Latest / Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement / #021- "She Takes The Car And Hits Me"

Transcript

#021- "She Takes The Car And Hits Me" · Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um we hop the fence, head down the alley.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: As soon as I clear it, I hear that engine accelerate.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I look as soon as she bears that and she takes that car that he was running in and hits me.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_04: Hey team PA, we're back.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_04: It's Blue Grit Podcast, Clint McNear and Tyler Owen.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_04: Tyler Owen.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome back.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_04: We got a cool episode today.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_04: We've been trying to get some of the field reps on, and we are proud to have, and this is a safe episode for children because we have one on the show today.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_04: He's not Clint's son, I promise.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_04: Or my grandson.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_04: He's not my grandson either.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_04: Andrew Skippy Skipton, Lubbock PD, part-time field rep.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's me.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_04: Rancher Cowboy, Lubbock P.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_04: D's finest.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Don't know about finest, but I do work there.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome on.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um our guest.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Today we've got Michael Matzick.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: He is a legend at the Lubbock Police Department.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, maybe more infamous than famous.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: He is kind of a whisper in the hallways of the Lubbock Police Academy.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to say his name too loud, or he might show up and smoke you until you can't breathe.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't know anything about that because I was a model uh academy graduate of the Lubbock Police Academy.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_05: I seriously, seriously doubt that.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's no way.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: We never had any run-ins, and he definitely was like, that guy, he's gonna make it.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So here we are today, exactly where he expected us to be three years down the road.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_05: I call bullshit.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, welcome, welcome to the show, man.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: 100% BS on that.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_05: That's an idea.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_05: So you guys obviously met in the academy.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Good kid.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And how long ago was that?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: You tell me.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I started the police academy in September of 2020, graduated in April of 21, so we got to know each other for about six months of my life, and it was a very long six months.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_05: I take it you guys didn't get along too well in the academy.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: I get along with everybody.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_05: You have uh you have certain students that are challenging uh in in their during this uh part of their career that you kind of push them through.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: I will say that I get along better with others than some.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh some get to know me a little bit better than others, but yeah.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_05: And Skip was a was was a definitely a product of that.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Great kid.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_05: Great kid.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_05: Great kid.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_05: And that's awesome.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_05: That's awesome.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_04: Um, how long have you been on a Lubbock?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh 21 years, over 21 now.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_04: Nice, nice.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_04: We like to kick these off, man.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um tell us who you are, where you grew up.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Michael Matzik.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um grew up in Lubbock, but uh born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: Dang.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_04: Uh a lot like Lubbock, right?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_04: Honolulu and Hawaii are almost identical.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, uh mirror images of each other.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: Mirror images.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh actually born on Pearl Harbor Day in Pearl Harbor.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: So uh fun little fact about that.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_05: But your birthdays were interesting.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh very, very um grew up here.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I was an army brat, so my dad moved around quite a bit.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'd say 88.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: I moved to Ransom Canyon, which is right outside of Lubbock, and officially been there actually as a Lubbock resident since then.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh went to high school, met my lovely wife in high school, uh, high school sweethearts.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: Don't hold this against me.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Seventh grader, freshman, started Dayton.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: Been together uh 35 years now, married for 27, and then joined the military.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: So graduated high school, went to college for a little bit, didn't pan out.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, decided I better get my shit together.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: Joined the military, went to the United States Navy, uh, served as a rescue swimmer in San Diego.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: So I flew in helicopters, got to do all that fun stuff, got out.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, in fact, I came home, flew home off of a deployment on my birthday.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: My wife and my son were there, and my son, Luke, was just a little bit over a year old.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: And when they came out to greet me, he looked at me and was like, uh, who the fuck are you?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I was wow, I was done.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I can't, this I can't do.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh got out, moved back here, and had no idea what I was gonna do.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: My dad was a cop, but I never really considered being a police officer.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: I had a buddy to work for the AJ.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of teetered with being a police officer a little bit.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, sorry.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: You're good.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh kind of teetered with it a little bit, but then um was work talking to him and he goes, Hey, the sheriff department's hiring.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I went over there and I was like, I need more money.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I went to the city.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: That is stuff.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh got on and um officially hired in 2001, started the uh police academy in 2002, got done with that, went out and just had fun, had a lot, a lot, a lot of fun.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh had a little incident, kind of changed my course of direction and my career a little bit, and uh I'm sure we'll talk about that later.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we've got listeners literally all over the world, India, Ukraine, I mean everywhere.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_04: China.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_04: China.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_04: I just want to say we had the most Texas moment we've ever had on here.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_04: Where'd you say you moved to in Texas the first place?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_04: Ransom Canyon?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_04: That is the most Texas thing we've ever said on here.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it is.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_04: For our listeners outside of Texas that assume that's very Texas, Ransom Canyon, Texas.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it is.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_04: Hell yeah.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_04: I like that.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_04: From from Hawaii.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_04: From Hawaii.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_04: Rescue swimmers at uh Coast Guard or Navy.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_05: No, I didn't.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, God.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_05: See, and I was gonna ask the same question.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_05: Or like the comparison.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: I am not a mud duck.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's straight, straight navy.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: Straight navy.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, all right.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: I thought it was a fair question.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_05: But I did I did watch a movie one time with Kevin Costner.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_05: I don't I actually he favors Ashton Kutcher.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_05: He does yes, he does.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_05: Actually, too.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: I thought it was when he could.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: I actually when I I tell the kids when I introduce myself to them in the class, I tell them, hey, I I was a rescue swimmer in the Navy, and I ask them, anybody ever seen Top Gun?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: And they all look at me like the Guardian.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever seen The Guardian?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody's seen the Guardians.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: I said the same thing.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_04: Well, no offense to the Navy.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_04: I have a son deployed in the Navy right now, so no offense at all.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_04: It was a question.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Fort Gordon.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_04: What's he do?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_04: Speaks Arabic.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: Smarter than me.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't get it from his father or his mother.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_05: That's awesome.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_05: So you started off, uh, so obviously you you you uh you started with the sheriff's office when you got out of the military, uh, and then you went over to Lovick PD?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, sir.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_05: Uh probably started off on patrol.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, and then kind of where did your career path uh go from there?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_05: Obviously, you had an incident that we're gonna talk very much in depth about later on.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_05: Uh where did your career path kind of go from from there?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_04: How long in patrol for uh five years?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: Five years.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: I was hit the streets, started out on day shift against my will.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: I was forced to go to day shift, and then uh got to draft at midnights with my with my buddies and stuff, and we we like to wreak havoc, so I had a lot of fun.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: Got on the SWAT team in 2007, and right after that, shortly after that, they created a directed patrol unit.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: So they would send us to problem areas and we would attack those areas.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, if there was a crime there, we would we would try to take care of it.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um then we created a gang unit.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: I love gangs.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm fascinated by the aspect of of how they work and the accountracies and all that other.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_05: You know what's fascinating too is that the gang culture is a lot like our brotherhood and as far as the the way they operate and the way they communicate and the way the the they they're willing to die for each other in that aspect.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so it's a lot of I I I find it interesting too.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_05: Uh but a lot of gang activity as far as the certain ones.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_05: Motorcycle gangs is kind of what I find interest in, but a lot of those guys are just wanting the seeking that family lifestyle because they don't have a family of their own.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, I was it it really fascinated me in that aspect.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of it I just looked at because it was just so tight.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: And the things that they did.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: The motorcycle gangs obviously uh were a big bandito state.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they're there.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I was into the Aryan Brotherhood and Aryan Circle.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: That those were my my focuses.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: I I knew a lot about the other gangs, but those were my focuses.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I couldn't, you know, ball-headed white guy, a bunch of tattoos, I couldn't figure it out why they why they would let me work those gangs.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: But I did.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: I was really, really big into that.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so um went to the gang unit.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the incident that I that we'll talk about later happened on the gang unit, and I left the gang unit.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: And then shortly after that, uh, I was also a member of the SWAT team, so I left that and then got assigned out to the academy where I just I like to say I like to take souls, I mend people, I I help them physically reach their goals and uh mentally push them.