radio crackled then I heard Bill calling for backup, an almost a moot request. If we wanted help we’d have to wait for the lone state trooper to drive in from his ticket-writing location out on the interstate, twenty miles away. Of course the city could send some of their officers out to help, but they were at least fifteen miles away.

The incident would be over before help arrived. What “over” meant for Bill and me, I didn’t know at that point.

The dance floor was peppered with 9mm bullet casings, plastic cups, beer bottles, crack pipes, cigarette butts, plastic bags, and blood. Not my idea of a party.

The shooter was nowhere to be seen, but one of the club’s bouncers identified him as one of our local drug dealers, Shelton Lee. Apparantly, he’d slipped outside with the last herd of people. The injured people had also been taken away. The unwritten rule of nightclub injuries is to remove the wounded so they can’t talk to the police. Yet, I knew I’d find each of them in the emergency room in a few minutes. They’d be easy to spot, too. They’re the ones with the bullet holes.

Bill and I located Lee about an hour later. He was driving through one of the neighborhoods he’d claimed as his territory. After a brief pursuit, he stopped his car and fired a short burst of bullets in our direction, dropped the gun, a fully automatic Uzi, and ran.

It was a short foot pursuit, two blocks or so. I caught him and had him cuffed before Bill reached us. He and I helped the little darling to his feet and led him back to our car.

For all the chaos and injuries he’d caused, the judge sentenced Mr. Lee to one year in jail with eight months suspended. Two days after his release he drove by my house and fired a single shot through my bedroom window.

And people wonder why I don’t give out my personal information. Geez…

* This is a true story. The names of the players and business have been changed to protect the innocent…me.

*    *    *

Don’t forget To enter the new 200 word contest. The winner will receive a three DVD set of the entire first series of Crime 360! Details here.

(DVDs courtesy of A&E Television)