Latest / Heroes Behind the Badge / He Survived a Shotgun Ambush Then the System Failed Him - Part 1

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He Survived a Shotgun Ambush Then the System Failed Him - Part 1 · Heroes Behind the Badge

0:01
RADIO: Check on a car sitting on the wrong side of the street's, dark.
0:04
Got one door is open, the vehicle has no plate.
0:08
It looks like a beater, four door, green LTD. I don't see anybody in,
0:12
but it's got those darkened windows
0:14
Tom Weitzel: and I just came upon a car that was illegally parked
0:17
gate, it was car, left wheeled the curb, no license plates.
0:21
So I got out of the car to go get the VIN number off the front of the
0:25
car and see if I could find out who the car was registered to, and as
0:29
soon as I stepped out of my vehicle.
0:35
RADIO: 10-4.
0:35
North River says you have a unit I have a unit over there,
0:38
Northgate Court in Northgate,
0:40
Tom Weitzel: and started to walk towards the, the other vehicle, the back door
0:45
of that car opened up on the driver's side, which was towards the curb.
0:48
And, uh, somebody literally rolled out of it almost like a military roll, and
0:53
I immediately heard the slide of the shotgun and I was shot, immediately
0:57
shot, and it lifted me off the ground
1:02
RADIO: (inaudible).
1:03
Tom Weitzel: So I tried to call for help, but my radio had been
1:06
cut in half by the shotgun blast.
1:09
RADIO: Where that's off (inaudible) officer been shot,
1:15
Tom Weitzel: so I had to crawl back to my squad car.
1:17
Use the in-car radio to call for help.
1:21
RADIO: 10-4 no riverside near arms has been shot at.
1:24
Six 13 in road from 26th first,
1:30
Tom Weitzel: and I truly believe that they, if they thought they killed me
1:37
RADIO: in the 10-4, November said you had 10-4.
1:42
13. 10-4. Six 15.
1:47
River Ambulance here right away.
1:51
River said you want mine.
1:55
Why is proceed with your quick driver side?
1:59
They're code, sir. Lord.
2:01
10-4. What's the vehicle?
2:03
That description, A green or gray four door got dark windows.
2:08
No plates.
2:09
There's at least three male white
2:20
Dennis Collins: Tom.
2:21
Uh, like so many of the heroes that we have on this podcast, uh,
2:26
we welcome you and it's always a story that the hero didn't expect.
2:34
You know, it's not guns a blazing and it's not, uh, sirens and chases and all that,
2:40
that sometimes define the heroes that appear on, on Heroes Behind the Badge.
2:46
It's not a dramatic incident.
2:48
It's something that showed up without warning, kind of as part of a normal day.
2:54
Every hero has that moment.
2:57
You had that moment that showed up without warning, that moment that
3:02
reshapes your career, reshapes your life.
3:05
And from that story, from that moment, everything else flows.
3:09
And yours is that great hero story that that one day in August of
3:15
1987 in Riverside, Illinois, on a quiet summer night, things changed.
3:23
And from that.
3:24
Your life changed and a lot of interesting things have happened.
3:28
Our audience loves to hear stories like this, so we'd love you, Tom Weitzel to
3:33
step forward, uh, law enforcement veteran.
3:36
Riverside, Illinois Police Department, 13 years as the chief of said department,
3:42
and, uh, uh, a life of service.
3:45
I, I'll let you tell.
3:46
I don't wanna take your story 'cause it's a great story and I want you to tell it.
3:50
So welcome to Heroes Behind the Badge.
3:52
Tom Weitzel: Well, thank you for having me.
3:53
Honored to be here.
3:54
And, you know, I never considered myself a hero and what you were
3:58
alluding to was I was shot in the line of duty and, uh 1987, uh, in August
4:05
and Riverside is a small community of 9,000 west of the city, Chicago.
4:10
And not that we didn't see crime, but we didn't have really
4:12
street crime, so to speak of.
4:14
And my incident took place, uh, at three o'clock in the morning.
4:19
I was on patrol.
4:20
We had say we always had one man patrol cars.
4:23
There was no such things in the suburbs as two men and I just came
4:27
upon a car that was illegally parked.
4:29
It was parked, left wheel, the curb, no license plates.
4:33
So I got out of the car to go get the VIN number off the front of the
4:37
car and see if I could find out who the car was registered to, and as
4:40
soon as I stepped out of my vehicle.
4:44
Started to walk towards the, the other vehicle, the back door of
4:48
that car opened up on the driver's side, which was towards the curb.
4:52
And uh, somebody literally rolled out of it almost like a military roll.
4:57
And I immediately heard the slide of the shotgun.
4:59
So it was a pump shotgun.
