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.