Latest / Heroes Behind the Badge / Dave Hinners — The Arrests, the Trial, and What It Cost | Part 2

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Dave Hinners — The Arrests, the Trial, and What It Cost | Part 2 · Heroes Behind the Badge

• 0:00
  I've not talked to her since.
• 0:01
  I, you know, think about her a lot.
• 0:03
  I hope she's doing better today.
• 0:06
  She went through hell- Yeah … uh, you know, 26 years ago almost
• 0:19
  December 2000, Wichita, Kansas, five people were taken
• 0:23
  to a snowy field and shot.
• 0:25
  One survived.
• 0:26
  By the next morning, one of the men responsible was in custody.
• 0:31
  He was caught because there was a complaint about a truck
• 0:34
  pulling a TV in the, in the drive- in the parking lot, huh?
• 0:37
  Well, somebody going to work that morning- Yeah
• 0:39
  saw- Saw him doing it, yeah … and heard about the
• 0:41
  incident and, you know, said, "Hey, there's that white truck.
• 0:44
  Hey, there's the guy matching the- There it
• 0:46
  is
• 0:46
  description." And it seems a little strange at, you
• 0:49
  know, 9:00 in the morning to be pulling a TV across the
• 0:53
  parking lot on a blanket.
• 0:55
  Maybe at any time of the day, I don't know.
• 0:57
  That's a
• 0:58
  little- You know, one, one of the th- one of the things I remember
• 1:00
  though, Dave, about, uh, uh, their capture and what happened
• 1:03
  after the murders is that they actually went back to the house
• 1:08
  where they had originally, uh, done the home invasion and, and
• 1:12
  got these, um, these five people.
• 1:13
  Um, uh, how stupid was that?
• 1:16
  And I mean, what, what was their intention to the, you
• 1:19
  know, for going back to the scene of the crime, basically?
• 1:23
  Well, they, they did go back.
• 1:24
  After they, they shot all of them, I assume they thought they were
• 1:27
  all dead, so they drove back and then started… You know, that's
• 1:30
  when they stole the TV, they stole the Christmas presents.
• 1:34
  They stole everything out of the house
• 1:38
  And you know, when HG got up, she just started looking for light.
• 1:43
  And unfortunately, there w- there was a farmhouse probably
• 1:49
  200 yards from her, but it didn't have any lights on.
• 1:53
  She didn't know it was there.
• 1:55
  And I always wondered if she would've actually got to that
• 1:58
  house instead of walking the mile-
• 2:00
  Yeah
• 2:01
  and trying to hide from traffic, if we would've been at the
• 2:05
  house when they were there.
• 2:07
  'Cause they went back to the house- Yeah, it was- Yeah,
• 2:08
  and stole everything else.
• 2:10
  Did she actually live in that house?
• 2:12
  If she would've told
• 2:12
  them the
• 2:12
  address, yeah.
• 2:13
  Did
• 2:13
  she live in the house?
• 2:14
  Did all those people live in that house, or they were just visiting?
• 2:17
  Uh, I can't remember who all lived in the house.
• 2:19
  I think she was just visiting.
• 2:21
  Visiting, yeah.
• 2:21
  I think it, it was, as I recall, um, again, did a little research,
• 2:25
  Jason Befort, who was her fian- or gonna be her fiance-
• 2:30
  Right
• 2:30
  um, actually, uh, owned the house, and she was his girlfriend-
• 2:34
  Oh, I
• 2:35
  gotcha … at the time.
• 2:35
  Yeah.
• 2:36
  And so that's why she was going over there that night, to hang
• 2:39
  out with Jason- To hang out, yeah … and, and the rest of the friends.
• 2:42
  Um, uh, but, you know, and there's an interesting aside.
• 2:44
  I, I don't wanna, uh, miss this part of the story, which is, uh,
• 2:49
  finding the diamond ring that he was gonna give to HG. And, um, I,
• 2:55
  I guess one of the brothers, one of the killers, actually found
• 2:59
  it in a, uh, popcorn tin of-
• 3:02
  Right
• 3:03
  and, uh, he had hidden it there, waiting to give it to her, um, on
• 3:07
  December 22nd, I believe, right before Christmas, and that's
• 3:10
  how, uh, she learned that, uh, he was about to propose to her.
• 3:14
  Wow.
• 3:14
  Yeah.
• 3:14
  And, uh, quite, quite a story.
• 3:16
  Well- Unbelievable.
• 3:17
  Tell us about- So how- Yeah, go ahead, Dennis.
• 3:19
  No, I was gonna say, tell us about the, uh, the actual trial.
• 3:24
  Apparently, 25 years later and we're still, it's
• 3:27
  kinda still in progress.
