Chapter 29

Our Wednesday morning wake up was at three, so we were quickly up, showered, and dressed. A taxi dropped us at the station at three-thirty, where we met Larry coming in at the same time. I asked for, and was let into their equipment room, where I fit Wanda with a vest and found one in my size. I found two extra magazines for Wanda's Glock, then I checked out an MP5, five magazines, and a belt with pouches to carry the extra ammo. Larry almost started laughing when he saw us. "Jesus, Chuck, this is just a bunch of gang bangers, not anyone that's professional."

"Doesn't make any difference, Larry. You never know what you're going to run into and I'd rather be ready for anything. I'm interested in your snipers and the equipment they use. They may need to be very accurate today."

Larry nodded, "They are all good, and the equipment they use is the best."

Men continuously came through the door until Larry checked off the last man. As the men were eating their catered breakfast sandwiches, Larry said, "You all did good getting here on time and everyone is wearing their protective equipment. You know how we are going to take this place. We have practiced all of the accesses and approaches. We know how to catch folks that try to get out by the basement exits. The one thing we actually don't know is how many armed men are going to be in the main house, and how many will be awake and on guard. From the time you make entry, until the entire house is clear, don't take any chances. Protect your partner and yourself at all times. Deputy Johnson's assistant, Wanda, will be our checkpoint. Make sure you check in with her when your position is clear at the conclusion of this maneuver. Okay, good luck and be safe. Everyone go directly to your positions; when you hear the mike keyed and my 'Go, ' we start. Let's roll."

There were a total of thirty men. Five to go into each of the two side houses, five to go into the third floor of the main house, five for the front, five for the back, and five snipers. There were four snipers stationed around the house, observing now, but would come in later for additional mop up. Larry was to direct from his position and Wanda would be his sidekick contact. This was Wanda's first action and you could tell she was nervous. She would do a good job and I knew she would be safe. You have to let people learn.

Once in place, I was going with the five that were entering from the top. As a matter of principle, I would be the first up the rope to guard for the men climbing after me. Since we didn't know the strength of the railing no one would follow me up. When I knew the strength of the rail, I would signal 1, 2, or 3, as to how many men should climb at once.

I heard the "Go" in my earpiece and moved forward, leading my group. As soon as I approached the house, I noticed something strange about the windows. When I got up close there was a small sticker on the bottom of the window that said "Kevlar." I keyed my mike and said softly, "No flash bangs from outside. The windows are protected." I heard two clicks of the command mike, signifying he understood.

The rope man tossed the padded hook over the railing and pulled it tight without a sound. I pulled tight on the rope and immediately began the hand over hand climb to the third floor balcony. The railing didn't give at all on the way up and when I arrived, I saw that it was made of steel and was bolted into the deck and the walls. I quickly checked the window and glass paned door and turned, holding up three fingers.

As the five men were climbing the rope, I checked the door and gently turned the handle. It wasn't locked, but I didn't want to open the door until we were ready to enter as a group.

When all five men were on the balcony, I gave the motion we were going in. With the same hand signals, I motioned they should be sure to look in all directions and keep their heads down.

I pulled down the handle and yanked the door open. No alarm. When I stepped into the room, I almost stepped on someone's head. I knelt and covered the man's mouth, while the second man in cuffed him. We stuffed a T-shirt in his mouth and tied it in, using a pair of panty hose that was laying there. We pulled his feet together and used a giant tie-wrap to pull them together and to tie them to his cuffs. We had hardly made a sound. While this was going on, the other four men were all around the room making sure there were no other accesses.

A man entered the hallway and two men entered the first door and two more men entered the door farther down. The man that had helped me with our first capture went with me to the last door down the hall. When I opened the door, a head rose from a bed to see what was happening. I used the butt of the MP5 to keep the person quiet, and had to do the same to another person in the bed. We quickly gagged, handcuffed, and tie-wrapped them before coming back to the hall.

