The .357, Juvenile Runaway and the Taxi Cab

It must be the time of year here. We now have had 2 elderly males commit suicide in the last month, both from handguns. Today's was a graphic scene (the squeamish should skip reading this paragraph because it will get detailed.) on the rear patio of the decease's house. Our deceased called his wife, who was golfing, and stated there was a family emergency at home and she needed to return. After telling his wife to come home he proceeded to call 911 and tell the my co-worker that there was a suicide at the residence and no one was in danger because it happened on the back patio and then hung up. My co-worker proceeded to call the number back while their partner got the officers/ems/fire on the way to the scene. There was no answer when they called the number back and one of the officers advised over the radio that "there was a loud bang" in the area about 3 minutes ago (this was prior to the call and arrival between the call back). The deceased had shot himself right to left in the side of the head with a .357 with the house phone sitting on the table next to him. I have seen my share of crime scene photos and walked through an accident scene to see my classmate's gray matter splattered on the roadway, but never have I seen the entrance wound bigger than the exit wound from a firearm. The deceased's gray matter had fallen out of the entrance wound and was laying on the ground to his right (he really lost his mind). He of course left a suicide note about how he was in debt and had taken a life insurance policy out on himself, it is unsure if he did it trying to better his wife with the extra money to pay the bills or if it was just to dodge the bills and leave it for someone else. A very selfish action no matter the planning in my opinion.

We like so many other departments have habitual runaways. Most cases it's a parent who wants the officers to raise their children and make them come home, in a few cases the juvenile has ran away to a friends in anallyrapeme city. The ones that piss the officers as well as dispatch off are the ones that are a mixture of the two. We currently have a juvenile who has ran away to a large city in our state and continues to call their parents. Their parents call every time and because they have watched too much CSI and such they think we can pin-point the location and swoop in with a helicopter and our ninjas of the night to pick her up and return her home. I think our runaways need to be tasered each time they run away just so they know the consequences of their actions.

Tonight we had a carjacking of epic proportions. How smart do you have to be to steal a taxi in a town that has exactly 2 taxi cabs total for the whole area? Someone was dumb enough to carjack a taxi and drive out on a dirt road toward the mountains (big party spot). The officers were not able to find the vehicle but im sure in the next couple days the vehicle will be found trashed somewhere in the desert. I hope the person who stole it is stranded 5-6 hours out in the desert.

**On a side note, and to make readers a little more familiar with me and my background, I am tired of people contacting my officers via cell phone to report things. I used to work for a security company that patrolled construction sites due to the high copper thefts in the area. I am guilty of contacting the officers but I stuck to a system for contacting them. If it was something suspicious happening or something that would require an officer, I called into dispatch to report it. If I had just spotted a vehicle out for a "stroke of midnight" at 0100-0300 in the morning I'd call an officer because they usually would get a good laugh out of the couple scrambling for clothes. Since I have left my ex-boss has had to come out of the office work and onto the sites and streets. This is fine with the exception that when he calls the officers we hear the radio traffic between them and have no idea what is going on, where at, how many and when. I sit in a dark room and am treated like a mushroom enough by admin thank you I don't need my officers doing it too.

Will Tone 10-7