Dear Readers, this is a very tough one. In the year that I have had Copcorner.net up and running, no article has come harder or caused me more pain to try to write. I ask you to take that into account as you read this. There will most likely be follow up postings on this incident, but today’s is coming at you straight from the heart. Frankly, I have had deep personal difficulty dealing with this and it may taint my efforts. If you note that, please cut me a break, at least just this one time. In trying to write from the “everyman” cop point of view, the emotional toll from mutliple officer killings can be overwhelming. Eventhough I have been going about my job the past four days after hearing this news, it has been very tough to hold it together. I won’t b.s. you on that. My resilience as an individual law enforcement professional has been tested to the max as well at that of our extended peace officer family.
There will be no tactical review here. That is best left for the use of force experts and professional homicide investigators, which I am not. I will also not engage in second guessing, speculating or perpetuating unconfirmed information. Whatever I present here will have a connection to verifiable investigative sources, or else I won’t present it. The reality is that an incident of this magnitude has many, many facets and effects on many levels. It will be my intent to deal with a few of these facets on my level, which I know best. And I am sure that some of you readers might take exception to what I write about these officers’ murders, but so be it. As always, I will skip the sugar coating.
When I first heard this news, I had just entered our afternoon watch briefing. I had been off for a couple of days and like many other people, I had been following weekend sports instead of news. I immediately spotted everyone else there wearing the black mourning bands across our badges. Someone walked up to me and handed me the roll of black tape and scissors. I asked “Oh my God, what happened?” The answer was, “haven’t you heard? Four officers got killed in Oakland.” (The fourth, Officer John Hege, had just died after being removed from life support by his family a short time earlier.) I immediately blessed myself, bowed my head and began praying, right there in briefing. Words cannot begin to express how hard it was to not begin crying. And keep in mind, I’m not a cryer.
I immediately felt totally drained, mentally and physically. The incident was discussed only in general terms so that everybody there could know what kind of incident it was, or in this case incidents. Without making any judgements whatsoever at such an early moment in the process of understanding, we began trying to glean learning points which would be the lasting legacy to us from the four dead officers. As I’m sure each officer in that room did, I immediately placed myself in those officer’s boots and began playing the tape in my head of what it must have been like and what my decisions and actions might have been at those critical moments. What did they know, what had they seen or heard, how had they processed that information and then decided on the actions that were taken?
When the Good Lord calls one of us home, the rest of us must learn from it as soon as possible. This is our agonizing, ongoing and endless task from the first day that we decide to become peace officers.
Over the next couple of days, I watched many hours of television news accounts, internet video and read countless on-line articles. I was looking for some consistency in the information. How had it really happened? We can’t really depend on media services to tell us the story. Nor would Oakland supervision necessarily know exactly what happened in such a short time of looking at their own incident. That’s just how it is. These incidents involve a large number of people, both law enforcement and civilian witnesses, and every person viewing events of this unspeakably horrific nature processes what they see, hear and feel about it very differently. Viewing the public killing of municipal police officers is a deeply life changing event for everyone involved, even remotely, so the bringing together of pertinent facts is a monumental and far from perfect task.
In my opinion, the investigation of on duty officer deaths is the ultimate test of one’s professionalism. Remember, the task is to determine how and why one of your own family members has met a violent death. Ask yourself, how would you function at such a time as that?
On Saturday, March 21, 2009, four Oakland Police Department Officers were shot and killed in the line of duty. A fifth was wounded, though not seriously. What an incredible couple of lines to write! Two officers were attacked during a traffic stop, an enforcement action taken by officers in our country thousands of times a day. Two more officers were ambushed while attempting to locate the same killer who had barricaded himself in his sister’s apartment, a short distance from the traffic stop shootings. In a typical work day, this operation is much less common.
As all of us know, the traffic stop is possibly the most dangerous contact in police work. Even the criminal and civil courts have repeatedly affirmed this. Also, building searches present a very high risk, especially when the suspect that is being sought has just murdered two policemen. These both have the potential to become nightmare scenarios in their own right. These Oakland policemen faced both of these scenarios within a short time frame and near phyical distance with truly tragic results…
The reality of modern day society is that there are literally tens of thousands of criminals walking our streets who have spent many years in prison and have committed crimes again or violated terms of their supervised parole in some other way. When the courts issue arrest orders to bring these hardened criminals back in off the streets again, our brave peace officers are the ones who are charged with locating, contacting and re-arresting them, all within the law and department policy. Many times, as in this tragedy, random circumstances make it so that the criminal finds us first. At that very moment, we must sort the pertinent facts out, react properly and effectively, and do the will of the courts. The criminal may have made the decision very early on to never, ever submit to the power of the state and allow him or herself to be rearrested. For many of them, it is simply kill or be killed. They see no other options for their miserable lives. They know that their next contact with police will end their freedom, possibly for the rest of their natural lives.
In this investigation, we will only be able to speculate because the killer has been killed. His mindset will be the subject of my next posting. However, again I ask you to be patient as there are much more pressing tasks to deal with.
Later today, funerals will be conducted in the East Bay area for Sergeant Mark Dunakin, 40 years of age, Sergeant Ervin Romans, 40, Sergeant Daniel Sakai, 35, and Officer John Hege, 41. Officers from around California and the country will have traveled to Oakland to be present and to stand with our extended family in this dark hour. I only ask that each reader, when you learn of this incident if you haven’t already, please offer a prayer in your own way for each of these brave men and especially for their families and colleagues on the Oakland Police Department. A very difficult job has been made incredibly more difficult for each of them. May God bless each and every one of them…
Thank you for being there, Dear Readers.
Tim
9 Responses to “The Oakland, Calif., Tragedy”
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