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the ones that are able to be.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: All of them, yeah, they're all ever everybody is able to.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: That just mentally, it's it's here.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: Every and I I try to explain to them when they come in.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: Everything that you do, you can do right here.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: You just gotta make this do it when it comes to that kind of stuff.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, I I love I love training people, and it's a it's a different genre now, it's a different generation coming in.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: These uh, and I call them all kids now because I'm almost 50.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um they don't know what working out means.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: They don't know the meaning of pushing.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: And let me push myself.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: I've got to be uncomfortable.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: I've got to learn to be comfortable in that uncomfortable space.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I I try to help them realize that you're right though.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: Some some some get it, some don't.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_04: What's a tall task?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_04: People don't understand the body will take you a lot further than your brain will allow it to.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_04: And if you'll let your mind allow it, your your body will take you a long way, but the brain usually shuts it down and tells you I'm tired or I want to quit or it's too hard.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I and I and and and Skip can tell you this.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: I am it it's what we do is physically challenging.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: It it has to be.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh what we're dealing with, you have to be ready.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: I always laugh at the saying, always be ready, but it's a hundred percent true.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: You have to prepare yourself to be ready at any time because you don't know when's it's gonna happen.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I I I teach these kids, this machine is run by this computer.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: This will do anything this tells it to.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this will keep going, this will shut down long before this will.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I I try to explain that to them and and make it a little obvious later on in their training.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I think I think for the most part they get it afterwards.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: Once once we get through the academy and they get out on their own and their eyes open up a little bit, they go, uh, he wasn't just being an asshole.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, right.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: He was trying to try to help us.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_05: But if you train like you fight, you're gonna fight like you train.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: That is what I live by.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: Breathe it, eat it, teach it.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Fight like you train.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, 100%.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: You train like you fight, and in that oh shit moment, that body is gonna do exactly how you train it to do.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_05: I had a moment, I was in California on a training uh situation, and it was during a simmunition where I worked at our SWAT team or tactical team, when you got shot, you would yell out index and you would you would stop.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_05: Well, what does that do to the mind?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm gonna get to that in a minute.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_05: So we're stacked up on this door in a like a breach style huge warehouse.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_05: It was phenomenal.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_05: It was badass.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_05: He's in the Los Angeles.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_04: He's about to tell you.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_05: I wasn't gonna mention that.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean you can because you're proud to work with a badass like I am.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_05: He was a TFO.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_05: He's a TFO.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_05: That's kind of a big deal.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_05: Well, yeah.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_05: So it was a federally funded Marshall warehouse, is where this thing was at.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_05: So let me tell you what happened.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm stacked up on this house and I'm the door guy, and there's a guy behind me.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_05: He this guy's standing behind a brown piece of I can't see him.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_05: Nobody can see him.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_05: And I get lit up with like a fully automatic.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_05: Have you ever been shot with an AR uh sim round?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_05: Have you?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: I have, yeah.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my God.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_05: It's horrible.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_05: And it and so this guy's lighting me up, and I'm I'm I immediately started screaming out index.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_05: Why?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_05: Because I've been trained that way, I've been programmed that way.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_05: And so I start getting pissed off because this guy keeps shooting me.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, he is unloading this freaking sim gun.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_05: Index does sound better than so I'm like, you know, what the hell?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_05: And so they they scream at me, and I'll never forget this.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_05: This guy grabs my my my face mask and looks at me, and he says, You are dying.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_05: Get a tourniquet on and get back in the fight.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_05: And while this is going on, I'm still getting shot.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_05: Like the dude reloads a magazine into a SIM gun.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_05: That's an AR, and I'm still getting it.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_05: Looks like wasp have attacked me after I get done that night.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_05: But let me tell you what what it did do, what it did do is it prepared me from that moment forward.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_05: When I got back home, every day that we would train as a unit with that team, with other teams, I thought it it changed my entire mentality of how you trained.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_05: Other guys, even on small tactical units or even small patrol guys, I don't want to get dirty.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_05: I don't want to, I don't want to mess up my my uniform.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_05: I don't want to mess up my holster.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, how stupid does that sound on like defense tactics?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_05: Or if you're rolling around on qualifications, how many times have you heard that?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_05: I don't want to lay on the ground and shoot my gun.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_05: Does that I mean have you heard that one last time you qualified?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: I can say I have, but I can also say that that man across the room.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: He runs the he runs the shit out there?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: No, he uh he taught you very quickly that a clean uniform was something you would never have in the police academy.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: The amount of burpees that we did in a dirt field full of stickers, uh too many to count, but I have no problem getting my uniform dirty anymore.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's good.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: Were you were you part of the tree of will?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was part of the tree of woe.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: I was very sad to see that tree go.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's good.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: How long have you been at the academy?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: I have been there over nine years now.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_04: That's cool, man, because I think it takes a specific skill set and mindset to have a passion to go out and train people how to protect themselves and save their own life.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean it's like anything.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_04: Like I couldn't work child crimes just because I I could not be exposed to that crap very long.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_04: But I commend you for doing that because people have to do it, and it takes a lot of sweat equity and energy and mental capacity to have a desire.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_04: Nine years a long time to train recruits.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: I I I genuinely love it.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: I love what I do.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: I love the fact that RPD allows me to be an influence with these guys and gals coming through.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's a hell of a team out there.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um the creator of me is one of my partners out there, Tommy Prumer.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: So uh anybody who listens to this that hates what they do in the academy, PT wise, blame him.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: Don't blame you, blame him.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: Do not blame me, blame him.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it I it it truly is um it's very rewarding for us.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I obvious tell those kids I don't care about them in the beginning because I'm not there to care about them, I'm there to train them, but I absolutely care about them.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're listening to this, no, I do not care about you.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um my wife catches a lot of it when I come home.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: God bless her.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'll come home and I'll vent a little bit to her and then I'll feel a lot better about it.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_05: Good.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_05: Well, take take take us back to the incident.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_05: Really while we're here today, uh that incident kind of unravels several different topics uh that you want to kind of bring up.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you had a critical incident prior to that, is that right?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, sir.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh 2000 2006?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, 12 12506.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: I I was shot at nine times by a little gangbanger and his little punk friend.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um that was a fun one, but that's not the one we're gonna talk about today.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: The one today, um, January 10th of 2014.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: A day that changed my life, uh, changed my thought process, changed my career, I would say, at the PD, and just really just affected me and my family just just dramatically.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um it was a Friday, and I I love Fridays, because Skip will tell you what happens on Fridays for me.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: What do I what do I eat on Friday, Skip?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: Pizza.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: I live it that's my pizza.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: Cheat day.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a cheat day.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: I never it see, I don't have cheat days.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: I just make it fit my macros.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm I'm gonna eat a pizza.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna eat the whole thing.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: So I make it fit.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: But that day, we went in early, um, had breakfast as a unit, uh, do paperwork normally on that kind of thing, you know, Friday touch up stuff.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: Get out in the field a little bit, not working.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: Is it not close enough?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, yeah.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh get out in the field a little bit, do some things.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh actually went and had lunch, me and my sergeant, uh somebody else, we get a phone call from our burglary unit saying, hey, we're out with a stolen car on like 48th in York.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: And it was, I knew the name, I cannot tell you the name of the guy's house, but I had been working him.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I had um at that time, I had uh A B snitch working for me.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we were tied in with this guy pretty good, so I already knew about him.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: They said they had found the stolen car.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: The guy who came out ran back in, so they went in to go get him.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_05: And A A B stands for Aryan Brotherhood, for those that don't know what that means.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so they went back, they went in to get him.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: Dope, guns, stolen stuff everywhere.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: So they secure the house, get a search warrant, and they call us, let us know, hey, we've got a warrant for the house, but he's not here.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: And we knew where he was.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: We knew he had a uh storage unit over off of 50th in Frankfurt.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: So they send a couple guys over there to get eyes on it, and he's there.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: So they send me over to uh hang out and get ready to stop anybody to come by.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I go park in a parking lot and it's 2 30, and I'm thinking, I'm out of here in an hour and a half.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_04: Are you a uniform or plain clothes?
