Posted on Sunday, 17th September 2006 by Bull
So there I was, last night, minding my own business when:
KNOCK KNOCK
Who is it?
“Albuquerque Police department”
What I do now? I wonder jokingly
“Be right there!” I put some pants on and answered the door, “yes?”
Standing there decked out in OD green flack-jacket, BDU’s and holding a nice shiny AR-15 was this buzz-cut GI Joe, that looks like he just stepped out of the Aliens 2 movie.
“Sir we need you to evacuate the building immediately, go ahead and grab what you need and proceed outside.” Now at this point I’m wondering, wtf? Bomb threat? Drug bust? A myriad of things were running through my mind as I grabbed my wallet, my smokes and out of habit my handcuffs, and proceeded outside. “Thank you sir” the officer said to my back as I walked away. A quick glance back down the hallway lent me an interesting view. Three of these guys, all decked out in the same manner, were all facing one door, but not too closely together, the door right next to mine. Hmmm I wonder. When I got outside there were four more of these guys, covering the building, in standard 4 points of view. One saw me and in a slightly raised voice told me to either get lost or back inside my building.
“Well the dude upstairs told me to come down here.”
“Well then you need to head towards the gate of the complex.” He said briskly.
I did an about face and headed towards the gate, lighting a cigarette and thinking about this. I saw a few neighbors standing in a small group talking, and I engaged into it myself. No one really knew what was going on, why the gate was blocked off by 10 squad cars and whatnot. I told them that I saw the SWAT team (It turns out this was DEA, not SWAT, like I originally thought) in my building and I couldn’t make out what they were doing. So we blabbed and smoked until one of them said, oh look there! I turned around and there was the guys mail-order bride, being led by a few officers, in zip-tie handcuffs (I’ve used these myself a few times while I was an MP, they can’t be picked, so therefore are pretty much permanent until cut-off), towards the squad cars. I would have said that she was Korean or something. She was really short, unlike Chinese, which tend to be slightly taller than other Asians. After we stood around and talked about what that guy had to do to order his wife, here he comes, looking like a criminal in his own nice pair of brand new zip-ties, eyes cast down, already beginning to clench his buttocks as he thinks of jail life.
At this point I had no idea what had just happened except for what I’ve seen already. I asked the officer who had knocked on my door if it was OK to go back to my apartment and he said yes it was alright to go back and thanked me for my cooperation.
This morning when I woke up I talked to Richard about this situation, and he apparently knew a little more about it. The mail-order bride had threatened to leave the guy in question. He got scared and threatened her with a shotgun, so she called the police. And he DID have a shotgun in his apartment. So yes, I don’t think I’ll be hearing those two banging away at 2 in the morning anymore, which is a relief, and he’ll probably get evicted. Good, we don’t need schmucks like him around here, in this nice quiet community of the NW part of the city.
And what happened not an hour ago? Another incident! I was sitting here, talking with a few friends in CNW and I heard shouting.
“Get down on the ground! blah blah blah blah.”
I said WHAT NOW??? I poked my head out the door, and saw a guy down the hallway with a 9mm pointed at another guy, who was intoxicated, yelling at him to get down. I called 911, told them there was a guy with a gun, the address. By this time this little blonde girl came down the hallway towards me and asked if she could speak to the operator. Thinking she obviously knew more about what was going on than I did, I handed her the phone and she proceeded to tell them what happened. Once again, I walk inside, grab my wallet, my smokes and my handcuffs. This just keeps getting better and better I thought while chuckling. By this time the guy with the gun had followed the other guy down the stair well, and I followed the girl while she was on the phone. The guy with the gun wasn’t a threat to me, I was the calm little center of this world as we proceeded outside. Another friend of the young man with the gun told me what was going on. The intoxicated kid was really drunk and started head-butting the walls and two girls that were with them, including the one what was on my phone right now, speaking with the operator. The drunk had also threatened the others that he had a gun, so naturally the guy with the gun went and got his own for protection, and was now trying to quench the situation. Soon the drunk was starting to walk away, and the other guy lowered his weapon. The girl was still on the phone, having been told to keep talking until police arrived. I approached the armed guy and asked him for his side of the story, and he told me pretty much the same thing. I smiled and gently told him that its going to be a different situation when the police get here and he still has the gun out. He nodded, unloaded his gun completely, and ran upstairs to go put it away. When he came back outside I asked him if he had been drinking. He said not at all and I could smell this was true. The other individual however was completely out of it.
So here we had two guys, one inebriated and the other just trying to defend himself. OK that’s all good and well. My adrenaline was going and I was excited to say the least, but I was calm. We proceeded towards the gate as the girl said the police were looking for the place. By the time we got to the mail-boxes a squad car had pulled up. The girl got off the phone and thanked me as she handed it to me. I saw the same neighbors I had talked to last night and just laughed. They told me they saw a guy with a bloody head walk between the buildings, so I ran back to the squad car and told the officer what I had just heard. He took off around the building. I looked at the girl, the guy and said, well goodnight I’m out of here! The girl thanked me for the minutes she had used up on my phone (even though 911 calls don’t use minutes) and I headed back, and now I’m writing this.
OK, lets clear something up here. Yes, this is a very safe part of town. Nothing ever goes on here, ‘cept someone forgot to pick up their dog poo and someone walked in it. It is only by sheer coincidence that both these situations happened in the same hallway of my building. I’m not scared, I’m not going to go move now. Just pure coincidence. This is a large city, things are bound to happen. However it’s a very nice city, I love it here, and I dont want anyone who reads this to be scared for me. The police training I’ve been through and the amount of gun training I’ve had lets me be calm in situations like this. HOWEVER, if that gun had turned towards me, that’s a whole ‘nother story. I would have gotten the hell out of dodge as quickly as I could have. In that situation, as most people are, I would have been scared for my life. As people have said before, guns don’t kill people, people kill people and I believe this to be true. But guns do help 
Anyway, I hope nothing like this happens again. If it does, let it be far away from me lol. Have a good day all.
Signing off,
-Bull
Posted in Daily Life | Comments (0)
