Chapter 5

Lisa and I stopped at Steve's Holiday Inn Express to pick up Judith Benton and drove to our house. You could see the woman's eyes go wide as she saw the size of the home we lived in. I pointed out the cottages as we walked in, and told her that part of our extended family lived in them as well as over the rear garage.

Some of the ladies were playing with the little ones in the pool and all of them greeted us with hollers and waves. They luckily were all wearing swimsuits of sorts instead of their often nude swimming. Peaches was making some snacks as we went through the family room and kitchen, and asked if she could get us anything. I asked her, "How about some fresh coffee, Peaches. Do you want anything in your coffee, Ms. Benton?"

"Black is fine, Mr. Johnson, and do call me Judith, and I'll address you as Charles or Chuck."

Peaches gave out a hearty laugh and informed Judith, "Honey, that boy is all 'Chuck'. There ain't a 'Charles' bone in his body." Peaches continued laughing as she made some fresh coffee. Lisa stayed with Peaches as I led the counselor into the living room.

There were only a couple of toys scattered around, so we should be fairly private for a while. Judith opened her briefcase and brought a stack of files out. She opened the first one and said, "I'll read you your report, and then you can describe what transpired to the best of your memory. The first file that had my attention was a confrontation you had in Hawaii. Your assistant, Wanda Johnson, John Scott, the field head of the Marshal Service, and the U.S. Marshal over Hawaii, accompanied you. According to the report, a person began randomly firing a weapon at a crowd. You pushed the people you were with into a doorway alcove, attacked the shooter, and killed him. The report states the shooter shot you and pulled a knife as you were disarming him. It further states that you killed the man with your bare hands as you disarmed him. Don't you regret taking the man's life like that? Couldn't you have disabled him and not killed him?"

I looked up at the woman and said, "It took you longer to recite what the report said than the actual takedown. Something like that happens so fast it is over almost as soon as it starts. I knew I had to drop the guy when I lunged at him and he shot me. I was able to knock the gun from his hands, but he pulled a large knife and attempted to stab me as he fell. I had to defend against the knife and attempt to disable the man at that point in the confrontation. My blow to the man broke his neck and killed him instead of just disabling him."

Judith looked at me and asked, "Don't you have bad dreams about killing someone with your bare hands?"

"I try not to think about it, Judith. The man was going to kill many other people, as well as me, so that he died in the commission of the crime is regrettable, but even you have to admit that it couldn't be helped. I see your file has a CD that I'm sure has the video of the incident. Have you watched it?"

Judith pulled the CD and said, "I haven't watched the incident as most videos are not clear and the viewer can't see everything necessary to make a good decision."

"I saw this one and it was filmed by a news video cameraman. Let's put this in the video system and watch it in the family room. Come on, this should give you some idea of what that incident was all about."

We went to the family room where I put the CD or DVD into the video player and turned the big wide screen TV on. Judith and I sat on a couch watching the entire incident unfold. The actual action lasted less than thirty seconds, but the ramifications lasted another hour. As the video concluded, Judith asked, "Why did you get mad at the reporter when she asked if you had to kill the man?"

"You saw what happened. The man shot me, and then tried to stab me. That was after he began firing at a crowd. What should I have done? Nothing? Should I have just watched the man kill several people? I'm a law enforcement officer charged to defend the public. I defended the public and silenced the perpetrator. I did my job."

I led Judith back to the living room after removing the CD from the player.

The women came in with the little ones as we sat down to begin reviewing another file. Sam and Dan came staggering in to see me, as did the twins. The women gathered the kids, but the mood was definitely broken. I suggested, "Why don't we run out to Park Place and sit in their cocktail lounge. It's always peaceful in there even if they have a piano player. We can have a snack and something to sip."

Judith gathered her briefcase and rode out to Park Place with me. We walked into the quiet area with the pool hall bar on the other side of the bar and wall. The design of the place gave people such as Judith and me a quiet place to sit and talk.

I asked for some of the favorite little Italian calzone snacks, and we both had a glass of wine. Judith pulled another file and began talking about the raid we did down in Texas where the little girl was almost beheaded. I told her how disgusting that whole operation was and that it was too bad we couldn't have shut them down faster, with fewer casualties to the good guys. I told her that everything I had done, up to the point when the guy running from the building shot me point blank, had been defending my people. The man who shot me was killed by my weapon, but it was reflexive and I don't remember it, since I was already going down when I fired.

Judith asked, "Do you feel bad that you killed that man?"

"No, Judith, I don't mind that I took him out, because he shot me and was trying to kill me. That was purely defensive. Even you have to believe that."

Judith smiled and said, "I do believe you and I think those men all deserved to die after seeing the video of that man cutting that little girl's throat. That was horrible."

She began looking through her files and just folded them up and put them into her briefcase. She said, "I need to look at all of these again and review the videos of each of them before we continue. Maybe I can better relate to what you have gone through with what you've told me this evening."