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh plain clothes, plain clothes.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I've got a uh I've got a blacked-out caprice.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: We have just gotten them.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: Those things are I love those coats.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: What year?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: That one was a 14.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: So it was brand new.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: All right, brand new.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: We'll get to that in a minute.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: Go ahead.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm sitting there waiting.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: My guys are calling it out.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: This car pulls up.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: We don't have the warrant yet.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: They they leave, they call it out.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: They said, Hey, there's traffic over here.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: Get over here, get somebody over here so we can shut it down or shut them down.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I head over there, I'm sitting in the parking lot, car comes back, same car, pulls back up, and we found out later that the two that went inside, the two dumbasses, go inside, they meet with the guy.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: He said, There's no way I'm selling you any dope.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: There's cops sitting right outside watching me right now because he's got cameras set up, he knows we're there.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um they said, Well, we're not gonna stop anyways.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: If they try to shut us down, we're running.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: So they leave, get in the car.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: They said, Hey, we got the search warrant, shut anybody down.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: They got it for the storage unit and the house at the same time.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: They said, shut anybody down.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: So uh the guy who was out there at the time, who is an axe actual legend of RPD, who's now retired, Scott Weems, calls out the car, calls out the tag, they pulled right up in front of me.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, Well, there they are.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I had to pull up, get behind them, re-reconfirm the tag with him.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: He said, Absolutely, this is the car.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, All right.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: We start heading uh eastbound underneath the loop.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: I light them up.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I always go with chilies and berries.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: But then that Caprice hit the siren and let him know, and all they did, I saw the AC and that car dropped.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: Here we go.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: And the team had to get on the video and call that the very slot.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: I knew they were running, obviously.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: But the the biggest clue was when they cut through the letter station to the didn't take the regular ride.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, whoa, these we're being all the way.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: So he he cuts through there.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_05: And this is the 2014.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: He cuts through there, and I say he, because I now know who he is.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh cuts through there and they go hit 52nd and they're running east towards Utica.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm right behind him, calling him out, calling it out.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then we pass a stop sign and get halfway down the next block, and I see the door opening.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh, this mofo's about to run.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: Here we go.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm getting ready to run.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to call it out.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: The radio's got some traffic on it, so it's not letting me call out.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: So what he does is he opens that door and runs his car right into mine, runs us off the road into a front yard, and then boom, bails.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well, there's a there's a passenger in the car, but I want the driver.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I get out and chase him, and I'd never seen this before in my career.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I've been involved in several foot chases.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: This dude ducked his shoulder and ran through the fence.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't go over it.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: He went through it.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: A wood fence.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we have got pictures of it, and it's pretty cool.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is a decent side of town, so those fences are actually they're pretty well built over there.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Some areas are Town, you may not have any fence posts left, but that's a that's a pretty good area of town.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that fence was pretty sturdy.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so he runs through the fence.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: I go in after him, and it if you're dealing with people who deal with meth and that kind of things, and you're there's guns obviously involved and knives and that kind of stuff.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: So he crashes, does a nice little barrel roll in the backyard while I'm running through, and about that time my radio keys up as he's standing up reaching, and I just yell out over channel one, which you're not supposed to do.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: I said, I'm on you, motherfucker.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm on you, motherfucker.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: All over the radio.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: So everybody, everybody is now coming because they hear that.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um we hop the fence, head down the alley, and I see the mail truck coming, and he clears it, and as soon as I clear it, I hear out of the corner of my out of my left ear, I hear that engine accelerate.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I look as soon as she veers at me, and she takes that car that he was running in and hits me, sends me through the windshield on top of it, up over a mail truck about 65 feet in the air.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I land in front of that mail truck, and he slams on the brakes to keep from running me over.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_02: And that I don't remember any of that.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: I remember trying to jump, trying to hurdle the car, which I don't know.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: I always joke about it because if the pictures you'll see, the headlight is actually at 24 inches, and I do a lot of CrossFit, and we crossfit and box jump at 24 inches.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_02: So they said maybe you should jump to 30 inches now.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I might have cleared it, but the windshield might have caught me a little differently.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I laid there for a long time and had no uh no idea.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: At that point, once I saw the car, I did not open my ear.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I looked at a vehicle.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: Got to the hospital because I laid on the ground and uh the video will show uh Officer Shanks, who's a sergeant now, he gets there.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Gary Davis, who was the was the postman, jumps out, takes the shirt off of his back, and starts putting pressure on my head.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think it's my head that's messed up.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: I can't feel my legs in my shoulder at that point.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: I I I honestly thought when I initially got hit, I thought I was dead.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then when I landed and everything came to, I couldn't feel my legs.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: I thought this this bitch crushed my legs.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: I'll never walk again.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: My shoulder was in pain.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: I knew nothing about the contusion to my head or anything like that.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so um they get me loaded up.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh my my the other gang unit guys show up.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: So Jordan Roberts gets there.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we had an ATF guy with us at the time because we were heavy into what we were doing, and we needed him with us quite a bit.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: So he rode with us quite a bit.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then my sergeant gets there and they get everything taken care of.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: They finally, probably like eight minutes later, EMS shows up.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I I'll say this uh the the firemen, so we have a we have a station at 50th in Utica, right around the corner.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: Right around the corner.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: Those guys took probably three minutes to get there.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: And they roll up in the truck and they're coming out and they're still putting their shit on.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I I've got great firefighter friends.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the gym I go to, Wild West, uh, one of the coaches there, Dalton Mankins, a fireman, great friend of mine, a lot of them.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: I give them a lot of shit, fake ass hero stuff.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but it just on that day.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: On that day, pedicures and I think they were in the middle, I think they might have been in the middle of a combat zone on Call of Duty.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: And they had to finish that before they left to get out of the recliners.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: But when they get there, they they start taking care of me.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'd say some few choice words for some people.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: But if it on the audio, you can hear my body trying to correct itself.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: There, my breathing is extremely labored.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: You hear the just the pain that's coming.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then finally, I said a few choice words for somebody because they were pushing my head, they were putting direct pressure on my head, and I had no idea about that, but they're shoving my head into this asphalt.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I finally had enough of it.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, get my fucking head off the asphalt.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then they load me up, get me to the hospital.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, my wife gets there.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: I don't cry when my wife gets there.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I'm sorry, I did it to you again.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: I promise.