5:01
And you know, if you've heard that rack, you know what it is.
5:06
And I was shot immediately.
5:07
Shot.
5:08
And.
5:09
It lifted me off the ground and it forced me back and I hit my head
5:13
on the bumper of the squad car.
5:16
Knocked me out probably for a minute, minute and a half.
5:19
When I regained consciousness, the car was, doors were all open, the
5:25
offenders were coming from the yard, jumping into the car and fleeing.
5:30
I looked down to see if I should return fire and the car was going.
5:34
So if I was to return fire, I probably would've just been shooting it randomly
5:39
in the middle of the night and probably would've hit homes instead of anybody.
5:43
So I tried to call for help, but my radio had been cut in half by the
5:46
shotgun blast, so my portable radio, I went over to look at it and the
5:51
antenna was completely shattered and the microphone was completely shattered,
5:55
so I had to crawl back to my squad car.
5:58
Use the in-car radio to call for help.
6:01
And I truly believe that day that they thought they killed me or I was gonna
6:08
die because they could've easily come back after I knocked, was knocked out
6:11
and just pumped another round into me and I for sure would've been dead.
6:15
I think one of the things that I really helped me in that situation
6:18
medically was there was birdshot.
6:20
So what happened is most of my bulletproof vests took it, but I had,
6:25
uh, some eye injuries from the pellets.
6:28
I had broken ribs, I had broken blood vessels, and I had some stomach issues
6:34
that were reel result of the trauma.
6:36
So I actually was in the hospital for three days afterwards,
6:42
uh, before being released.
6:44
And, you know, it was quite an ordeal.
6:46
You know, you have to take into consideration, Riverside had never
6:50
had a police officer involved shooting or a police officer shot
6:54
ever in the history of the village.
6:56
So, um, it was quite a traumatic event.
6:59
And back in the early, the mid eighties departments didn't know
7:03
how to handle those shootings.
7:05
Craig Floyd: Yeah.
7:05
Tom Weitzel: What time of day was that, Tom?
7:08
Craig Floyd: Yeah,
7:10
Bill Erfurth: Tom.
7:10
What time of day was that?
7:11
3:00 AM in the morning.
7:13
Yeah.
7:13
So obviously 3:00 AM in the morning.
7:16
It sounds to me like you were describing they were breaking into
7:18
a home or a home invasion there.
7:20
Did any of the neighbors call 9 1 1 after hearing the gunfire?
7:24
Tom Weitzel: Not a single call and you know, what they were doing?
7:27
The person that lived in that house, this was found out through investigation,
7:31
was, uh, worked for the sheriff's office in Cook County and his job
7:36
was to review people that would be up for early release or parole.
7:40
And he had denied the early release to a Chicago gang member.
7:45
He then sent other gang members to go to that house to assassinate him.
7:49
So the intent, the intent was to do a home invasion, kill this this, uh,
7:54
officer that worked for the sheriff's police, but he worked for the, the jail
7:59
side of it to release prisoners and as a retaliation for not letting one of
8:04
their gang members out on early release.
8:06
And then I interrupted it and they shot me instead of the homeowner.
8:10
Craig Floyd: So Tom, really, uh, you saved this guy's life.
8:14
I mean, it's, it's obvious that if you hadn't have stumbled upon
8:17
that vehicle parked, uh, in a place it shouldn't have been that night
8:21
that, that, uh, correctional, uh, professional would've been, uh,
8:24
killed and maybe his whole family.
8:26
And, and, uh, so kudos to you obviously you suffered, but uh, you saved a life.
8:31
You know, one, one of the things I've long been, um, an advocate
8:35
of, and, uh, it really upsets me when I see police officers not
8:39
wearing their bullet resistant vest.
8:40
It doesn't happen as often now as it used to, but, uh, you're talking 1987.
8:46
All right, bullet resistant vests were not really worn regularly, and it
8:51
was not mandatory back in those days.
8:54
But for some reason, uh, maybe it was your wife.
8:57
Uh, I'm, I'm sure my wife would've had me wearing a vest, but you purchased
9:00
your own vest and it saved your life.
9:03
Talk to me about that.
9:04
I.
9:05
Tom Weitzel: Yeah, so they didn't purchase vests for us when I started.
9:09
You had to do it on your own.
9:11
And actually my wife purchased it as a gift and she had purchased back then the,
9:18
the brand she purchased was Point Blank.
9:20
I dunno if you recall those.
9:22
And.
9:23
We had to wear those under our uniforms.
9:25
The department policy was no.
9:27
Today you see a lot of the vests outside, right?
9:30
You had to wear it under your shirt and under your uniform,
9:34
and it wasn't mandatory.
9:35
So there was not a policy that said the officers must wear it back then.
