5.56X45mm
Milforum Mac Daddy
Officer Down
Recounts of the September 13th 2007 MDPD Shooting
I started my day like any other day. I awoke at 0600 hours and grumbled at my alarm clock for working. I staggered over to the bathroom and turned on the shower, once I jumped in and felt the warm water hit me I truly started to wake up. While in the shower I went through the mental check list in my head for today.
I left the house about 0645 and saw that traffic was already backed up on the Palmetto Expressway (State Road 826), so I jumped on the South Bound Turnpike and plugged my tablet pc into my truck radio. I started Windows Media Player and played Flogging Molly, a nice little Irish Rock Band that I like listening too. I arrived at the station around 0730, I went in and I bumped into my best friend and partner. I looked at him and said “What are you doing here? Aren’t you off today?” He said yes but that he he’s covering for another officer. We parted ways and we both said to each other that “stay safe brother”.
I grabbed the keys to my patrol car and I saw the Midnight Duty Sgt. First thing out of her mouth was “You’re here everyday, are you that poor? Well take care Dirk.” She calls me Dirk Diggler because when I started I had my mustache and sideburns like I was a 70’s porn star. So the name has stuck….
I loaded my patrol car, informed dispatch that I am 09-59 (In Service/Off Duty Detail) at the South Dade Adult Center, 06 Time (Transfer/End of Shift) will be 1400 hours. Dispatch repeated what I said and told me to have a good morning. I arrived at the school and I noticed that the parking lot was empty. I just remembered that today was a teacher work day because of the Jewish holiday. Still I went in and spoke with the principle; he saw me and asked what I was doing here. I informed him that I had an Off Duty Slip. He said that it was a mistake and that he’s sorry for making me come in on my day off when there is no off duty work. I said not to worry. Under department policy, I will get a four hour minimum if the off duty was not cancelled ahead of time.
So I went back to my patrol car, inform dispatch that the detail was cancelled and I drove back to the station. I was planning on packing up my truck and heading home but I once again bumped into my partner and best friend. I asked him what zone he was working and if he used any black magic to cancel my off duty. He said He was working Bravo-2 and that yes, it was all part of his evil plan. So instead of me heading home I loaded up my gear in his patrol car and informed dispatch that today we’re going to be a two man unit. Of course, since I’m the newer of the two of us I drive. So I got into the driver’s seat and headed out. This was around 0830.
Both of us are gun buddies and we like to talk about firearms when we’re not on a call. So of course the topic of discussion in the car was firearms. We were talking about an old Ruger Mark I pistol that he took apart back in 2001 and that he hasn’t put together since. He asked me if I can take a look at it since I play with Rugers a lot. At about 0900 we were dispatched to a 14 supplement. That’s a supplement to an earlier report. It was about two runaway teenagers. We got there, did the supplemental report and headed back to the station around 0930 to update the teletype for the runways. We got back on the road at 1000 and headed to the local McDonalds to have breakfast. While we were there we talked about normal things like the newest issue of Guns & Ammo and the reviews of the newest calibers and firearms on the market. Around 1020 we were dispatched to a 17 call, no injuries reported. Basically a regular fender bender.
We arrived at the location of the traffic accident at 1045. It was on the North East Edge of town. We were coming from the South West part of town. Since it wasn’t a priority call we just drove through the normal morning traffic of South Florida.
Both drivers were at the scene, it was between a Chevy pickup truck and a BMW sedan. The BMW was at fault. He didn’t yield to the right of way and he side swiped the Chevy. We were doing the paper work when at 1100 hours; dispatch comes over the air and informs us that County is working a 330 (Shooting) Call at SW 280th St & SW 143rd Ct. we thought of it as nothing. County units are always handling 330 calls. We figured it was a couple of gang bangers that fought it out and already fled the scene. But right after that dispatch came over the air again and said these words that I will never forget…
“Attention all units, County reports Officer Down, repeat County report officer down… Correction, county is now reporting multiple officers down. Subject(s) might be armed with AK style rifle. All units proceed with caution.”
We handed the two parties on scene their documentation back and informed them of what is happening. We gave them a business card and jumped into the patrol car. The location of the shooting was about 15 blocks north of us.
While racing over to the scene, I thought to myself that I might not make it. So I prayed to God an asked for his guidance and protection. I then turned to my partner and asked him if he had his shotgun in the trunk along with mine. He didn’t answer me at all. He was already going into his mode of thought.
Along the way we saw other units. Florida Wildlife Commission, Florida Highway Patrol, and of course Miami-Dade County Police. When we arrived at the scene we parked our patrol car on the east bound lane of SW 280th St & SW 143rd Ct to block incoming traffic and also to possibly prevent the shooter(s) from fleeing. We didn’t know how many subjects were on the scene. We ran to the location where the county patrol vehicles were and what we saw looked like something straight out of a battlefield. Shell casing everywhere, wounded officers screaming in pain and of course one dead officer. Fire Rescue seemed like forever for them to arrive. One of their first units on scene was their Motorcycle Para-Medics. Who was by the way a reserve officer with my department. We both went through the academy together, so at least seeing another familiar face brought some level of reassurance.
Recounts of the September 13th 2007 MDPD Shooting
I started my day like any other day. I awoke at 0600 hours and grumbled at my alarm clock for working. I staggered over to the bathroom and turned on the shower, once I jumped in and felt the warm water hit me I truly started to wake up. While in the shower I went through the mental check list in my head for today.