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_02: But at that point, I was considering 100% done.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: I was not gonna do this anymore.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: It was the that second actual attempt on my life doing this job.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I've I've tried to cut my own head off before, I've played Frogger on 82nd, but this was the one where somebody else actually tried to take my life and I was done, completely done.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: I was checked out.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_04: Did you know when you were laying on the on the asphalt, did you know that it was the suspects?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_04: The female.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't know if maybe you thought you guys just ran through traffic and it's a good one.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, no, no, no, no.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: I absolutely, I absolutely knew it was her because you can hear me on the uh on my audio.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: I I said, that fucking bitch.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: I knew it was her.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: I knew it was her.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh had some other choice words.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: But they get me loaded up.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: I get there.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, my wife is there with me.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: I still haven't, I don't know about my head at all.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um my best friend actually went and picked her up and got her up there, John Hayes, and was calling her, blowing her phone up, and she doesn't answer.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: If she doesn't know who you are, she's not answering.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: She finally answered, and John goes, Where are you at?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: She goes, I'm at Walmart buying dog food.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, I'm on my way.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I told John, don't let her don't do that to her again.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: Ever.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: Just just let her know.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: And she gets there.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm I'm talking with her a little bit, and then my best friend, one of my best friends I go through the academy with, who's now a sergeant out there with me, Don Billingslee shows up, and I break down like a bitch.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_02: I I start crying, and I'm like, son of a, you know, and it just it hits me.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_02: It finally hits me.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um going to surgery, it I'm in there, I don't, three hours, I think.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: They have to clean all the glass out and 64 uh sutures up there.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: They had to go inside and outside.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um as I get done with that, I'm in there for uh, so this happened on a Friday.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm in there Saturday, Sunday.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: I got a drain tube hanging out of my head.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: They uh secured me a room for for my wife and my kiddos to be up there with me the whole time.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: Put an um put an officer outside my door, which I always appreciated.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: They wouldn't let anybody in but the doctors unless I said, Yeah, come on in.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_05: Um the suspects in custody at this point?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, they were.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Both of them.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: They um so he went, I'll I'll backtrack.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: So he I'm down, they're taking care of me, they're kicking doors in, or he's kicking doors in, and they're still actively chasing him.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh DPS gets up, boom, they they and they catch his butt.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then the ironic thing is she parked a car like two, a set of uh apartments down from where she hit me.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: Gets out on foot and then catches a ride with somebody.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: Over back to the house over off of 34th and Quaker.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: And as soon as the the kid came back, which there's a funny story behind that, comes back, he sees all the cops, he goes, Hey, uh, I might have just helped somebody you were looking for.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: Took her over here to this area, and they boom, swarmed over there, and when they got there, she tried to run out the back and all that, and they caught her.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: So they had them both in custody.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: And the kid who gave her a ride was an SO deputy's son.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: So I was laughing about that.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: So it was a lot of the man upstairs was definitely watching out for me.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_05: The reason I was asking about the suspect being in custody is that Lubbock PD put an officer outside your door.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_05: A citizen or I guess a normal person would think, well, that's probably for your safety.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_05: But the mental aspect of it and the appreciation that you have now, even how many years after, right?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_05: It just goes back to show we're here for you.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_05: We're not leaving.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, we're here.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I that was big for me.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: That that's my point.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: That was that was big for me.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I think every everybody would always come in, they would check on me.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: They would check on uh on Lori and the kiddos, hey do you guys need anything?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: You good?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'm good.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: Most of the time I was doped up.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: But I was like, Yeah, I'm good.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: And that was big.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_04: After you got hit during that time or the first several hours afterwards, were you aware that you were banged up and and gonna be fine?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_04: Or was there a point where you laid there and thought, yeah, I'm I'm it's I'm dead, I'm done, I'm not gonna survive this, or did you feel like I'm banged up, beat up, but I I'm gonna be good?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: I yeah, um, I don't know when I knew my legs were okay.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_02: I I I 100% thought my legs were crushed.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because that they've the the AI guys came out and they said she was probably doing about 45 to 50 when she hit you.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_04: Damn.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: So good.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I thought, okay, I'm never gonna walk again.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_02: And then my sh the shoulders were just the shoulder, the left shoulder was probably the worst one because I even I landed on that one in front of the mail truck.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um that was probably the worst.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the one that went through the windshield as well.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: Both of them went, both of them actually hit hitting the windshield.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_02: But that one, I think because I landed on it, may have been a little bit more.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know when I knew there were no broken bones or anything like that.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_02: And that was key for me.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: Was I went into the surgery, got done with that, and I guess they did they maybe did the x-rays before they did the surgery, and then it came back and said, Hey, you're good.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: There's nothing broken, hard skull, no, no cracks in the skull, nothing like that.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: Just just a lot of blunt force trauma, I guess you could say.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_04: So you knew you were injured bad.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_04: There was never a point where you thought, yeah, I'm dead, or this just no, I yeah.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: Once I knew I was on the ground, I knew I was alive.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: I and I like to say, in my mind, because I we talk about mindset and stuff like that, I'm a tough son of a bitch.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: In my mind, I I've always told myself, I don't care what it is, if I make it through this, if I'm breathing, I'm living.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: And that's I I immediately set that in my head.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, you're alive.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: Get up and fight.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there was no getting up.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, at least the mentality was there.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: The mentality was, hey, now let's let's let's get well get back to where we need to get.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: So um I guess once I got in the hospital, they they uh with the x-rays and all that, I knew everything was gonna be fine.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: It the legs were still really bad.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh had a lot of internal stuff going on that I wasn't aware of.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: But um, they cut me loose on a Sunday.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: They finally come up and they they took the drain tube out of my head and said, Hey, we're gonna send you home.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: We're bringing a wheelchair.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I and I looked at him, I said, the fuck you are.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: I said, I'm walking out of this bitch.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: I said, I'm not gonna let anybody think they got the best of me.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_02: Because I I knew the guys had come up and they came and saw me after they hit the uh storage unit and caught that guy too.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: But I I was like, no, I'm I'm walking out of here.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I didn't realize I had the concussion, the severity of the concussion I had, and I had a lot of inner ear issue stuff going on too.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_02: So when they released me, I mean my wife walked down.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: We was down a hall, down an elevator, and towards the uh towards the exit, and I made it to the door.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I sat down, I said, go get the car.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: I can't go any further.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then it was uh 16 weeks, 16 weeks before I was back at work.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: Lots of uh, lots of rehab, um, more concussion more than anything.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: And then I just, man.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_05: Did they ever say or tell you what why they thought that your injuries were not as bad as what they should have been?
