PATIENCE V. THE BARRICADE!

So I want to discuss a call for service that I went to, however a few things must be known prior to that so that we are all on the same page moving forward. 

Keep the following aspects in mind as we go through the call; not all critical incidents meet the criteria for an immediate response by Law Enforcement, sometimes it is better to be patient if the incident allows for it, sometimes exigent circumstances will require Law Enforcement to act with force in order to resolve the situation without major losses, Rapid response teams (i.e. SWAT, SERT, CNT, SRT, etc.) take a little while to get organized, and finally no matter what the incident has to be taken care of by law enforcement. Knowing all of that lets moving forward into the call for service.

Normal day working patrol, call comes out as a Critical Incident-Shooting with notes stating that multiple people called in regarding gunshots heard from a specific residence. At the same time child services calls stating that Social Services responded to the house to take custody of several children residing in the same residence, however was unable to do so because the subject refused to allow it and fired several rounds in the direction of where the social workers were standing. The social workers were not harmed and immediately ran from the residence to notify the local law enforcement of the situation.

Every unit available is dispatched the call which is normal and we all begin to converge on the residence keeping in mind officer safety because of the rounds shot at the social workers via the subject from the residence. In addition to that, there are possibly children inside the residence with the subject and we didn’t want to alarm the subject causing him/her to possibly harm the children in response. 

So Units get on scene and establish a perimeter surrounding the residence. Units keep eyes on the residence, clear the streets of any bystanders because weapons are involved, and block traffic so cars can’t get in the area. No one attempts to make contact with the residence, but we secured the surroundings just in case the situation goes south and exigent circumstances require Units to rapidly confront the subject.

While we are doing all of these things, response teams are gearing up to get to the scene as quickly as possible. Once the Crisis Negotiation Team arrives on scene and get into position contact is made with the subject in the residence. The subject states that he/she is upset because child services are taking their children away and that the system would have to take them over his/her dead body. It was confirmed that at least two children were in the residence, and by the conversation that the subject wasn’t going to just give up peacefully.

I was positioned on the perimeter of the residence facing the rear of the building, my job was to observed the rear making sure that the subject doesn’t attempt to flee or exits the residence without anyone knowing. I held a shotgun aimed at that house for several hours while CNT attempted to resolve the situation peacefully, they did well, and eventually the subject exited the residence with the two children without incident. The subject was taken into custody immediately and the children were given to child services. All went pretty smoothly overall.

When we searched the house, we discovered that the subject has enough guns and ammo to last a significant time if a gun fight ensued and that the house was barricaded to some extent…probably to slow down Units if entry into the residence was made. 

This incident was wrapped up nicely and no one was harmed. I imagine this incident could have been significantly worse if we weren’t patient with the subject, but we were able to determine that time was on our side and proceeded through the incident with that being always in mind. There were no exigent circumstances requiring a rapid response, so we waited it out and it was successful. If you take nothing from this, take this….be patient and things will proceed much smoother.

Patience v. The Barricade!