- Uniform is pressed and clean
- Make sure that my radio and flashlight have charged batteries
- Shine my boots
- Make sure that I have my thermo filled with Ice and Ice Tea
- Load my GLOCK 22, S&W 642 J-Frame, and Remington 870 Shotgun
- Load up the truck with my duty bag and my Off Duty File
- Grab my new Tablet PC and the DC/AC Inverter
- Make sure that I grab my Cell Phone and car charger
I left the house about 0645 and saw that traffic was already backed up on the Palmetto Expressway (State Road 826), so I jumped on the South Bound Turnpike and plugged my tablet pc into my truck radio. I started Windows Media Player and played Flogging Molly, a nice little Irish Rock Band that I like listening too. I arrived at the station around 0730, I went in and I bumped into my best friend and partner. I looked at him and said “What are you doing here? Aren’t you off today?” He said yes but that he he’s covering for another officer. We parted ways and we both said to each other that “stay safe brother”.
I grabbed the keys to my patrol car and I saw the Midnight Duty Sgt. First thing out of her mouth was “You’re here everyday, are you that poor? Well take care Dirk.” She calls me Dirk Diggler because when I started I had my mustache and sideburns like I was a 70’s porn star. So the name has stuck….
I loaded my patrol car, informed dispatch that I am 09-59 (In Service/Off Duty Detail) at the South Dade Adult Center, 06 Time (Transfer/End of Shift) will be 1400 hours. Dispatch repeated what I said and told me to have a good morning. I arrived at the school and I noticed that the parking lot was empty. I just remembered that today was a teacher work day because of the Jewish holiday. Still I went in and spoke with the principle; he saw me and asked what I was doing here. I informed him that I had an Off Duty Slip. He said that it was a mistake and that he’s sorry for making me come in on my day off when there is no off duty work. I said not to worry. Under department policy, I will get a four hour minimum if the off duty was not cancelled ahead of time.
So I went back to my patrol car, inform dispatch that the detail was cancelled and I drove back to the station. I was planning on packing up my truck and heading home but I once again bumped into my partner and best friend. I asked him what zone he was working and if he used any black magic to cancel my off duty. He said He was working Bravo-2 and that yes, it was all part of his evil plan. So instead of me heading home I loaded up my gear in his patrol car and informed dispatch that today we’re going to be a two man unit. Of course, since I’m the newer of the two of us I drive. So I got into the driver’s seat and headed out. This was around 0830.
Both of us are gun buddies and we like to talk about firearms when we’re not on a call. So of course the topic of discussion in the car was firearms. We were talking about an old Ruger Mark I pistol that he took apart back in 2001 and that he hasn’t put together since. He asked me if I can take a look at it since I play with Rugers a lot. At about 0900 we were dispatched to a 14 supplement. That’s a supplement to an earlier report. It was about two runaway teenagers. We got there, did the supplemental report and headed back to the station around 0930 to update the teletype for the runways. We got back on the road at 1000 and headed to the local McDonalds to have breakfast. While we were there we talked about normal things like the newest issue of Guns & Ammo and the reviews of the newest calibers and firearms on the market. Around 1020 we were dispatched to a 17 call, no injuries reported. Basically a regular fender bender.
We arrived at the location of the traffic accident at 1045. It was on the North East Edge of town. We were coming from the South West part of town. Since it wasn’t a priority call we just drove through the normal morning traffic of South Florida.
Both drivers were at the scene, it was between a Chevy pickup truck and a BMW sedan. The BMW was at fault. He didn’t yield to the right of way and he side swiped the Chevy. We were doing the paper work when at 1100 hours; dispatch comes over the air and informs us that County is working a 330 (Shooting) Call at SW 280th St & SW 143rd Ct. we thought of it as nothing. County units are always handling 330 calls. We figured it was a couple of gang bangers that fought it out and already fled the scene. But right after that dispatch came over the air again and said these words that I will never forget…
“Attention all units, County reports Officer Down, repeat County report officer down… Correction, county is now reporting multiple officers down. Subject(s) might be armed with AK style rifle. All units proceed with caution.”
We handed the two parties on scene their documentation back and informed them of what is happening. We gave them a business card and jumped into the patrol car. The location of the shooting was about 15 blocks north of us.
While racing over to the scene, I thought to myself that I might not make it. So I prayed to God an asked for his guidance and protection. I then turned to my partner and asked him if he had his shotgun in the trunk along with mine. He didn’t answer me at all. He was already going into his mode of thought.
Along the way we saw other units. Florida Wildlife Commission, Florida Highway Patrol, and of course Miami-Dade County Police. When we arrived at the scene we parked our patrol car on the east bound lane of SW 280th St & SW 143rd Ct to block incoming traffic and also to possibly prevent the shooter(s) from fleeing. We didn’t know how many subjects were on the scene. We ran to the location where the county patrol vehicles were and what we saw looked like something straight out of a battlefield. Shell casing everywhere, wounded officers screaming in pain and of course one dead officer. Fire Rescue seemed like forever for them to arrive. One of their first units on scene was their Motorcycle Para-Medics. Who was by the way a reserve officer with my department. We both went through the academy together, so at least seeing another familiar face brought some level of reassurance.