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so two things, two things they uh the doctors accredited me surviving that entire incident was one uh Safari Land's body armor protecting my internal organs.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so I've received a uh I'm part of the safe clubs because of that.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_02: 1884 is my number.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um they they came out and awarded that to me, and they said because the doctor said because of that, that kept everything in here intact and didn't allow any internal injuries.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: And the doctors had said, had I not been in the physical condition that I was in, that I'm dead.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: We're not, we're there, I'm not here talking to you guys.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_04: That's a huge testament.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely not here.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, couple things, uh, even the AI guys that came there, so there's pictures of my shoes.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: She she hit me so hard I came out of my shoes.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: And they were back, somebody moved them.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_02: We won't mention any names.
• 34:14
  unknown: Matt.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: But uh my shoes were back where she initially hit me.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: She hit me so hard I came out of my shoes.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: And they said, they told me that is a 99.9% nomas.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: If somebody comes out of their shoes, they're they're goners.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_04: For our listeners that hear we're not having technical difficulties, it is storming like a mug in Austin.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_04: Nor is it clear my stomach.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_04: It's about five o'clock, it's not lunchtime.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_04: It is storming like a mug, and you can hear it, but it's not on our end, I promise.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_04: It's it sets the mood of how serious the story is.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, when you when it got serious and started rumbling things out.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_05: Greth Brooks is not fixing to come on here in a minute.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_04: But what a testament to that you have to share with the recruits.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_04: A personal testament, not just well, you need to be in good shape and stay in good shape.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, uh somebody that's living and breathing today s solely because of their conditioning.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it it it's it's a big process for me, and it's part of the healing process.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I I let and and Skip can kind of talk to this, I let them get so far in, and then you know, I see a lot of giving up on themselves physically and not being wanting to push and stuff like that, and then I share the story with them, and then a lot of times it'll open some eyes, and it'll be like, oh shit.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, this guy is not just screaming at us to scream at us, is not pushing us to push us just to be an asshole.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_02: He believes in it.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_02: There's there's a reason why he believes in it and he does what he does.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yep, absolutely.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_05: I agree.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_05: Was he did you feel the passion that he has for this whenever you were going to the academy, or did you feel like it was just some random guy?
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, you you knew that this meant a lot to him.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um in my academy, we started with uh Tommy Prumer because Matzik was out of town, and I thought those workouts were death.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I was not gonna make it through those first two weeks, and then he showed up and I would have taken anything to go back to Tommy Prumer's workouts.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: They were I I don't want us to be mean to him, but they were a cakewalk comparatively, and it sucked, and every single day he's in your face and he's yelling at you to to push through and he's telling you you're weak, but it's not that you're weak physically, it's that you're weak mentally.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: And finally one day it clicked for me when I started to actually get into shape and I started to see a noticeable difference through the academy where things didn't suck as much physically.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then I will never forget the day he took us into a back classroom, and usually when he would call us into a room, it was not for something great, it was usually to get smoked.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: So none of us were excited to go into this room.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he sat down and he started to play the audio, and is the audio from his uh mic when he was keying up in the pursuit, and then there's a really, really long pause where there's no audio, and you just sit there, and of course, we didn't know at the time what that audio was entailing until he showed us photographs and dash cam from the officers that responded, and you realize that in a few words, his life was pretty much gone, and then he survived it, and then he sat there and let us let us kind of take it in for a minute and then explained that his physical conditioning and what he had done to put his body through to be ready for that moment is what saved his life.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't just that he hated us, which he might have just hated us, but he was also there trying to make sure that if we ever came into that critical incident on our own, that we would have the necessary tools to survive that.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um and whether officers choose to carry out those tools once they get out of the academy, that's their own choice.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: But throughout the academy, he gave us those tools and he made sure that we were the best physical versions of ourselves we could be going onto the streets of Lubbock to protect the citizens of Lubbock, and so that our police department was not just a bunch of officers with no skills that were overweight, that weren't ready for the job, and he did a great job of that.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: And even though we didn't get along the greatest in the academy, uh I had a huge respect for him, and he had some of the most meaningful conversations with me in that academy because he told me that he thought I'd be a good officer, but I was gonna get myself killed with my mouth, which he's not wrong.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I I have a I have a high-speed mouth and a low speed brain, and that's okay.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I could tell he actually cared about me as a person and as an officer at the end of the day, and that he wasn't just doing it to screw with me, and he wasn't just doing it to make me suffer, and there was an end goal to it, and I'm really appreciative of that.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's badass.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, like, like cut the tape, I need a Kleenex.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_05: Like wow.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_04: So Skip, I got your beer after this.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_04: I appreciate it.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_04: So, Skip, you came from a background where hard work wasn't I mean, out of the Skip, tell them you grew up ranching, and um I mean it's not like you stayed at home sitting on the couch watching reality TV.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I definitely came from a more active background.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: I I came from a ranching background.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: I left a cattle ranch to go into law enforcement, and it was a lot of work every day.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's a definitely a different style of work though.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I thought because I could run fast that I was in good shape, and I quickly learned that running is not in shape.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh running a marathon means nothing.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, that's wrong.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_05: Well he I he when the when this all started, he said I've got this badass guy from Lubbock, and he rode my ass in the academy like a like a mule, and I really want to bring him on and talk about his story, and uh he speaks he speaks flu, really, really highly.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_05: So for you to come on and and I did not know the connection, I mean it was that deep, but I think it's awesome that you came on and and shared it.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_04: So you had been um shot at some years prior, critical incident.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_04: Do you think having gone through that before made this incident magnified?
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_04: Or do you think it prepared you a little bit for it?
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_04: You said at first you were like done, I'm out.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_04: Second time somebody tried to take my life, I'm out.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_04: Do you think that being your second one because they're totally different, they're not related, you think one helped the other?