9:40
So it kind of a, a strange story like, so when after I was shot, Point Blank,
9:47
reached out to me and said, Hey, you know, we'd like to feature you enough.
9:51
Uh, news ad in these police chiefs magazines and police magazines
9:57
about being saved by our vest.
10:00
And in return we will supply the whole department with free vests.
10:04
And they reached out to me about two months after the shooting
10:07
and I did not wanna do it.
10:09
So I told the guy from Point Blank, like, I don't want notoriety.
10:13
And I wasn't ready.
10:14
I wasn't mentally there.
10:16
I'm like, I, I don't want to do this.
10:17
I don't wanna do any ad campaign heroizing, the, you know that I got shot.
10:22
I don't want that.
10:23
Well, when my chief found that out.
10:26
He came over to my house and said, Tom, they're offering to
10:31
buy purchase bulletproof vests for free for every officer.
10:37
If you agree to this media campaign, I'd really like you to do it.
10:43
And I said, no.
10:45
And I think the chief was really upset at me for the rest of
10:50
my career until he retired.
10:51
I don't think he ever forgave me.
10:53
And it was just that I wasn't in a place to do this media blitz two months after
10:59
I was shot, when my wife didn't even want me to go back to work and, you
11:04
know, and, but my chief at the time, all he saw was, Hey, they're going to give
11:08
us free vest for every office there.
11:10
So, so I'd really like you to do this for the department and.
11:14
I didn't, so it caused a big problem then between the administration
11:18
and me during that period of time.
11:20
Bill Erfurth: Tom, I wanna, I wanna get, I wanna.
11:23
Uh, expound on that a little bit, but then I want to get back to your
11:26
story, but Point Blank, everybody down here wore Point Blank.
11:30
I wore a Point Blank vest under my shirt.
11:32
And then later in my career I wore a 30 pound tactical vest from Point Blank.
11:37
And I had been to their facility a number of times because they're
11:40
located just outside of Fort Lauderdale, Florida down here.
11:43
And I remember that program and they used to do that with everybody where
11:47
it was, uh, it was the Point Blank Saves program, and they interviewed all
11:52
these cops that got saved by the vest.
11:53
And it was, it was quite a good thing.
11:55
And, but let's go back to what you were saying about when you did get shot.
11:59
And this gang banger rolls out of his car, out of the back,
12:03
shoots you with this shotgun.
12:05
The rest of the scumbags come running out of the, out of the
12:08
house that are trying to assassinate the homeowner and, and, and, uh.
12:12
Who are these guys?
12:13
What are their backgrounds?
12:15
Why was this happening?
12:16
There's they one, I guess one of 'em or all of them were gang bangers.
12:21
Tom Weitzel: Yeah.
12:21
The story behind that was years later, years ATF made a gun running
12:26
arrest and one of the individuals they arrested wanted to give
12:31
information on a police involved.
12:32
He thought it was a murder.
12:33
That's what he told the ATF agent.
12:36
For lessening the charges that he was gonna be going away for and gun running.
12:40
And he's like, you shot him?
12:42
And they said, no, I was with the person that shot him.
12:44
And I will exchange that information if you, you know, give me consideration.
12:48
So ATF said, sure.
12:49
ATF reached out to Chicago, they said, Hey, you have any unsolved
12:53
shootings involving your police officers where they were shot?
12:56
They're like, Nope.
12:57
We do not.
12:58
So ATF thought he was lying and the guy didn't even know that he
13:02
had shot in suburban riverside.
13:03
He thought it was Chicago.
13:04
Officer and ATF finally put it together.
13:09
They called one day, talked to our chief and said, Hey, we, we have really good
13:14
lead on the guy that shot your officer.
13:17
Um, unfortunately, we're not gonna be able to do anything with it.
13:20
And the reason was, was because in Illinois in that time, the statute
13:25
of limitations for attempted murder of a police officer was three years.
13:29
If you can believe that.
13:30
Yes.
13:30
Yes.
13:31
Unbelievable.
13:31
It was three years.
13:33
And, um, think about this, in that same time period, the
13:38
charge of forgery was forever.
13:40
So you could write a bad check in Illinois and have the bad check bounce, and the
13:44
police could chase you down for 30 years.
13:47
You could attempt to kill a police officer, and there was a three
13:49
year statute of limitations, and it's since changed.
13:53
I worked with the state legislature when I, when that happened, I was so angry.
13:58
Um, IW we had a state legislator that lived in Riverside and I worked
14:01
with her to get the law changed, but they could do nothing for my case.
14:06
Bill Erfurth: So that to, to me that's almost nuts, nuts, nuts.
14:09
But it's Illinois Bill, come on.
14:12
Well, it's Illinois, you know.