"Thank you, Ma'am. I appreciate that you are seeing what happened as something that had to be done, and was done only because it was the only way to resolve the problem at the time. They don't talk about the times I've brought in people that were never shot and still alive. The only incidents they dwell on are the ones where someone ends up dead. Thank goodness that I haven't lost a man working with me so far."

I paid our bill and said goodnight to the bartender and waitress. We were walking toward the car when we heard someone on the other side of a big SUV, "Give me your money and you, Lady, give me your jewelry. You, Buddy, give me that Rolex and be quick about it."

We heard a lady squeal and then a shot rang out, "That's what you get for trying to defend your whore, you stupid shit. You ain't dead and you're lucky. You bitch, get that jewelry off or I'll shoot you too."

I pushed Judith down and had my Glock out as I crouched down to move around the back of the SUV. The man said, "Give me your keys and get over in front of the car. Move now or I'll shoot you again."

It was then that I moved behind the man and put the barrel of the Glock to his head. "Don't move, don't flinch, and drop the gun. I'm a Deputy U. S. Marshal, and you're under arrest."

The man tried to quickly turn and knock the gun from my hand. I raised the gun and swung the gun hand down to knock his weapon away, and used my fist to hammer the side of his head at the same time. The man collapsed at my feet. I kicked the robber's pistol away from us and leaned down to push the man on to his face. I didn't have anything to restrain him, so I yelled, "Judith, call 911 and tell them there is a robbery in progress at Park Place in Land o' Lakes."

I pulled the man's shirt down to hold his arms and noticed his belt. I undid his belt and as he was coming back around, I pulled his hands together and cinched the belt as tight as I could get it.

I asked the male victim, "Are you hurt bad? I heard you get shot."

The guy said, "It's only a flesh wound on my arm. The gun he was using was something like a 9 mil and he didn't seem to know how to use it."

The woman was trying to pick up the jewelry that had spilled on the ground. She picked up the man's watch and handed it to him. She said, "He put your wallet in his pocket. Get that from him."

I said to the two, "Wait for the cops. They need to search the guy and account for everything he took from you."

Judith came up to me and said, "You didn't kill him. I saw him try to swing around to shoot you, but you didn't kill him. You only hit him and knocked him down. I'm surprised that you didn't shoot him."

"He was too easy, Judith. He didn't know what he was doing and thought he could surprise me. The gun never came around far enough to be pointed at me, so there was no reason to shoot him."

The guy on the ground was cursing and trying to get up, but I had my prosthesis foot on him, holding him down. I told the guy, "Lie still; you could still die while trying to get up, you know. I'll let you sit up if you're a good boy."

I pushed the guy around so he could sit leaning against the SUV's tire. We could hear sirens on their way and I asked Judith, "Did you ask for an ambulance too?"

The woman had a bad case of the shakes, and said, "I told them there was robbery in progress and someone had been shot. I'm sure they felt they should send a paramedic."

Two County Sheriff's cars slid to a stop where we were standing and both Deputies came out of their cars with their handguns out of their holsters. I waved my badge and pointed at the trussed up robber.

One Deputy was removing the belt that was holding the man's hands while the four of us gave our statements. The Deputy made a mistake and didn't put one of the cuffs on the man first, and the man swiveled and punched the Deputy when he was reaching for his cuffs. The officer was hurt and sunk to his knees. The robber was reaching for the Deputy's sidearm as I lunged at the man. I was able to knock him back, away from the downed Deputy, but the man landed right where his pistol had landed. As the robber picked it up and turned to us, the Deputy taking statements fired his weapon three times putting the man down. I had reached for my weapon, but the Deputy had already fired his.

It had all happened in a split second, but Judith and the woman victim screaming accented the action. People had been coming out of the bar to see what was happening, and there luckily were no errant shots.

The ambulance with the paramedics showed up and immediately began patching the male victim. The Deputy who had been sucker punched was now on his feet, but still groggy. I asked the Deputy who did the shooting, "Can you search the perp and get the victim's wallet and belongings? You can check with the lady to see if she was able to get all of her jewelry back."

More Sheriff's cars arrived, with a shift supervisor and a commander to deal with the officer who fired his weapon. The coroner had to be called and that was going to require even more paperwork.

They had everything that Judith and I could help with and allowed us to leave two hours later. We had to turn around and go back, as Judith had left her briefcase on the other side of the SUV.

On the way home Judith said, "I thought you were exaggerating when you said before that these things happen so fast, but the original incident, and then the man being shot happened in just a couple of seconds. Thank goodness that Deputy reacted fast enough. You were involved with me and weren't reacting as quickly. That man might have shot one of us. I think this puts all of your activities into a new light for me. I'll review them and see if I really need to ask you about any more of them. Thank you for being there tonight to save those people. I'm glad you didn't have to shoot that man, although the Deputy had to do it."