My First Shooting
One hot Saturday afternoon I was working dayshift in a pretty large city. I was in field training and it was nearing the end of our shift. My FTO (Field Training Officer) had the mentality a lot of senior dayshift officers have, which was to do as little as possible. We were not on call and were just patrolling our beat when the radio crackled “east patrol to any George unit that can clear for a signal 37 priority 1 on New York.” By asking for a George unit the dispatcher was asking for a unit in that district to clear for the call.
Well no one spoke up. The next thing I heard was “Ed 112 copy a signal 37.” In the lingo of the department Ed was short for Edward which was the district we were working. The 1 signified dayshift and the 12 denoted our beat. A signal 37 is a shooting. So she had called my unit number and told me to copy a shooting. George district was in our division but a good distance away.
I was excited; it was going to be my first shooting call. So off we went running code 3 (lights and siren) to one of the roughest parts of the city. It was also an area I was not familiar with because it was not my normal patrol area.
Once the call was dispatched to us several units cleared their calls and took assists to help us out. It’s funny how that works, no one wanted to be the primary officer, but they cleared to come help as soon as someone else got the call.
We arrived on scene after several other units because we were so far away. I was pretty overwhelmed since it was the first shooting I had been to. The victim was dead in a car, shot in the eye. I don’t remember much, my FTO and other officer’s did most of the work. I do remember that the shooting was drug related and that there was not an arrest made. I never heard if an arrest was made later.
The media showed up. I remember thinking “this is pretty cool, this is my call and the news is here.” Later after I got home I made sure to watch the news, sure enough I was on the news. They had video of my FTO and me talking to the homicide detective that had come out. I looked like I knew what I was doing. Funny thing is I was just following my FTO around.
That was an exciting call. I was pretty certain I was the first in my class to work a shooting/homicide.
Well no one spoke up. The next thing I heard was “Ed 112 copy a signal 37.” In the lingo of the department Ed was short for Edward which was the district we were working. The 1 signified dayshift and the 12 denoted our beat. A signal 37 is a shooting. So she had called my unit number and told me to copy a shooting. George district was in our division but a good distance away.
I was excited; it was going to be my first shooting call. So off we went running code 3 (lights and siren) to one of the roughest parts of the city. It was also an area I was not familiar with because it was not my normal patrol area.
Once the call was dispatched to us several units cleared their calls and took assists to help us out. It’s funny how that works, no one wanted to be the primary officer, but they cleared to come help as soon as someone else got the call.
We arrived on scene after several other units because we were so far away. I was pretty overwhelmed since it was the first shooting I had been to. The victim was dead in a car, shot in the eye. I don’t remember much, my FTO and other officer’s did most of the work. I do remember that the shooting was drug related and that there was not an arrest made. I never heard if an arrest was made later.
The media showed up. I remember thinking “this is pretty cool, this is my call and the news is here.” Later after I got home I made sure to watch the news, sure enough I was on the news. They had video of my FTO and me talking to the homicide detective that had come out. I looked like I knew what I was doing. Funny thing is I was just following my FTO around.
That was an exciting call. I was pretty certain I was the first in my class to work a shooting/homicide.
posted by TexasCop at 20:42
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