14:13
Well, what can you say?
14:15
But, hey, so three years attempted.
14:19
Murder on a police officer.
14:21
So if it was, if it was attempted murder on a police officer, I guess
14:24
the statute of limitations was the same for attempted murder on anyone?
14:28
Correct?
14:29
Tom Weitzel: Yeah.
14:29
They didn't have a, back then, they didn't even have a designation, so
14:32
it was just attempted murder was a three year statute of limitations.
14:36
Then they didn't even have a subcategory for police.
14:40
Bill Erfurth: Wow.
14:40
Wow.
14:41
Okay, so, and you were just about to tell us you jumped on this bandwagon
14:44
and, and ran with it, I guess.
14:47
Tom Weitzel: Yeah.
14:47
I had a state legislator that lived in town.
14:49
Her, her name was Judy Baar Topinka, and I went to her and told her and
14:53
had gotten some local news media coverage and she had heard about it.
14:56
She said, yeah, I'll go, we'll go with you to Springfield, Illinois, the capital,
15:00
and we'll try to get this law changed.
15:03
Along with another law.
15:04
So she came up with the idea like, let's regulate these dark windows.
15:08
Well, let's, let's get some, some regulations in Illinois on how
15:12
dark your windows can be tinted.
15:14
So after some several months of, she proposed legislation and it passed
15:18
overwhelmingly to eliminate the statute of limitations and put the percentage
15:24
of how dark your windows could be in Illinois, uh, for that tinting.
15:29
Bill Erfurth: Hmm.
15:31
Gotcha.
15:32
Tom.
15:32
I wanna back.
15:32
But that never helped your situation though.
15:35
Yeah,
15:35
Tom Weitzel: but it wasn't able to help others.
15:36
But no, it did.
15:37
It did not, it was not able to help my situation.
15:41
Craig Floyd: So the guy that shoots you, Tom, uh, gets off scot free.
15:45
There was never any justice in your case, although there was some
15:49
good legislation, another law that went into place, uh, thankfully,
15:53
uh, as a result of your sacrifice.
15:56
Uh, I wanna go back to the shooting though.
15:58
Um.
15:59
You know, thankfully most of us have never been shot.
16:02
Okay.
16:03
Um, I just want you to try to recollect what went on in your body, in your mind.
16:10
I mean, you're almost killed.
16:12
You, you, you were lifted off your feet, you said by the shotgun blast,
16:16
and obviously did a lot of damage even though the vest, uh, saved your life.
16:21
Um, what goes through your head?
16:23
I mean, you were able to call.
16:24
Uh, dispatch, I guess, and call in your, the shooting.
16:28
I mean, tell me what's going on at that point in, in your, your life and the
16:31
trauma that you suffered as a result.
16:34
Tom Weitzel: Yeah, for me, and I think for most people, that if
16:37
they, if you ever talk to somebody who was stabbed or shot, I, I.
16:43
My training kicked in it, and it didn't take, it took like one
16:46
second, like, so I'm a big advocate for that repetitive training.
16:50
When I got shot, when I woke up from the, my head bouncing off the, uh,
16:56
end of the squad car at the bumper.
16:58
I just immediately went for my handgun immediately.
17:02
They didn't take it.
17:03
It was, I still had it, and back then it was a revolver.
17:06
I had a Smith and Wesson revolver, and they were already fleeing,
17:10
and I would've, I, I literally would've randomly been shooting.
17:14
Down the block in a suburban community.
17:17
So I wasn't gonna do that.
17:18
And then I went for my radio right and it wasn't working and
17:22
I immediately crawled like an the army crawl back to my squad cars.
17:26
My door was still open on the squad 'cause I got out to check
17:29
that VIN number crawled in and.
17:32
Called in help on the police radio and it just was, you go back to your
17:38
survival training and the training you're taught even in the police academy.
17:42
It it, and people have asked me before, how did, how did you revert back there?
17:47
I didn't have to revert back there.
17:49
I just, you just, I just defaulted to my training immediately.
17:52
I can't describe it any other way except for it just clicked.
17:56
You just went back to your training.
17:59
Bill Erfurth: Yeah.
18:00
And you know, it's interesting, and I don't know, we, we should
18:02
compare notes here now that you've been retired for a while.
18:06
I'm retired for a while.
18:07
I find myself now, uh, in, you know, out and about and, and I, I see
18:13
something that happens or, you know, I'm always carrying a gun and, and
18:18
I just feel like I'm kind of soft.
18:20
Now I feel like, you know, I'm, you're not.
18:23
Psychologically in that mindset and in that game, and you, you kind of lose it.
18:29
So there's a lot to be said about that repetitive behavior
18:32
of muscle memory from training.
