DEC 2022. Blues Vol 38 No. 12

BY LT. BOB EVANS
The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t
The following story is true.
No names were changed
because no innocent people
were involved.
My story takes place on
Christmas Eve many years ago.
I had been a cop for more than
30 years and was a Lieutenant
assigned to nights. With all
the time I had in I could have
been on days with weekends
off and pushing paper all day,
but I’d spent my entire life on
the street.
It was where I felt more
comfortable. It was my
home, I guess. My kids were
all grown, and I had 4 failed
marriages behind me. Yeah,
I could retire but I had absolutely
nothing to retire to. The
streets were my home, and I
couldn’t see myself anywhere
else….working or otherwise.
Hell, if I weren’t a cop, I’d
probably be homeless living
on the streets.
But despite my acceptance of
being here forever, the weeks
leading up to the night of this
story were what seemed like
the beginning of the end for
me. Sounds confusing, I know,
but let me start from the beginning.
It was early December in
the late 80’s. Like I said I was
the lieutenant assigned to
nights and in our department
the nightshift lieutenant was
pretty much the night sheriff. I
oversaw everybody and everything.
But I had been doing
it so long that it really didn’t
seem like that big of a deal
anymore.
But more of all the ole heads
were retiring and every day I
had more and more youngsters
showing up at roll call.
The sheriff decided that to fill
vacancies he would accept
lateral transfers from other
departments. Since we paid
more than the surrounding
departments these kids (actually
young men and women
in their late 20’s) came over
in droves. Everyday there was
someone new and of course
they all came to nights.
The latest transfer was this
young man from a PD up
north. A real go getter. Reminded
me of me at that age.
His name was Randy Jones.
Jones was married and had
just had a brand-new baby
girl. Wasn’t even 3 weeks old.
The boy posted pictures of
that girl all over the station.
He was the proud papa for
sure.
But he was from a PD, and
this was the sheriff’s department.
We did things differently
and Jones had his own idea
about how it ‘should’ be done.
I had to sit that boy down
several times during those first
few weeks and just say look,
‘If you want to stay here and
be successful you must follow
the book. Otherwise, I’m going
to have to talk to the sheriff
and send you back to the
PD.” Broke my heart because
he was really a good kid just
stubborn. Reminded me when
I started. The dayshift sergeant
moved him to days for
a week, just to teach him OUR
ways.
Now here it was Christmas
Eve and Jones was back
working the nightshift with
me again.
Anyway, it was about 3am
when a silent alarm dropped
in a warehouse on the
northside of the district. I was
only a couple blocks away and
Jones must have been sitting
in the parking lot because he
advised he was about to go
out on it. I advised dispatch I
was backing him up and was
a couple minutes out.
Jones arrived and advised
he had an open rear door, as
I was pulling up to the rear.
We agreed we would clear
across the bare concrete.
Unit 204 I have shots fired
and two suspects down. I
need EMS and backup.
Where is Jones? “Jones?”
“Unit 204 to Jones, where are
you?
“Jones where the fuck are
you? I began running all over
the warehouse to see where
he was and as soon as I
turned a corner, there he was.
Laying in a pool of blood.
“Officer down, officer down,
Unit 204 I have an officer
down.”
Jones? As soon as I knelt
down, I could see that a round
had hit him in the neck and
struck an artery. He had bled
out in seconds. The first round
those assholes fired went right
through the thin partition wall
and hit him. He was down
within seconds of us enter-
the building starting towards
the right and work our way
to the front. This was one of
those flex space warehouses
with storage on the back and
offices in the front and they
weren’t really that large. As
soon as we stepped inside,
we heard movement near the
front. Other than our flashlights,
it was pitch black in the
damn place. Suddenly a bright
piercing light following by a
deafening boom appeared in
front of us…. we were taking
fire from multiple locations.
I was literally firing into the
dark. I just kept firing in the
direction of the muzzle blast
until there weren’t anymore. I
stood there in the dark, shining
my flashlight to see what
or who was there and 20 feet
away I saw two bodies on the
ground, blood now running
94 The BLUES The BLUES 95
94 The BLUES The BLUES 95