Well, I Didn't Get Shot!

My Wife and I were laying in bed when we heard a screeching sound and a loud impact. I called 911, grabbed my .357, flashlight, and wallet, stuck the wallet and .357 in my pants, and ran outside. My wife followed close behind. Someone yelled "Call 911!" but we had already completed the call.

Went outside, and what appeared to me to be around an '05 Stratus had lost a war against the neighbor's Mac Truck - just the tractor, no trailer. I had already gotten off the phone with the wife, who stood in the road with a flashlight to flag down the police.

As I approach the vehicle, I notice that the engine is gone. The entire driver's side of the engine compartment is gone. At this time, I flash my light in the car. No one inside. I walked around the vehicle to try to find a victim immediately, but a few things stand out in my mind from the half second I looked in the car: the aftermarket cd player face plate haphazardly perched on the gear shifter, the bloody driver's side airbag, and the unopened T-Mobile car charger. The passenger's side air bag was not deployed. This becomes relevant later.

Walking around, I see the victim on the ground. The rear of the car has spun around to the left and is up on a hill elevated a good 3-4 feet from the nose of the car. The car's nose and the tractor's nose are perpendicular to each other.

Seeing the victim, I start talking to him. He implores me to dig around inside the car for his phone. Screw that! I tell him I'll get my phone, and start to walk towards my wife. At this point, I'm glad for the excuse to walk away. The victim is in a dark spot, wearing dark clothes, and I can't see much, but I can tell that if I touch him, I'm gonna make things worse. As I'm about half way to my wife, a squad car pulls up. Actually, it more screeches to a halt than pulls up.

The officer gets out and draws immediately. He tells me "Victim is armed, come my way and stay behind me." Another car pulls up. Then, every 14-45 seconds more squad cars pull up. 7 total.

3 officers that I see (more cars pulled up from the opposite approach) approach the victim. "Show me your ****ing hands!" is repeated about five times. Next thing I know, I hear screams of agony. They're cuffing him or searching him, I guess.


We stand by until an officer approaches us. He asks "Did you see anyone else get out of the car?" "No. I think he was alone though since the passenger air bag didn't deploy."

I start to tell what happened, but am reminded by my wife that I shouldn't talk to the police. Another lady makes it easy by starting to tell them what happened. Another two minutes and we are out of there.

We made the 911 call around 1:20 am, and there are still police out there.

We get back in the house, and it hits me: "Victim is armed, stay behind me." Holy crap. Thanks to the angle of the car on the hill, only a small part of me was presented to the "victim"before I went to get my phone from my wife. But what if I had been by the victim at the moment officers showed up?

And wow. What a wreck. My primary business sells used engines. I see wrecks. But this one was BAD. Drivetrain was toast, and I'm not sure how the victim got out of the car.

Why, exactly?

I actually think its a fair summation to believe you were in danger of getting shot by an armed, injured man, on the run from the police. Infact, if he was in a better state, he would probaly have tried to rob your own car to get away.

What I don't understand is why you shouldn't talk to the police??

[YT="As a rule it's best to remain silent."]6wXkI4t7nuc[/YT]

I can't say it would have occurred to me to grab a gun before investigating a car wreck. But it's been a year and a half since I lived in Memphis, so...

Dan, I can only assume that you did not read what I posted. I was worried about getting shot because the police showed up, immediately drew their weapons, and told me that the person I was trying to help was armed.

Stallion, there are a few reasons that I do not talk to the police. The two primary reasons are that under our legal system talking to the police can only harm me, and secondly because of my love of the Fifth Amendment. While I support law-enforcement in general, and in fact have them as clients, I am not so foolish as to think I am any different from hundreds or thousands of people each year who say something incriminating without even realizing it. There are laws on the books that you would not believe. In some states, it is technically illegal to leave certain areas without decontaminating your vehicle for example. Further, I just believe that we as Americans should exercise our Fifth Amendment rights more often. This is a case in which I legitimately had nothing to hide, so why not exercise my fifth amendment rights? I don't have to talk to the police except to directly answer their questions. They had none , and I had done my deed as a citizen in attempting to respond to a bad wreck. In fact, I was the first one on site.