18:35
And I feel like now, uh, I'm not even near what I, what I should be or how I was.
18:41
I guess it's better to say.
18:43
Tom Weitzel: Yeah, I would agree.
18:44
You lose if you're not like I, you know, I used to, we, our qualification in
18:47
the department was every month, right?
18:49
You, you get really good.
18:50
Even, even the officers who aren't really proficient, the more
18:53
you do it, the better you get.
18:54
Without a doubt.
18:55
And the physical fitness and, you know, any ground fighting
18:59
training we would have.
19:01
Um, and even in retire, I have a few things I do.
19:03
My wife still drives me crazy.
19:05
She drives me.
19:06
I mean, crazy by saying, when I go to restaurants and stuff, I always have,
19:10
I always pick a table where I can see the door and don't have my back
19:13
to it, and it drives my wife crazy.
19:15
But she goes, you've been retired now.
19:17
You're still doing that.
19:18
I'm like, I do.
19:18
I, that's just what I've done my whole life.
19:21
Bill Erfurth: And it could happen anywhere, anytime.
19:23
Doesn't matter whether you're retired or not.
19:25
I mean, we told a story about this guy.
19:27
He was a, uh, police chief in Kentucky.
19:29
He was 80 years old, and he walked down the driveway to his
19:35
mailbox to get the mail one day.
19:37
And you know, your situation was with a shotgun.
19:40
So some scumbag jumped out of a car with a shotgun and blew his head off.
19:44
He was 80 years old.
19:45
He'd been retired for years.
19:46
This guy had been just recently released from prison.
19:50
And this guy, this 80-year-old man police chief had put him in
19:55
prison 30 years ago, something like that, and boom, all of a sudden.
19:59
So, you know, you never know and it's always better to, to be safe than sorry.
20:06
But I wanna ask you about this piece of shit that shot you.
20:10
Who is this guy?
20:12
I guess you know his name.
20:14
Do you know anything about him?
20:15
Did he go to prison?
20:17
Is he hopefully dead?
20:18
What's his deal?
20:20
Tom Weitzel: He is dead now.
20:21
He did not go to prison for my, he was a Latin King gang member in Chicago.
20:26
Uh, and he was a high ranking.
20:29
Latin King gang member.
20:31
And yes, uh, he died in a street battle.
20:35
Years later.
20:36
He did have some prison stints between my shooting and when the individual wanted to
20:42
give him up for to ATF, he had some minor arrest that he had done, like a six months
20:48
or a year, and he never did an extended period of time in state prison ever, and
20:53
that he was killed himself in a shootout.
20:56
Bill Erfurth: So the Latin gang, Latin Kings was a was at the
21:00
time and I don't know about now.
21:02
It was a pretty vicious street gang.
21:04
Tom Weitzel: Very violent street gang.
21:06
And they, at one time they controlled Chicago.
21:10
They still are a violent street game in Chi in Chicago.
21:13
There just are many other street games in Chicago with that same status.
21:17
But in the early and mid eighties, the Latin Kings ruled the city of Chicago.
21:22
Yeah, Chicago put 'em on their radar for sure.
21:25
He had already been on their radar, but after this had taken place, 'cause.
21:28
We had received a phone call from the Chicago Police and their tactical
21:32
commander, which is the officers they send out in plain clothes.
21:35
They knew the individual well, um, and they were gonna make sure
21:39
that they kept a close watch.
21:41
We even received phone calls from the FBI and the United States Secret
21:44
Service at that time, offering any help that they could to.
21:50
Maybe make a case against this individual for other crimes that, that, like maybe
21:54
putting them up on wires and stuff.
21:56
You couldn't get 'em for my crime that that was off the books.
21:59
It was never gonna happen.
22:00
Right.
22:00
But they, you know, the feds did call 'em, say, Hey, you know,
22:03
we're, we're, you know, maybe we'll get this guy on our radar too.
22:07
We'll just keep 'em on the radar so that we're following their activity.
22:11
I don't, I did not see the federal government make an arrest.
22:14
Chicago had many contacts with them after this took place and then.
22:19
Uh, you know, some people will say, unfortunately, he was killed in Chicago.
22:23
I wouldn't be one of those people to say that.
22:25
And, and that was in a gang and he, there were no innocent people in that.
22:29
Those were gang bangers shooting each other.
22:32
Bill Erfurth: Yeah, a little street justice there.
22:34
Hopefully.
22:36
Craig Floyd: Tom, here's my favorite part of the story though.
22:39
So you're shot in August of 1987.
22:42
Nearly killed.
22:44
Spend three days in the hospital recovering, uh, then you go home.
22:49
As, as most wives would do, it's my understanding that your wife discouraged
22:55
you from going back on the job.