• 3:28
  What's go- Yeah … what happened back then, and what was the
• 3:31
  trial like, and what's going on right now, best you know?
• 3:37
  Well, yeah, it took about, if I remember right, it was about
• 3:40
  two years before the trial came, uh, around Right That, by that
• 3:43
  point I was working first shift.
• 3:45
  Um, it was, yeah, the first time, the only time I've
• 3:49
  testified on national TV.
• 3:51
  But, uh, uh, it, it was, you know, the big trial of the
• 3:54
  century for, for Wichita.
• 3:56
  For sure.
• 3:58
  And it lasted quite a while.
• 3:59
  Um, they got convicted and actually got the death
• 4:03
  penalty at that point.
• 4:05
  And I think a few years later, I think it was in 20- and
• 4:08
  don't quote me on the years, but I'm thinking it was about
• 4:10
  2014, they had appealed, uh, and a judge had, had, uh
• 4:17
  And agreed with them and had, and nullified the death penalty,
• 4:21
  but had given them life.
• 4:23
  And of course, uh, our attorney general went, "No, uh-uh,"
• 4:27
  and went back, and I think it was a couple years later they
• 4:29
  got the death penalty again.
• 4:30
  And, uh, I, I think they're trying to fi- well, I think
• 4:34
  I've seen someplace out there fighting it again.
• 4:37
  So yeah, you would think 20s- almost 26 years later, uh,
• 4:42
  they're, they're still there.
• 4:43
  Still- Now, the, the, the killers in this crime, uh, and, and we'll
• 4:48
  just mention their name briefly.
• 4:50
  I mean, they're the Carr brothers, Reginald and Jonathan.
• 4:53
  One was 22, I think that was Reginald.
• 4:56
  Jonathan's 20.
• 4:57
  Uh, but before these crimes were committed, I mean, these
• 5:00
  two were, were bad dudes.
• 5:02
  I mean, they had been committing crimes since they were,
• 5:05
  you know, uh, little guys.
• 5:06
  Uh, I read where, uh, Reginald, the older one, actually, uh,
• 5:12
  was introduced to alcohol and drugs at the age of six.
• 5:16
  Six years old.
• 5:17
  And, uh, he was doing drug crimes, he was assaulting people.
• 5:21
  Um, a lot of the crimes actually were sealed because he was
• 5:24
  committing them as a juvenile.
• 5:26
  And then finally at the age of 18, he started serving multiple
• 5:30
  stints, uh, behind bars in prison for various crimes.
• 5:34
  So the- these were not, uh, uh, people that all of a
• 5:37
  sudden snapped and, and, uh, did this, uh, unbelievable
• 5:40
  heinous crime spree.
• 5:42
  Um, they were, they were bad people from the get-go.
• 5:45
  And, uh, and it was interesting to me too in the trial that
• 5:49
  you mentioned, um, that they actually turned on each other.
• 5:53
  Uh, they were tried jointly and, uh, Reginald's, uh,
• 5:57
  defense attorneys tried to blame Jonathan and say he did it, and
• 6:01
  Jonathan's attorneys, uh, did the same to Reginald and claimed
• 6:04
  he was the, the one responsible for murdering these people.
• 6:08
  If I remember right, I can't remember which of the brothers,
• 6:10
  I think it was Reginald, the older one, had actually gotten
• 6:12
  out of jail only a week or mon- month before all this started.
• 6:19
  Wow.
• 6:19
  I mean, he had not been out very long.
• 6:22
  That's terrible.
• 6:23
  And, and I think if, if I remember correctly, the families
• 6:27
  of the victims, the, the murder victims, actually sued, uh, the,
• 6:31
  the state of Kansas, I believe, or the city of R- Wichita,
• 6:35
  um, whoever it was responsible for releasing Reginald.
• 6:40
  Because, uh, they made the argument that, uh,
• 6:42
  technically he should have been behind bars because he had
• 6:45
  committed a parole violation.
• 6:47
  Oh.
• 6:48
  And, uh, they sh- they somehow, because of a
• 6:50
  paperwork, uh, mix-up, uh, allowed him to go free.
• 6:55
  And that was, as you say, just about a week or two
• 6:58
  before these murders occurred.
• 6:59
  So, uh- Jeez … yeah, our, our, again, our criminal justice
• 7:02
  system, uh- Guy should've
• 7:03
  been
• 7:04
  in jail … oh, yeah,
• 7:04
  should've been in jail
• 7:06
  Yeah.
• 7:06
  Should've been in jail.
• 7:06
  I do know that, uh, because of all this, the families, uh,
• 7:10
  you know, I'm sure all, all the kids knew each other, but the
• 7:12
  families got to be very, very close from my understanding.
