CHP MEMORIES

There was one summer evening in 1970, that forever changed my mindset regarding potential threats to my life. Sure, we had been taught at the Academy to always expect the unexpected, but some stereotypes don't go away easily. The threat of being harmed by a female wasn't near the top of my personal list.

I was working the swing shift, and a little after sunset, I stopped a possible drunk driver, south
bound on the I605 freeway, just south of Valley Blvd. After determining that this young male adult was indeed intoxicated, I arrested him and placed him in the patrol car. I then went back to the vehicle where a female passenger was seated in the right front seat. When I determined that she had also been drinking, I knew that I couldn't turn the car over to her, and that I would either have to transport her to a safe place off the freeway, or call for a taxi. She didn't want a taxi, and pleaded for me not to take her boyfriend to jail. At first, the pleas were based in desperation, then they became more angry as she realized that she was going to be separated from her boyfriend. It's what happened next that shocked me into the reality that threats can come from any direction.

I explained to this young women that I was going to give her a ride off the freeway, and she could make a phone call for someone to come and get her. This was not an unusual situation, as we often had passengers that for whatever reason, could not be given the keys to drive away. Sometimes, we would enlist the help of our beat partner to assist with either transportation, or to wait for the tow truck. I can't remember why, but in this particular incident, I made the decision to handle it by myself, which again, was very routine.

As we were standing to the right of the patrol car, I asked if she had any weapons, as I started to do a quick pat down from behind. We didn't have female officers in those days, and based on her anger toward me, there was no way I was going to give her a ride without being sure she wasn't a threat. Before I even touched her, she reached into her waist area with her right hand, and pulled out a 32 caliber, semi-automatic pistol. Her big mistake was that she turned to her right, while raising the weapon where I could see it before it was aimed at me. Had she turned to her left, I probably wouldn't have seen it until it was too late. Before she was completely turned toward me, I was able to grab her right forearm just as she pulled the trigger, and the gun discharged a projectile toward the San Gabriel River. In the next second or two, as we struggled, the weapon came out of her hand, and flew through the air toward the traffic lanes. The gun struck a passing vehicle, and discharged for a second time, and I have no idea what direction, or where that bullet went.

Now, the struggle was very personal! This gal had just tried to shoot me, and the anger was now being redirected back toward her. It didn't take me long to get her on the ground, get her handcuffed, and placed in the patrol car. When I recovered the handgun from the freeway, it still had 4 more rounds in the clip, and even though a 32 caliber bullet isn't the most powerful, it sure had the potential to do a lot of damage.

My routine drunk driving arrest had just escalated to an attempted murder case, and the amount of paperwork was proportionately increased as well. After my supervisor arrived at the scene, and after I had admonished this women of her right to remain silent, she was still angry and stated that she was trying to kill me so that she could free her boyfriend.

When her attorney later discovered that I had tape recorded her statements, he negotiated a guilty plea of assault with a deadly weapon, and this young women who only wanted to continue the evening with her boyfriend, ended up serving several years in state prison.

With this incident successfully in the experience column, and not somewhere else, I learned a valuable lesson. Just as we were taught at the academy, always expect the unexpected!