22:56
You'd been on the job, I believe, three years, uh, at the time of
22:59
the shooting, and yet you decided to go back and become a police
23:05
officer once again, even though it.
23:07
The profession nearly killed you and I, I have to ask you, because most normal
23:12
people, I don't think would've done that.
23:14
But you went on not only to go back on the job for a few more years,
23:18
you, you served 37 years in law enforcement and uh, 13 of them as
23:24
Chief of Police in that same department that you were serving back in 1987.
23:29
I'm just trying to understand, number one, how did, how did your wife,
23:33
uh, continue living with you after you decided to go back, uh, against
23:37
her wishes and why did you do it?
23:39
My friend?
23:40
Uh, 37 years, uh, in a profession that, uh, nearly cost your life,
23:45
and now you have three sons that are serving in that same profession.
23:48
Now, most people wouldn't have done that.
23:51
Tom Weitzel: Yeah.
23:52
Um, so I'll, first of all, I'll say I've always thought law
23:55
enforcement and policing is the most honorable profession ever.
23:59
I've always thought that I wanted to be a policeman my whole life.
24:01
I was the type of kid that I went to, a Catholic grade school.
24:04
When I hear a siren, I'd run to the window and the nuns would
24:07
have to pull me back to my seat.
24:08
So I, I always wanted to be in law enforcement.
24:11
And then when this incident happened, the shooting afterwards when I came home.
24:16
What I found out had happened to my wife was terrible, and she, she was
24:20
really turned off by the way she was notified and, and what had happened.
24:24
So originally when I, when the department found out, you know,
24:28
the rest of the officer found out I was shot, they called the chief.
24:31
The chief said, okay, I'm gonna go over to Tom's house, pick up his wife.
24:34
He calls my wife, he's in the park.
24:37
We live in an apartment.
24:37
At that time, he says, I'm down in the parking lot.
24:40
This is what, this is how my wife gets notified.
24:42
I've been shot.
24:44
He says.
24:45
Your husband has been shot.
24:47
I don't know if he's alive.
24:49
Come down to the parking lot.
24:51
I'm gonna drive you to the hospital.
24:53
Wow.
24:54
She throws, she throws on some clothes, comes down to the, in
24:58
his chief's car that he drive to.
25:00
Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois, where I was taken.
25:05
And he drops my wife off at the drive-through.
25:08
He doesn't go in.
25:09
Now, imagine this, my wife goes into the ER on her own.
25:13
The media's already there.
25:14
So my wife goes into the emergency room and she's surrounded by media
25:20
with no other police officers.
25:22
There are no media.
25:23
Our chief left, 'cause he said he was going back to the scene.
25:27
He told her instead of stay with her and.
25:30
When I got home after the shooting, my wife said, look, I, I can't take this.
25:34
I, I need you to find something else to do.
25:37
And over these six weeks that I wasn't, I was recuperating.
25:41
I'm like, what else do I know?
25:43
I don't.
25:43
This is what I've trained my whole life for.
25:45
It's what I wanted to do My whole life.
25:47
I, I don't really have skills right now at 22, 23, however old I was
25:53
like, I'm, I'm not a carpenter.
25:54
I'm not an electrician.
25:55
I don't have those skills.
25:57
The skills I have are in law enforcement.
25:59
And I had this talk with my wife.
26:00
I said, I really have to go back.
26:02
She goes, you have to go back or wanna go back.
26:04
And it started out as.
26:06
I have to go back.
26:07
By the end of the six weeks I wanted to go back and I said, you have to be on
26:10
board, you know, and she wasn't, at first, she was like, I can't, this is terrible.
26:15
I don't like the way the department treated you.
26:17
I'm scared to death.
26:18
I didn't know if you were alive or dead.
26:20
Um, and this is a small suburban police department.
26:23
She's like, oh my God, if it happens in Riverside, I, I mean, what's next?
26:27
So we had a lot of conversations and I got to a place where I wanted to go back.
26:35
Being the profession that I loved and still love and serve honorably.
26:40
And you know, on a side note, when I went back, they sent me, I had
26:44
to go through all the usual, see a shrink and all this stuff to
26:46
get legal to get back on the road.
26:49
And the chief said to me, um, yeah, you know, I don't think, you might
26:55
not rise too high in the department.
26:57
Like, I think this is gonna hold you back being shot.
27:01
Bill Erfurth: What an asshole.
27:02
So, you know, you don't have to name names, but Yeah, asshole.
27:07
That's a good thing.
27:08
So, you know, honestly, because I'm as the, as you're telling this story, and
27:12
I'm thinking, you know, every experience that I had with someone that was shot.
27:18
They were forever anointed and taken care of on the police department.