It would've been a crappy thing to have gotten arrested on some minutia by a cop who was pissed off that a wreck happened right before his shift ended. And yes, this happened right before the shift ended. Several of the officers complain about that as exited their vehicles, before they made contact with the victim.

I will honestly admit that the guy could have blown my head off and I would have only known for a split second what had happened.

This is actually what I had assumed rather than Dan's nonsense, especially since you were armed yourself. I trigger happy copy might've even assumed you had shot the guy.

Harm you how? If you haven't done anything wrong then what's the big deal?

Is there no social stigma attached to "taking the Fifth"? I.e. a presumption of having something to hide?

I must say it all seems a strang thing where you have a system that encourages people not to talk to police, therefore, surely, making it harder for police to investigate and resolve crimes?

No everyone wants to live in the arse end of nowhere Daniel.

So... you're saying you can't salvage the engine?

It would have sucked to get shot by the guy, or the cops... and yeah, usually I agree with saying as little as possible if you're directly involved with what happened.

That engine is gone. Cracked block.

This was literally about a half block into Memphis. I live in Bartlett. We're moving to Lakeland in December. The wife will be happy, but I won't. No action!

No action is right. Now you won't have an excuse not to join the MSSA.

Dadgum it!!!!

Because you may be doing something illegal and don't even know it. You start talking and when they get further into the investigation and check out your background.....hey, unpaid parking ticket or bounced check (or so says the data-base) from 2008 and you are getting a free ride to jail yourself!

HE'S NOT A SUSPECT OR A PART OF THE ACCIDENT. HE CAME OUT TO PROVIDE AID IF NEEDED.

THERE IS ZERO REASON FOR HIM NOT TO TALK TO THE POLICE.

Some people take that shit too far.

It's hard for me to follow that rule, becaus 1 - I knew a lot of LEOs in Memphis, and 2 - I like to talk.

When I went to the county Sheriff's office recently to do my printing/paperwork for my permit, there was a Sheriff's deputy "processing" me.

I told myself, "He's not your friend. Just politely answer his questions. Maybe call him Sir. Nothing else. This is serious business. He's not your friend."

Well, within two minutes we were jibber-jabbering like a couple of old ladies.

Normally it won't get you into trouble. However.....witnesses may be called upon at a later date. Thus I would hate to be that one person in 100 to whom everyone says "dude....I can't believe you're in trouble just from trying to do the right thing."

I'll let you in on a secret concerning the legal/justice system. Mind you this has been my personal experience, and your results may differ:

the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. There are different agendas, different databases, different departments, and zero percent of the whole shebang operates under any pretense of efficiency.

Let me justify my actions a little bit further. In Tennessee you are not required by law to notify law enforcement when you have a weapon on you. It is a good idea to do so as it can prevent an overreaction, but not a requirement.

Seeing every officer arrived draw weapon soon as they get out of their vehicle until the point that the suspect had been detained make me feel very nervous about having my legal weapon on my person. This is the only time I have been around long fortunate that I have not informed them that I had illegal weapon on my person. I felt that I was around some trigger-happy people.

Since I did not actually see much ( I didn't see the wreck happen for example) I did not feel I have much to contribute.

Further, while I updated my drivers license address, I'm actually not certain if I have updated the address on my handgun carry permit. I actually need to call about that today. I honestly assume that it updates at the same time drivers license does since both licenses have the same identification number on the and are administered by the same department. But, if I open my mouth I could have conceivably been incriminating myself.

And that would've sucked.

Unless they ask you if you have a weapon on you. [/nitpick]

Of course. They did not.

I figured. I was just picking nits so nobody got the wrong idea.

In N.C., you have to inform LEOs who approach you if you're armed whether or not they ask you.

Look, cops work a tough job, and I respect them.

The 15-25% of them who suck at it ruin it for a lot of good officers.

Exactly why I won't talk to the police.