BEHIND THE BADGE

As I ran to help James, I yelled for the waitress to call the police department on the payphone in the lobby.  She was attempting to make the call, but she didn’t have the correct change to make the call and didn’t think to call the operator.  [911 service was not yet established in Bakersfield]. The waitress was hysterical and had large amounts of mascara running down her face. James was underneath the suspect at this point, somehow, we had rolled into the parking lot of the restaurant and I knew that James was going to die if I didn’t stop this mad man.  I said a quick prayer to God, knowing that if what I was about to do didn’t work, the suspect would have to be shot to stop his attack.  Jumping onto the back of the bad guy, I placed a chock hold around his neck, squeezed with all my strength on his carotid arteries and hoped the suspect would collapse.  This hold can be dangerous, but it was better than putting three or four 9mm rounds into the guys back.  The giant stood up, raised me completely off the ground with me on his back and then - collapsed to the ground.   It worked!!!!   Amen!!!!

Feeling relieved that I could now place plastic cuffs on this monstrous man, I began to do so, when I noticed the crowd moving in on my and my partner.  I knew I would only have one chance to get out a call for help, so I ran to the car radio and as calmly as I could say it, “1 Adam 9,…..999….officers need assistance Spanky’s Restaurant….999….”.  I didn’t wait to hear the response from the communications center, but I ran back to my partner and the suspect.  Various persons from the crowd then began throwing rocks, bottles and an occasional fist at us, but in the background I could hear the troops coming.  Sirens, sirens, sirens….from every direction were approaching [remember the bond?].  Police units were approaching the parking lot from the wrong side of the road, Sheriff’s units were skidding into the parking lot with their police dogs and within one minute, I had over 10 units on scene.  As one of the men in the parking lot was preparing to throw another bottle, I saw him taken down by a Bakersfield Officer.  Within thirty seconds, the bad guys were all cuffed and about 10 people went to jail that night.  Suddenly, there was a television news crew on the scene and with my face bleeding,  I was being interviewed with a camera in my face about the incident.