27:23
Heroes, you know, when they came back to work, they got a suite assignment,
27:27
they got what they wanted, they were looked out for, they often got promoted.
27:33
This is contrary to everything that you're saying.
27:35
Tom Weitzel: You know what I did, they did with me.
27:37
When I returned, they sent me, I had to go to the shrink and then they sent
27:40
me to, uh, somebody to put hypnosis so maybe I could give a better description.
27:45
And back in the eighties, they didn't know what they did.
27:47
It was, it didn't work.
27:48
It was a joke.
27:49
But they, they wouldn't allow me to, I had to ride a two man police
27:53
car for the first month 'cause they were afraid I would overreact.
27:56
And then they took me off midnight and they didn't put, so they would.
27:59
They wouldn't allow me to work midnights for over six months.
28:02
So I worked just days in four to 12 when I always worked midnights
28:06
because I was so young, right?
28:07
It was all by seniority.
28:09
So that was their answer to putting me back on the street, keeping me off the
28:13
midnight shift, and having me double up with an officer until that officer
28:17
said, yeah, I don't think Tom will overreact, because the chief told me,
28:20
he is like, yeah, after being shot, I think you might overreact on a situation.
28:25
I'm like, where did you come up with that?
28:27
Like what kind of training do like you have, you know?
28:30
So, 'cause these, the chiefs back then, they didn't have a lot of training in
28:33
this area, especially if you were in suburban department where they never
28:37
experienced an officer shooting ever.
28:39
They didn't know what to do.
28:42
Bill Erfurth: So you feel like you got maybe a little bit of retribution
28:45
after you told that story about, uh, the Point Blank situation I suppose.
28:50
Tom Weitzel: Yeah.
28:50
And you know, and I didn't really, I took some credit.
28:52
I didn't, and my thing was I didn't wanna bring notoriety to myself on that.
28:55
I, I was only on the job three years.
28:57
I'm a lonely patrolman.
29:00
I have no authority.
29:01
I have no rank, I have nothing.
29:03
And I didn't want this to define my career.
29:05
And you're right.
29:06
People, I mean, when I, people looked at you differently when you come back,
29:10
but if you're, if you're being held in a thing where they're giving you special
29:14
assignments and maybe looking at you as, Hey, you've been through the battle.
29:17
That didn't happen with me.
29:18
I was given no special assignments.
29:20
I wasn't, I wasn't, uh, treated any differently.
29:23
The officers were great, the administration was not.
29:26
Bill Erfurth: Yeah, I'm sure.
29:27
I'm sure.
29:28
And it's, and it all well on that point, it always seems to be that way.
29:31
Craig Floyd: Bill, you may know this too.
29:32
I, I know Tom does.
29:34
But, um, we, at the National Law Enforcement Officers
29:37
Memorial Fund had worked very closely as partners with DuPont.
29:41
DuPont makes the Kevlar fiber, that gives the bullet resistant vests,
29:45
their, their resistance power.
29:47
And, uh, it's been extremely valuable.
29:50
Uh, those vests have saved.
29:51
Thousands and thousands of police lives since they started being
29:55
used back in, uh, the mid 1970s.
29:59
And they do have A-I-A-C-P, DuPont Kevlar Survivors Club.
30:04
Uh, people like Tom become members of that club when they are saved by a bullet
30:10
resistant vest, and they're usually.
30:12
Publicized, uh, Tom, I can understand, uh, the traumatic, uh, event you were
30:16
going through and, and just months after the shooting, you were asked to kind of
30:20
be out there and, and tell your story.
30:22
I, I can understand why you would be hesitant to do that, but I will say that
30:27
the, uh, survivors club, um, I think just the mere fact that they're telling
30:33
stories about officers who've been saved by their vests have encouraged.
30:37
Uh, thousands of officers to wear their vests because I think most
30:42
officers, sometimes it's hot.
30:44
Sometimes these vests can be uncomfortable, especially
30:46
in the summer months.
30:48
But the bottom line is you never know when that life-threatening moment may come.
30:53
But you do know that it could come on the very next call and that
30:56
vest may very well save your life.
30:59
So that's kind of a public service announcement I'll make, uh, for all
31:02
those law enforcement professionals.
31:04
And there.
31:05
Family members that are listening because, uh, as in your case, Tom, uh,
31:09
I know of a lot of wives and children of officers who have purchased bullet
31:13
resistant vest to make sure their loved one, uh, gets home safely.
31:17
So I hope that continues.
31:20
Bill Erfurth: Well, and you know, and you know, Craig, you're talking
31:23
about DuPont and you're talking about, uh, you know, Point Blank.
31:28
Well, we'll talk about the IACP napal, the Top COP Awards, all those kind of things.