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I um so that one was a big one.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_02: The shooting was a big one, and uh I I it's both of them are I've relived both of them and it's always there.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'll relive it.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember the big thing with with my wife and my kiddos, because they were they were little, very young.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um that was big.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_02: But this one was the last one, I think, for me, uh mentally.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: I was I a hundred percent was done.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um I I like to consider myself a pretty good officer as far as hard charging, get out there and make stuff happen.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um I walked that line when it came to to good and bad.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, I'm firm but fair.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: If you need to go to jail, you're gonna go to jail.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_02: And if I need to chase you, I'm going to chase you.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: And in that aspect of my career, I was reckless with my body.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't I had that mindset of I'm untouchable.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I I'd been shot at uh nine times by a punk little 16-year-old kid that just robbed a game room.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um that was already in my career.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'd been in several foot jazzes and had a lot of fun and jumped some stuff and tried to take my own head off and ran through traffic and did that kind of thing.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I kind of almost I I hate to say it, but I almost had that untouchable as far as physically that mindset.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I've always been physically fit more now than even then.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um this incident, I was actually training for a competition, getting ready.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_02: So my my fitness was actually at a little bit different level because I was stepping up my training just a little bit.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_02: But this one right here, I was I was checked out.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_05: So you feel like at some point you were gonna hit that wall of death or near death, and it happened to be that day.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I I I told my wife, I told her numerous times, I'm done, I'm done.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_02: We're not, I'm not doing this anymore.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna do this to you guys.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_02: You were the kiddos, because I I remember my daughter uh struggled with this bad, really, really, really bad.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh worried about that bitch coming over to our house to try to finish the job and that kind of thing.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so she was it affected her really bad.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um I I was yeah, I would say that.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: I've got great friends on the PD, and there were great people that helped me.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Jimmy Paha is one of them.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_02: Chris Daniel is another one.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Scott Shavers, who was a uh he was an assistant chief at the time, said, Hey, take a little time.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: Take a little time, don't make any harsh, rash decisions at this point.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: Take a little time.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see where we're at.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Chris told me he I Chris Chris Daniel is one of my best friends.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_02: I've known Chris for a long time and straightforward, and he's a no bullshit kind of guy.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_02: He said, Come out to the academy.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_02: He said, You come out there, you work with me.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_02: Because he had just gotten assigned out there.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I told uh I told Jimmy at the who was my sergeant at time, I said, Hey, uh I think I if I'm gonna continue to do this, I need to I need to take a step back and I need to I need to let me transfer out there.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so I I did.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: I uh put in for it, interviewed for it, got the position.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then re uh resigned from the SWAT team at that time and just focused on physical fitness, nutrition, and being the best trainer, yeah, instructor that I could that I could be, and and and give these kids that were coming through everything that I had.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh fitness knowledge, nutrition knowledge, tactic knowledge, whatever I could feed them.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: They didn't they didn't see it at the time.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: But whatever I could do to make them better, I I did.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I was I was a hundred percent in then, I'm a hundred percent in now.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_04: Well, bless you too for not being selfish because we accept the risk that we go deal with A B and A C turds and you know all the biker gangs and all the the scumbags that we deal with.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_04: We accept that.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_04: But when you look and see that it puts a fear or a risk or a threat that becomes a reality because perception's reality, and you see your daughter scared to death that some turds gonna come after your family or come after her, and you make the decision, man, I'm out, I've I've got a transition.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_04: Because it's hard.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_04: And this job has a lot of fun and excitement.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_04: And adrenaline is uh to me is about as addictive as crack.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_04: I've never done crack, but adrenaline's about as addictive as anything I can imagine.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_04: Just so we're clear.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_04: And it's um adrenaline's hard thing to get away from, and I get it from different places.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but to step back and go, hey, I gotta make a a tough call for what's best for my family.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_04: I admire you for that.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_04: That's a tough call to make and uh a lot of respect for that.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_02: That they're number one.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I I tell and I really I tell Skipton and and every recruit when they get to the end, that is who we are.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: Without them, we aren't we're nothing.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_02: Without our family, without our support staff that we have at home, we're nothing.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_02: And if you don't take care of that, and if you don't make them your priority, what are you doing?
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: What do you what do you what are you doing?
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_04: And it's tough to tell that to young folks that are new in the career and running and gunning and foot chases and car chases, and um, it's hard to have that broader image of this is a marathon, not a sprint.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_04: Don't don't kill yourself in the first couple of years.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_04: And that's a long time.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_02: You guys hit all the points that I always tell them, and I tell them the goals are not here, we're not looking here.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it's really it's not retirement.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I want to have a good quality of life as a police officer.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna take care of myself, stay healthy, be ready for any situation if it presents itself.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the day, I'm gonna do my job and I'm gonna go home to my family.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_02: But that's not the goal.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: The goal is when I hang this up and I get to spend the rest of my life with my wife and my kids and my grandkids and not worry about these turds out here anymore.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_02: That's where I want to be vested.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_02: I want my quality of life at that point to be good and not five years and I'm in a hospital or I'm six feet under, like the like the stats are for us.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: We need to take care of ourselves throughout our career to enjoy our retirement.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's what we work for.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're beating yourself up, not doing what you're supposed to do, not taking care of yourself at that point, you're not gonna get to enjoy this when you're done.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna be fighting health battles.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I I hear the stories way too often.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I I really preach that to those guys and let them know that that's my rock.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's my ride or die right there.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh when she gives me the look and says, hmm, that uh yeah, then I'm like, hmm, okay, this is where we're at.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_05: Does she have the buffalo stance?
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_05: My wife's got a buffalo stance where they they kind of cock the heel inside.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_05: No, you know what I'm talking about?
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_05: No.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, it must be an herving thing, Dallas.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_01: She just has a look.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_05: So you'll get there, Skip.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_01: You'll get there.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: One of these days.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: One of these days.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_04: So for listeners out there that may go through something like this, once you realized you were in the scheme of things, relatively speaking, you were good.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_04: You were gonna survive, have some quality of life.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_04: Were you pretty good mentally, psychologically after this?
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_04: Did it mess you up for a period of time?
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_04: Were you off your kind of off your flow?
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um and if so, was there a point where you're you made the turn, or was it the support of family that helped?
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I was I was off my game.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_02: I was way, way off my game.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_02: It uh it it and I hate to drop the F-bomb, but it fucked me up good.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure mentally.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um I had a lot of physical issues going on, inner ear issues, the concussion, the body.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_02: Started seeing my physical therapist and uh Carrie Wimberly, who dude's a a mad genius with me.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_02: I he's gone through a lot with me, um, and it's helped me tremendously getting back to the job physically.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_02: But mentally, man, I was it was bad, really, really, really bad for me for probably I'd say probably two to three years.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_05: Was it the incident itself, or was it because of the incident that you felt like you couldn't perform physically or be the strength guy or be the tactical operator?
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_05: Because you and I both know that lifestyle and living in that world and being that guy, it has that personal perception.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_05: And now you're not able to be that guy.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm sure the mental anguish of having to write that letter and step down off that SWAT team, was it was it that mental aspect of of the everything of the entire incident wrapped up into one package, or was it the incident itself?
