Will you be able to see the red flags?

I remember it so vividly. I was halfway through my swing shift, patrolling my district, driving east bound on a neighborhood street in Colorado Springs.  It was the Saturday before Father's Day, 1998, a nice summer night just after 10 pm; my window was down and the calls for service were slow for a change.  

My sector was the smallest in the county, I loved the area - during the day I would park my patrol car and walk the neighborhoods handing out baseball cards to the kids.  At first it was awkward, but I had to do something that taught them to waive to me with more than one finger as I drove past and getting out of my car brought down those barriers.

As I crested a hill, I could see a vehicle stopped at the stop sign at the next intersection.  The car didn't have its headlights on and the first thought that crossed my mind was from a recent training I had attended - 77% of all vehicles that are driving with their headlights off at night are operated by an intoxicated driver.  The second thought, the car just left the gas station just east of the intersection (which is pretty well lit) and the driver just hadn't noticed his lights weren't on.

I continued and made a left hand turn directly in front of the car.  Just after passing, I turned around and followed the car.

I was directly behind the vehicle, the road was two lanes in each direction with a wide median that contained street lights.  To my right is an executive golf course and on my left, there was a softball field complex that was still lit up for the games that had just finished.  I followed the car for a short period of time, knowing the driver knew I was directly behind him.  All I was waiting for was for him to turn on his lights - or maybe I wasn't and I was hoping I could chalk up another DUI arrest.

As my training taught me, I knew the plate of the vehicle before I called out the stop, "3 adam 32 traffic," I called out over the radio.  Just as I activated my overhead lights, the driver turned on his vehicle's lights, bringing me to the assumption that this would be a traffic warning for driving without head lights, rather than an arrest.  We were traveling slowly, maybe about 20 mph - not much more as we approached the small strip mall on the west side of the street. 

This is when my first problem occurred, when I tried calling out my stop, another patrol vehicle (actually the DUI enforcement officer) keyed up his mic and we cancelled out each other's transmissions.  "Multiple units, break Victor 1 go ahead," dispatch said.  My suspect vehicle made a right hand turn into the parking lot and instead of pulling directly into one of the parking spaces, the driver drove his car northbound through the lot.  "That's weird," I thought, "where is he going?"  This was all happening as the DUI car was transmitting that he had arrived at his destination.

I had pulled my patrol vehicle just off of the road and stopped facing west bound in the entrance to the parking lot.  The sidewalk that paralleled the street was directly under my car. 

This is when my second problem occurred.  I sat there and watched as my suspect vehicle made a u-turn in the parking lot and was now approaching the entrance where I had stopped.  The car turned in front of me and I heard dispatch say, "Victor 1 copy, break other unit?"  That was my cue to talk, but I couldn't, the car I was in the process of pulling over had just pulled into a parking lot, made a u-turn and was now heading back towards me.  Red flag, red flag, ding, ding, ding! All I did was sit there and watch. 

This is when my third problem occurred.  The car came towards me and it seemed as if the driver was just going to leave the parking lot driving past me.  He had not sped up, he was not driving erratically, I could see the driver, plain as day, he was calm but he had that, "thousand mile stare," as they call it - and I didn't pick up on it.

My fourth and final problem - as the vehicle came towards me and passed driver's side to driver's side, we locked eyes.  Both of our windows were down and because of the lights from the softball fields behind me, I could see him plain as day.  As he approached, I saw this shiny silver thing pop up over his door.  I could tell that it was the barrel of a pistol - pointed right at me!!  We were only about four to six feet apart.

All of the sudden, POP, I could taste the gun powder, there was a whole lot of crap in my mouth and it was hot!  I ducked my head as far as I could, turned my steering wheel to the right and pressed the accelerator to the floor.  My microphone was still in my right hand and I keyed it up, and shouted as calmly as I could, "3 adam 32, code 20 shots fired!"   Code 20 is the calm way an officer tells his counterparts, "Holy shit, I need help!"

I drove around the strip mall and came out on the other side.  I'm guessing it took all of 10 seconds, but the car was gone.  I looked to the north and couldn't see anything so I turned south and headed towards the city.  After a quick search, I turned around thinking I had to get back to the scene of the shooting.

As I came close to arriving at the scene of the incident, my body began to shake uncontrollably.  I drove on, not because I wanted to, but because I couldn't do anything else.  Lucky for me, the road was straight.  After I passed the first entrance to the ball fields on my right side, there was a large billboard.  I was able to turn my car into the dirt lot near the billboard and get out of my car.

The radio transmissions were crazy, Deputies were going everywhere looking for the description of the vehicle I had given.  If you think the deep billowing sound of a car floored sounds cool from the inside, you should listen to it from a couple of hundred yards away, it sounds really cool!  Especially with a siren and red and blues rotating on top.  After walking towards the trunk of my car, I saw two bullet holes, one in the trunk and one in the metal panel that separated the rear driver's side door and the rear window.  I was pissed, he shot my car, he shot my brand new car.

As the paramedics arrived, the first man came up to me and asked if I was okay.  I told him that I was and added that he (the bad guy) had only shot my car.  After his next question, my heart almost stopped.

"What happened there?" he asked, as he pointed at the center of my chest.  I looked down and saw a perfect circle from my shirt was missing just above the center of my chest.  I unzipped my shirt, and I could see the metal shards from the shock plate shining through the shock plate's pocket of my vest.

"I guess he shot me," I said.  One inch higher and the bullet would've missed my vest altogether.

I was lucky this time, several red flags and I ignored them all.

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About the Author: Adrian Manzanares is a REALTOR? in Colorado with more than 20 years of law enforcement experience. Prior to leaving law enforcement, he was a certified instructor in Field Training, Interview & Interrogation, and Firearms. In addition to being an active producer, Adrian leads webinars for the National Association of Realtors? on safety, speaks on a national level on the topic and provides REALTORS? across the state with safety training. With his unique perspective of both law enforcement and real estate, the information he shares is essential to your day-to-day activities.  For information on speaker fees, call or text 719.492.0201 or click here.