31:33
You know, oftentimes an officer, you know, like, like Tom, you know,
31:40
you have a traumatic incident, you're involved in some situation.
31:43
These people.
31:45
Have awards and, and banquets, and you're recognized, and oftentimes there's some
31:50
kind of monetary award or something else.
31:52
Nice.
31:52
That's done for you.
31:53
Tom, how did your chief treat you at the time?
31:56
I mean, you should have been the officer of the month, the officer of the year.
31:59
Uh, what happened?
32:00
Tom Weitzel: It was, it, it, it was very, he treated me very poorly.
32:03
There's no question about that.
32:04
And I think it was lack of education and knowing what to
32:07
do, I mean, would never happen.
32:09
So what happened to me with my chief in the administration.
32:12
You'd be fired.
32:13
Now if you were a chief, you'd act like that.
32:16
Now they maybe, you know, we've made a lot of progress, right?
32:19
In officers post-traumatic stress disorder, a lot of treatment,
32:23
there was really none of that.
32:24
It was basically get right, go get your legalities done, like be the
32:29
shrink, will tell you that you can come back to work so Riverside isn't sued.
32:34
And that was about it.
32:36
And there was really no follow up.
32:37
I did receive the Kevlar DuPont award and the chief didn't really want to kind of
32:46
highlight that, so they wanted to present it at a village board meeting Okay.
32:51
In front of our elected officials.
32:53
And, uh, maybe the police officers could come and he just wanted it.
32:58
To be acknowledged and not have that.
33:01
So, you know, being young back then, I just, I didn't, you know, I didn't
33:04
wanna, uh, you know, you're naive.
33:07
I wanna get back to work.
33:08
You're confused.
33:10
You, you didn't get the support you thought you should get from the
33:12
administration, not the officers.
33:15
The officers were fantastic, but.
33:17
So it, I, while I did receive that award that, uh, Craig just mentioned earlier,
33:23
it, um, wasn't on the stain plateau that you would see that done today.
33:28
Bill Erfurth: Wow.
33:29
That's crazy to me.
33:30
So what happened to that guy?
33:33
Hopefully you got fired.
33:34
And then the other part of my question is clearly as you rose through the ranks, you
33:41
know, in deference to what that guy said.
33:46
Well, you, you became the police chief there, so I'm sure this was
33:49
an invaluable lesson to you and you never treated your folks like that.
33:55
Tom Weitzel: That's exactly right.
33:56
I, I made a focus, you know, when you're a patrolman, you're not gonna,
33:58
you don't say, I want to be the chief.
34:00
You just want to be able to do your job.
34:02
But I held every rank.
34:03
I went, I was patrolman, I went to street sergeant, I went to detective
34:06
sergeant, I went to Operations Lieutenant, and then finally deputy
34:10
Chief and I was even acting chief until they decided what they wanted to do.
34:15
So when the chief left at that time.
34:18
When the shot spot was open, they weren't sure that they wanted to go inside.
34:22
So the village was doing this national search for a police chief.
34:25
And you know, they came to me and said, Hey, put your name in.
34:30
And I said, I'm not putting my name in.
34:31
I've worked here 25.
34:32
You guys know me.
34:33
If you don't want me your chief, I'm okay with that.
34:36
Like, I'm not, I'm, that's okay.
34:38
Right.
34:38
And then, uh, the following day, the, uh, village president and
34:42
the city manager came and said.
34:44
Yeah, we do want you, like, how, how do what, what do we
34:46
do to get you to be a chief?
34:48
And when I accepted it, I, you could, my wife was here, she'd tell you the
34:51
same thing I said all the years that I was going up in the department, I
34:55
am not gonna have policies like this.
34:57
I'm gonna be a completely different um, chief.
35:00
I'm gonna make sure that the officers are well taken care of.
35:03
And in fact, I bet you that there were some politicians that would
35:06
tell you that I was quote unquote.
35:08
Officers chief, like maybe I wasn't as administrative as I should have been, that
35:13
I had a tendency to really support the rank and file police officers and I did.
35:19
But you know, I lasted as 13 years as the chief.
35:22
So I think a lot of the politicians that I served under, they supported
35:26
that because I was not what you would consider a chief that sat in his office
35:30
all day and put memos out and emails.
35:33
I mean, I was out there with my officers and.
35:36
I wanted to be different, and if that, they didn't want that kind of chief,
35:40
I didn't want to be their chief.
35:41
Paul Boomer: Tom's story of survival is remarkable, but what happened next
35:45
would test him in ways he never imagined.
35:47
Next episode, we'll hear about his fight against a justice system that
35:51
failed him and how his advocacy is protecting officers across Illinois.
35:55
Join us for part two of Tom Weitzel's story.