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_02: The incident itself.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_02: I tell Skipton and and anybody in that comes through the academy, this is not for everybody.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I have more respect for somebody that can step up and say, Hey, this ain't for me.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_02: Ring the bell.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_02: I admire those versus the ones that are just trying to get get through and hovering and all that.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_02: For me, that decision, along because I I talked to my wife about it and had it, we had a nice long discussion, and it was the right thing to do.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_02: So that wasn't hard for me.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's it, that wasn't hard for me to say, hey, I'm stepping away.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_02: I don't listen, I I don't need my adrenaline rush from this.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_02: I don't need to be a junkie as far as I gotta go kick doors in, let's go throw some flashbangs, run some warrants, that kind of thing.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't need that.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_02: What I needed was me for her.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I needed.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so that this make making that decision wasn't hard.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_02: The physical aspect of me getting back to where I was was a long, long road.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um that was really, really hard for me.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_02: The legs, my legs felt like they were 400 pounds for probably two years.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_02: I couldn't, I could run, but I couldn't run like I used to.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_02: And it messed it up so bad that I actually had to have a left knee replacement, a total knee replacement.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I about a year after this happened, I went in, or two years actually, went in, had a total my whole left knee replaced.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_02: So boom, set me back again.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_02: But up until that point, I'd worked out, I'd pushed myself, pushed myself, pushed myself because I'm trying to be an influence for these kids coming through.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm the kind I'm the type of guy that I'm not gonna bark at you and tell you to do something and 400 pounds.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be like, oh, you need to be in the best shape of your life, and I got a gut hanging over, I can't hardly get out of my desk.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I'm not calling anybody up.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not doing that.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_02: But I I and I and I always tell them, I'll never make you do anything I haven't done or that I will not do.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I'd get in there and I'd grind with them.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_02: And listen, I'm a competitive mofo.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_02: I am not letting some 21-year-old punk come in there and beat me at anything.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I pushed and I that that helped me, but I I still remember I I can get out of the car now a little bit.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_02: And if it's a traffic stop or if I'm helping somebody, that it hits me.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_02: It it hits me.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I very I remember the very first stop that I helped a SO deputy on the way into work with a with a traffic accident.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I got out and I sat at my door for probably 30 seconds shaking.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I can't, I can't fucking move.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_02: I can't move.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_02: So I call I called my buddy Andy Young.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_02: Andy Young is a uh probably one of the greatest assets RPD has.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_02: He's a uh retired psychologist from LCU.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_02: Hell of a guy.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_02: And you can talk to him anytime, day or night.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_02: And Andy is a really, really good friend of mine.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I called him up.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_02: I said, bro, I need to we need to figure this shit out.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_02: Because this is this is not good.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then it it's just time.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's just I'll I'll never I'll never be the same.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'll never work the same.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_02: My mindset will probably never be the same as it was before.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_02: But if you ask me to do something, I'm gonna go through that wall and do it.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_04: So you said for about two to three years you struggled at the two to three year mark, was it slowly the lights came back on and you were good?
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_04: Or was there a a a steadfast moment or a polarizing moment where you something changed that helped you realize I'm out of the dark and I see the light again?
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, uh so it'll be a little cheesy.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I I'm I'm big into CrossFit.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_02: Go figure.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's Skip Hill now.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_02: I I love I love CrossFit and I I've been doing it for probably 16 years now, and it's it's the reason why I'm here.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_02: But I started, I would say, right when I turned 45, me and my coach at the time, we we were in Utah at Regionals watching Dalton, and I had a I had an oh shit moment with him there.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_02: I said, let's go.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna we're gonna we're gonna push this envelope, we're gonna see what we can do with this.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_02: And it gave me a purpose, so to speak, outside of the profession.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so we flipped the switch and got nutrition dialed in and started started kicking my own ass and and doing things there, and that helped me recover.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_02: Mentally.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_02: Mentally was that was big.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because it not not that my family and them didn't give me purpose, but I'm one of those, I need that that hobby, and we talk about hobbies outside and that drive.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_02: And yes, I'm going to work out and I love working out, blah, blah, blah, but why am I doing it?
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_02: Why am I doing it right now?
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'm not chasing shitheads around, I'm not chasing people, I'm not throwing people in jail, I'm not writing tickets, I'm not out there like these guys are every night where an old shit moment could happen.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, I need a purpose, I need something to help push me and drive me.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_02: And that that was it.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_02: And it's been six years now that I've really just felt good.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_02: And just felt good mentally, physically, and just emotionally, just really just been solid for me.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_05: That's awesome.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's awesome.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_04: Skip?
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, sir.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_04: Tell us about coming on TMPA.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_04: Tell us about how what how it's been, what you what you're doing.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm I've really enjoyed it.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm kind of the the experimental child of TMPA.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_00: I I do look 12, but I promise I am at least 21.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: I do legally own my firearm and I can buy my own ammo.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_00: And drive everything.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can drive everything.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_05: Can you drive alcohol?
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_05: Can you buy alcohol yet?
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_00: I can buy alcohol, yeah, yeah.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_00: How old are you, Skip?
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm 26 years old.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_00: That that dude is as old as my son.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you ask anyone with the PDE, I can drive, I just cannot drive well.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out, shout out Sergeant Conklin for handling all my crash reports.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um But yeah, I got brought on to TMPA in December of last year.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a really awesome thing to be a part of.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's weird to say that being a part of an association that you pay dues to is more like having a family than anything.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, being able to work around these guys and work around the members, be with the members, talk to them, host events, cook for them, it has brought a huge quality of life to me that I was kind of missing with the job.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_00: I love my job.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_00: I love what I do on patrol on a daily basis, but sometimes you get tired of only seeing the bad in people.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I see everyone on their worst day, whether that worst day is just a simple car wreck or they've been shot.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I have to help figure out their worst day.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_00: With TMPA, sometimes I have to deal with that with critical incidents, but a lot of times I'm getting to enjoy charity events, I'm getting to cook for officers having a day off.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_00: I get to see the lighter side of things, and it has been a really kind of refreshing thing for me to be able to do as a as a second kind of career alongside of my patrol duties.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_05: So man, we've enjoyed the hell out of out out of out of you joining the team.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_05: Me and uh Clint were talking about that the other day, just about just your energy, uh the fun you have with us.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_05: Uh I mean, and who doesn't like having a 12-year-old hanging out like a little side like the little sidekick?
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: That that sounds a little bit criminal, but we'll allow it.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I didn't mean it like that.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_04: Wow, hanging out with a 12-year-old.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_04: But to your point, so you're sick.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_04: When I retired, I wasn't mad, sad, I wasn't any of that.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_04: But I just kind of felt about his to his point about had a purpose.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_04: I feel like every call I went on, you know, I was working a robbery for somebody that got their dope stolen.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_04: Or, you know, working a stolen car where I found out, you know, it was from a dope deal, and I kind of got to a point where I'm like, man, I'm I'm not helping, I'm not always helping the best of people.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_04: And then my passion was gone.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_04: And when TNPA come along, you're starting to get to help people that are helping people.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, yeah, you know, in a disaster when cops are working 24 hour shifts and trying to take care of the citizens, nobody's taking care of the first responders, and that's what helped me find my passion again is getting to help people that getting to help the people that help people.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um help me find my passion again.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_04: And man, it's been huge having you come on.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's nice to have uh some of us are older and fatter, and it's been a it's been cool to have some new fresh blood.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_00: I got to go out to a critical incident in Lubbock just yesterday, and that was just really good for me.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_00: I bought some lunch for some guys.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_00: I sat there and I BSed with them and just made sure that guys that I work with on a daily basis were okay after something happened, and being able to do that and assist them, but also get a quality of it for me.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's helping me as much as it's helping them.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I've really enjoyed being here and I appreciate y'all uh taking a shot on me.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I've I've again I've enjoyed having you on.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_05: You're I guess approaching the year mark, and it's an honor, really, when you look around at the quality of officers that Texas has.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_05: 80,000 cops in Texas.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_05: And there are 16 field reps, right?
