In the summer of 1993 I had to shoot a female who had threatened her son and then barricaded herself in a bathroom with a knife. As the event unfolded, the female almost scored a direct hit on one of my partner’s face. He was able to get a shot off with a Taser, but only one dart made contact. She then charged him with the knife (only about 5 feet separated them). I was able to get off a shot which struck her in the upper right quadrant of her back. The 9mm round knocked her to her knees . . .
My partner had fell backwards from her at this point. The female then rose up continued her attack on him. My second shot was center ring on the chest, which ended the attack. The autopsy found that the first round had entered the back of her heart and exited just to the right of the entrance of my second round.
The female had previous contact with the police when she had taked a baby from a couple on the beach and was getting ready to smash the baby on the riprap when she was tackled by a Marine who was jogging by. At the time of my encounter she had been on probation and was not on her court-ordered meds.
As usual, the son who called us sued us for unnecessary force. A jury acquited us. I’ve had the hammer back on several suspects over the years but never had to pull the trigger because common sense came over them.
