Talk…Smoke…Pray…Cross your fingers – InkFreeNews.com

John “Butch” Dale
Guest Columnist

If police officers are on duty long enough, they will be called upon in a situation where a person is threatening to commit suicide.

This has happened to me three times in my years as a deputy sheriff and county sheriff, and each time the person was armed with a gun. This is something they didn’t teach you to do in the police academy. You are on your own. …This is what happened to me the first time…

One summer day I worked at the Darlington Library as usual from 11:00 to 18:00 and then started my 7:00 to 4:00 shift as a deputy sheriff. As soon as I started patrolling, I was sent on a call to a house in Darlington. I knew this family.

My husband was my student when he was in high school. A woman told me that she told her husband that she wanted a divorce. After a heated argument, the husband drove off in his truck. He carried a bottle of whiskey and a 12 gauge shotgun…definitely not a good combination. The woman told me he might head to the local fishing pond “to end it all.”

I quit smoking for two days, hoping to break my bad habit, but the first thing I did when I left her house was go buy a pack of cigarettes. Five minutes later, I spotted the man’s pickup truck parked near a pond on a dead-end road off Highway 47 North. I informed the control room about the situation and sent reinforcements. As I approached the truck on foot, I said a short prayer and touched the cross that hung on a necklace under my duty shirt. My hand was on the handle of a Smith & Wesson revolver.

My former student was driving. He held the gun between his legs, his thumb on the trigger, and the barrel in his mouth. The hammer pulled back. A bottle of whiskey sat on the seat… half empty. I knew that light pressure was enough to fire the shot. He saw me through the passenger window, took the gun out of his mouth and put it under his chin.

I called him by name and begged him to “not do anything stupid”…and told him I was going to get in his truck and talk to him. He said I could… but first I would have to put the gun on the hood of his truck, which I did… and then he lit a cigarette and said another little prayer to himself.

A few minutes later, the sheriff and several other officers arrived on the scene. I asked them to keep some distance because the situation could get worse… the more he drinks. Well, I talked… and talked… and smoked one cigarette after another… lighting the next cigarette before the previous one.

I told this guy how much I thought of him as my former student and as the father of his children… and how much he would have to live even if his marriage didn’t work out. As I spoke, he took a couple more sips and then asked for a cigarette…removing his thumb from the trigger.

We talked for about an hour until it got dark outside. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, and I told him I couldn’t stop him, but that I would probably get hurt too… from 12-gauge buckshot flying into the cab of the truck. I noticed that he began to listen more and agree with what I told him… and he began to slur his words and became more sleepy. Twenty minutes later he vomited… some of the liquid got onto my duty pants.

Ten minutes later my former student lost consciousness. I grabbed the shotgun, lowered the hammer and threw me out the passenger side window. I called an ambulance and got out of the truck while my fellow police officers pulled the man out, handcuffed him, and laid him face down on the grass. He was unconscious.

I followed the ambulance to the hospital, where he was admitted with alcohol poisoning… While I was sitting, I was completely immersed in what I had to go through… I went outside to smoke… I had nothing left. I smoked the whole pack in an hour and a half. My former student got divorced, but got his life back on track. He was a good guy who had just gone through a difficult time in his life.

A few years later, he died tragically in a car accident.

Later in my career I encountered the same situation two more times. Each time the man was armed with a pistol and had his finger on the trigger. And every time I sat next to them and talked them out of it… and every time I said a prayer… and every time I smoked a whole pack of cigarettes. I’m lucky.

I quit smoking after I left the sheriff’s department. I thank God that I knew all three of them in advance. I thank God that I had the gift of talking to people in such difficult situations… and at that time I thanked God that I had a pack of Marlboro cigarettes.

I have been out of law enforcement for 22 years… and memories like these still linger in my mind. Almost every week I have dreams about police incidents in which I was involved… Other police officers will tell you the same thing…