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Late one night in 1989, a shot rang out from a nice home in a quiet neighborhood. It occurred in a place where nothing bad was supposed to happen. A woman lay bleeding on her kitchen floor as an unknown male fled the scene. The suspect had forced his way into her house and shot…
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I vividly remember the first dead body I encountered as a young deputy. My partner and I responded to a missing person call, only to find the old man deceased in his backyard. Though the experience unnerved me, the older, veteran officer was unfazed. As we waited for the coroner to arrive, my partner laughed…
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I’ve spent many hours testifying in court during my career. There have been times when I left the witness stand feeling like I’d been beaten up. Examination by a criminal defense attorney can be exhausting, so it is especially satisfying when I score a win. I once testified in a case where an intoxicated woman…
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I met Otis at a shelter in 2015. He had lived an unusually rough life, spending the past five years surviving on the streets of West End. His hair was matted, he had teeth missing, and he had a noticeably bad eye. Every time I reached out to Otis, however, he bit me. He wasn’t…
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Effective policing often involves being in the right place at the right time. I found myself at that place one night when a vehicle pursuit began on the interstate. A state trooper attempted to conduct a traffic stop, but the driver refused to pull over. What began as a small chase in another county turned…
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I received an interesting telephone call at the office one day. A mom I knew asked me about a certain neighborhood. Her son had just bought a house there, and she wanted to know if it was a safe area. I paused a moment and stared at the phone. “Safe? Compared to what?” I asked.…
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As a young deputy sheriff, I often found it difficult to stay out of my own way. It amazed me as much as anyone that they issued a badge and gun to my immature self. It’s only by the grace of God that I survived those years. One day, Dispatch called me off patrol to…
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“The Judge is standing at the door!” (James 5:9) When I was a patrol sergeant, another agency called me to the scene of a barricaded suspect in their jurisdiction. A patrol officer tried to stop a vehicle occupied by a wanted suspect. Instead of stopping, the guy drove home, got out of the car, and…
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I’ve flown commercial airlines many times. On a few occasions, I flew with missionary bush pilots. Bush pilots take flying to another level. These guys fly in the remotest regions of the world and land on the crudest airstrips. I once flew with a bush pilot in a single-engine Cessna in rural Africa. The flight…