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_05: Something like that.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_05: So we've got 33,000 members roughly, and to be one of those guys, I mean, I when I say it, it's it it really it's an honor.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, we've got some we have a badass team.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_05: So for you to be on it, it's been awesome.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I appreciate Matt Sick for not kicking my ass too much so that I could I could graduate the police academy and make it to this day.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_04: I wonder if I guess we should have talked to him before we hired you.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so yeah, maybe we'll I will I will say this about Skip.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's a hell of a kid right there.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_02: He is, man.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_02: He's a hell of a kid, he does a great job.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh when I heard that he was part of this organization, I was fucking extremely happy.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's a smart boy over there.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_02: He is.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_02: He may do some stupid shit every now and again.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_02: But that's a that's a that's a smart boy.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_05: He fits in well if that's the case, trust me.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_00: It goes back to the uh the high speed mouth, low speed brain.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, trust me.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_05: If Lightning and Area, Tyler Owen, uh, if you knew the whole if you knew the entire team, you'd he he fits in quite well.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_05: See everybody there's no doubt.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that's like a quality, it's a job requirement.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_02: I will say this.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_02: What you guys do is is is huge for us.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_02: And uh you guys you hit the nail on the head.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_02: We're we're we're I say we, I'm not out there, skipping, and those guys and gals are out there.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_02: We got to take care of them.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody's got to take care of them.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_02: We're in a time now where we're losing too many.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_02: We're losing too many to self-inflicted stuff.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_02: And uh that there's no there the resources need to be available.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_02: And if they are in a critical incident, we need to take care of them.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we need to take care of our own.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_02: And then I know everybody's like, oh, you should take care.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_02: No, we have to.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_02: Because we are a family.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_02: We are a family.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_02: This is this is a family, and I I I often joked, I said, we're the biggest gang there is in the U.S.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_02: I said, we kick doors all the time.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_02: We kick doors, take stuff, throw people around, put people in jail.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_02: That's what we do.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_02: But we have to take care of each other, and that that's that starts with you guys, and you guys are doing a hell of a job, and I I appreciate the association and and just what you do throughout the state, not just not just for our boys yesterday that had that incident, but uh I I see the I see the stuff all the time on the gram, critical incident here, critical, and I'm just like, holy cow.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we gotta be there, we gotta take care of it.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_05: I agree.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_05: Well, we typically close out the shows with uh some rapid fire questions.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_05: And if you want to do the honors, because I screw up question one every time.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_05: Go ahead.
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and also thank lovely Mrs.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_04: Metzik for coming down and joining us.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_04: She's sitting just off camera.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely, but a great support system, and you guys together sound like one hell of a team.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_04: I would hate to go up against you too.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_04: Uh it's not me you gotta worry about.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_04: It's the look.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_04: When you glance over at her once in a while, I keep looking for that look.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm I'm behaving right now.
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm behaving 100%.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_04: Rapid fire.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_04: Both of you.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_04: Best cop movie or loan from a cop movie.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_04: Go ahead.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'll let you go first.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I am 12, so I haven't seen a lot of the older cop movies.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but for me, my go-to is super troopers, and the line is can I get a liter of cola?
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that one just can never get past that.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm a Beverly Hills cop guy.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's a good one.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's an old school, and I love the banana in the tailpipe.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_01: We use that quite a bit.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's awesome.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um, best police vehicle.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, in my entire three years as a police officer, I've had two vehicles.
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_00: One was a Crown Victoria, and the one I'm in currently uh is a Tahoe that has more miles than I'd like to say.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_00: I would trade back to my Crown Victoria any day.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great vehicle.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you, Skip.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_05: So you're saying the Crown Vic, is that right?
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh between those two of the Crown Vic, absolutely.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, Crown Limited.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_00: Crown Victoria.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_00: Crown Victoria.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_01: 100% the Crown Vic.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_01: Two for two today.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_01: You can't.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_01: Listen.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_05: Ford Motor Company, we would love for you guys to be sponsors.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_05: You can contact us at 1888-848-2088-1-800.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_05: Excuse me, 1-800-248.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_04: He can't spell Caprice.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_04: He means Caprice.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm sorry.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_04: Caprice.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_05: No, no, no.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_05: It's a 1-800-848-2088.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, as an unmarked, all day, every day, twice on Sunday, give me that Caprice.
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_02: I will agree to that.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_02: As a marked unit that will get out there and speed, just do what you want at the end.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_02: A workhorse.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely crazy.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_02: Cramp it.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_02: But you ain't out caprice.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_05: Go ahead.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_05: Let's get them Rob.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_05: We've got one more last question.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_04: All right, go ahead.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_04: Favorite drink.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_04: If you don't drink alcohol, it can be anything.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I stick to Miller Light.
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very classy alcoholic beverage.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_04: It's almost like Ransom Canyon.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that's Texas.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_04: We drink Miller Light and Ransom Canyon in Texas.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_04: I like it.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_04: I'm good with it.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a rum guy.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_02: I am a rum guy.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_02: I love Captain Morgan is my everyday, but if I'm feeling it's a special occasion, there's a rum out there called bumboo that I drink, and it's it tastes like banana cream pie.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_04: Is that on uh do you drink it neat?
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know anything about rum.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_04: Do you drink it neat?
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_04: Do you mix?
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_02: I mix it.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mix it so I'm a health conscious kind of guy.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_02: Stay away from karma coloring as much as I can, so I cut it with Zevia cola.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a clear, natural cola that I use.
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_02: Just in fact, I'm gonna have one after that.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_04: Sounds good.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_04: We should have brought some on.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we should have them.
• 1:04:31
  SPEAKER_04: A good host would.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_04: I thought that was an office here.
• 1:04:34
  SPEAKER_04: If I had an office here, you guys would have had that.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_04: I don't have an office here like that.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my god.
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not down here yet, damn it.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_05: All right.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_05: Well, this wraps up this show.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_05: I'm getting picked on and picked at and thrown at and cussed at and everything else.
• 1:04:47
  SPEAKER_05: Our editor, producer, director, Natalie, thank you.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, shout out to Natalie Garza.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_05: I appreciate you.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_05: She does a great job on doing the cameras' angles and putting up with our dumbasses on these episodes and all the scheduling.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_05: So she's a rock star.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_05: She is a rock star.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_02: And some of my dumbass questions I sent her.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_05: All right, guys.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_05: You guys you guys hit that uh download button, subscribe.
• 1:05:08
  SPEAKER_05: You guys stay safe out there this week.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_05: Uh actually, this is the week at the uh National Police Week.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_05: So you guys stay safe.
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_05: Please stay safe.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_05: As always, God bless you and a God bless Texas.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_05: We're out.