SC Trooper Stabbed To Death
A couple weeks ago, I was amazed to read about a South Carolina trooper who’d been stabbed by a longtime scumbag after a traffic stop. I wasn’t amazed because the officer had been stabbed. That happens to coppers several times a week. I wasn’t amazed because the p.o.s. had a lengthy and violent past. That’s, often, a given when police deal with subjects on stops, calls, emergencies, etc.
The Hidden Cuff Key
What amazed me most was that in only two articles of the dozen or so I read about this incident was it mentioned that this scumbag had a cuff key hidden in his necklace. And, he ACCESSED it, too, and, briefly, was able to escape his cuffs. I’m still looking for additional details.
However, it gets me to my central thesis on this rant. Why in hell don’t officers immediately remove ALL jewelry and any other items on a violent subject’s person that could conceivably hide a cuff key?
This is life-and-death potentially, and the time for playing nice-nice with an individual who has just tried to stab you has long past. Get the damned jewelry i.e. watches, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, hair combs, anything and everything that could conceal a cuff key OFF! Get the cell phone, get the cigarette pack, get the purse, take the wallet. C’mon, this is your life we’re talking about here! I’ll go so far as to add that even ‘big hair’ is suspect.
The Hair Weave
In one of our new Golden Nuggets programs produced this year, GN04 – Life-Saving, Street Smart Tips for Cops, I talked about a woman with a hair weave who’d been concealing all kinds of drugs in her hair, and it wasn’t until a complete comb through by a corrections officer that it was discovered.
And, THAT wasn’t done until it was discovered she had been dealing drugs to other inmates. Where the hey was she getting and secreting the drugs?!
Sherlock Holmes used to say that after all other options were eliminated (in crime-solving) the last one was the solution. In this case, it was the woman’s big hair.
Hank Earl Carr (Cop Killer)
Now, for all you officers 30 or under, the name Hank Earl Carr probably means nothing to you. So, I’ll tell you who he was.
One of the most evil, murderous, lying, conniving sons of bitches who ever lived. Carr murdered his little step-son, and when the cops came, he bobbed and weaved, coming up with every damned excuse he possibly could to obfuscate his involvement. His girlfriend, the little boy’s mother, pathologically lied with him every step of the way.
When Carr was handcuffed (in front) by two veteran Tampa homicide detectives for a ride downtown for additional questioning, he tried to wriggle out of the handcuffs, basically in broad daylight and in front of the two coppers.
They verbally warned him not to try that again. He didn’t. Instead of trying to wriggle free of the cuffs, he accessed a hidden cuff key (arguably in a necklace that hadn’t been confiscated/searched), and murdered the two detectives on the way to h.q.
In his escape, he then lured a young Florida trooper to pull in right behind him after a short pursuit. Then, he slaughtered the trooper.
Ultimately, Carr blew himself away after a standoff at a convenience store where he’d taken a woman hostage. It’s all there in Line of Duty’s training program, ‘Tampa Cop Killings’ which, to me, should have been mandatory viewing for all law enforcement officers these last 20 years or so.
Alabama Officer Murdered
The Mobile(AL) P.D. worked with Line of Duty on still another training program, “Murder of an Alabama Officer” in which an arrested lowlife sprouting nonsense was able to access a cuff key and the blade within.
He cut a veteran officer’s jugular, and the officer was dead on the sallyport floor in a couple minutes.
I’m, quite honestly, surprised more cuff keys aren’t being found. It takes incredibly thorough pat downs and, often, done multiple times to do the job properly. And, you cannot tell me every gang-banging, violent scumbag out here wouldn’t love to be the first on his block to get over on the cops. That’s bragging rights in the big house, and you know it.
Always remain aware that, as Joe Friday said long ago on ‘Dragnet’, those are “just the facts”.
See what ITLOD has to offer.
Here are previews to both our programs on the Tampa Cop Killings and Murder of an Alabama Officer.
V09P11 – The Tampa Massacre
SI26 – AL Officer Stabbed to Death
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Best, and in Officer Safety,
Ron Barber
ron@lineofduty.com