When all six of us were assembled by the stairs, I motioned down and we went down the stairs as quietly as we could. The stairs were old and creaked all the way down. As I hit the landing, a door opened and a man was coming out of the door with a handgun. I said, "Drop it" as I steadied the MP5 at him. He tried to raise his hand, but he died from the silenced burst from my rifle.

By this time, the other five men were on the landing and I directed them to the four other rooms on this floor. Before we could get to the door we were taking, a shotgun was fired from behind it, blowing a huge hole in the flimsy wooden door. Thinking another round would probably be coming, we both let go two bursts into the room and stood to the side of the door waiting for the next blast. Behind us, there were a couple of pistols shots and the rattle of the noise suppressed MP5s.

I turned the handle on the door with the hole in it and pushed it open. I saw two guys laying up against the far wall with lots of blood on them. My partner covered the room while I checked for pulses. One had a light pulse, but it was irregular. Neither was going anywhere. I picked up a handgun and shotgun and threw them out through the open window.

As we went back into the hallway, one of our men was being treated for an arm wound, and another for a wound to the thigh. Once they were wrapped, it left four us to go down the stairs. We could hear a commotion down there, and some shouted directions. As I peeked over the banister, someone from below began firing an AK on full auto. Thank goodness for inexperienced shooters. All the rounds went way wide of me.

I motioned that I was going to go down the stairs and they were to toss flash bangs at the count of three. I started down the stairs counting, and at four I closed my eyes. We saw the flash through our eyelids, and since we all had ear plugs over our ear pieces, we heard the muffled bang, but were not disabled from it.

Almost sliding down the stairs, I was confronted with six dazed men. They had one hand on a weapon and the other trying to get their ears working. They were looking, but not seeing, from being blinded by the bright light. I was taking the rifles away from the men as fast as I could. The second man down finished up for me as I hit the nearest door to me. Nothing there, so I went to the next, nothing there either. I heard pistol fire behind me, followed by extensive silenced rifle fire that increased in noise level as it continued. Silencers lose their effectiveness as you keep shooting. The fine steel wool packed into the silencer to absorb sound tends to weld itself together from the heat, resulting in no remaining noise suppression. While two men were occupied doing that room, my partner and I entered the other rooms until they were all clear. The two men that had been firing came over to the front door, threw it open, and flashed a light out toward the command vehicle. The five men assigned to the front closed in.

We made it to the back of the house to find the five men assigned to the rear, entering the kitchen door. There was an open door with steps leading down, so those five headed down the stairs.

I keyed my mike and said, "Two on the second floor need med assistance, both non-urgent. Five men coming in from the front, go to the third floor, clear the attic, and bring down the prisoners. Original entry men go back and clear the second floor. Turn on all lights now."

I began turning on lights and looking in places a person could hide. I did find a scared young girl in a closet, hiding among lots of clothes and a bunch of probably stolen goods. I tie-wrapped her hands and led her to the door and pointed to the yard. "Go out there and sit. If you move someone will shoot you."

She almost ran to the small grass patch and sat quickly, looking around frantically. I radioed again, "We need a cleanup crew on the second floor, first door to the right. There is a count of probably five on the second floor.

A big prisoner van pulled up to the curb in front of the house, and the handcuffed prisoners were being pushed into the van after being searched. Most were in their shorts or other underwear. I heard the command calling for two more prisoner vans. There must have been a bunch in the other two houses.

Once the prisoners were in the vans and our wounded were being tended to, I sent crews to each floor to search every nook and cranny for drugs, cash, weapons, or other contraband. Chicago uniforms began showing up, along with their gang division and detectives. We asked them to wait outside while we cleared the three buildings.

We recovered a few hundred grand in drugs, and about fifty grand in cash. The big find was six full cases of new AK-47s, along with about fifty cases of ammo. The weapons and ammunition were all stored in the basement and had to be lugged up the stairs.