• 7:16
  And, uh-
• 7:17
  Dave Te- that, that, that makes me remember the part
• 7:21
  about there's a, a bit of a love story that occurred.
• 7:23
  Uh, you know, I… You can't even- Bro, I, I, I've never- Anything
• 7:26
  good coming out of this, but
• 7:28
  I, I've never, never asked again, but the, the… What I'd
• 7:32
  heard, and hopefully it is true, that the, our first victim,
• 7:35
  the guy that they carjacked-
• 7:37
  Andrew
• 7:38
  Schreiber
• 7:38
  and HG, the survivor.
• 7:39
  Uh, since they spent so much time on this thing.
• 7:43
  'Cause our, you know, our DA didn't wanna… I mean,
• 7:45
  they had a heck of a case, and they put together a very,
• 7:47
  very, very good case on this.
• 7:49
  But because these groups stayed together and spent so much
• 7:51
  time, from my understanding they actually got married.
• 7:56
  Holly G. and, uh, Andrew Schreiber.
• 7:58
  This would be
• 7:58
  HG and the original carjack victim, right?
• 8:01
  Right.
• 8:02
  Yeah.
• 8:02
  Yeah, yeah.
• 8:03
  That's
• 8:04
  interesting.
• 8:04
  Well, you know
• 8:05
  What, what… Tell us about the trial.
• 8:08
  Uh, how important was HG's testimony, uh, in all, uh,
• 8:12
  getting this conviction?
• 8:13
  Was, uh, was
• 8:15
  that critical?
• 8:15
  Oh, it was pivotal.
• 8:16
  Yeah, she again…
• 8:17
  You know, I watched, uh… You know, I was there the first day.
• 8:20
  I was the third person to give my testimony.
• 8:23
  Right.
• 8:23
  And I was the first officer, 'cause, you know, could just
• 8:24
  kinda go in, in, in, uh, line.
• 8:28
  Uh, and I, I watched some of it.
• 8:30
  I mean, uh, it, it… You know, every officer kinda has
• 8:35
  those things that are demons.
• 8:36
  I hate to say it, this is kinda one of mine.
• 8:38
  I hate talking about this thing that much.
• 8:40
  I understand.
• 8:40
  But I watched some of it, and the little I watched and
• 8:43
  the little talking to the DAs afterwards, she again testified
• 8:47
  about, just like she was when she was giving me the story.
• 8:52
  Strong- You know, told everything, was not afraid-
• 8:55
  Credible, credible, strong
• 8:57
  anymore.
• 8:57
  Yeah, very, very credible.
• 8:59
  Yeah.
• 8:59
  Yeah.
• 9:01
  So she probably- They did get- … was the key to
• 9:02
  cracking the, the case as well as convicting these guys.
• 9:06
  Oh, oh, yeah.
• 9:07
  I mean, if it was not for her, I would hope that we would've
• 9:11
  caught these guys sooner or later.
• 9:13
  Um, but because of her and her strength and her willingness to,
• 9:19
  I mean, almost not shut up, uh, which was great, uh, we were able
• 9:25
  to catch these guys in 24 hours.
• 9:27
  And like I said- That's- … the first one was- Great … by
• 9:29
  somebody calling in.
• 9:30
  The second brother was, actually his girlfriend started
• 9:35
  going, "Oh, wait a minute. I think this is, I think this
• 9:38
  is, you know, my boyfriend."
• 9:40
  Oh,
• 9:40
  boy.
• 9:41
  And she made a phone call- Yeah … and we were able to get him.
• 9:44
  So we had all of them within, I was admitting, mid, well
• 9:49
  before dinner the next night.
• 9:51
  That's … Tell,
• 9:52
  tell me this.
• 9:53
  Yeah.
• 9:53
  This is interesting, and, and we've asked this question in
• 9:56
  other cases, uh, with all the new technology and forensic
• 9:59
  science that we now have, it's easier to catch, uh, the,
• 10:02
  these, uh, heinous and, and very, uh, ignorant criminals.
• 10:06
  But, um, if, if Holly G had not survived, and, and done, and given
• 10:12
  you the, all the evidence that you needed to arrest these guys,
• 10:15
  how, how hard would it have been to capture them, and how long do
• 10:18
  you think it might have taken?
• 10:21
  Oh Lord.
• 10:22
  I mean, just finding the scene out at the, at the soccer field
• 10:28
  I think would've taken a while.
• 10:30
  I mean, it's middle of winter.
• 10:31
  People weren't going and playing soccer.
• 10:33
  I mean, it was- Yeah.
• 10:34
  … back off the road quite a bit.
• 10:37
  Wow.
• 10:37
  Um, unless I think it would've wait- it would've been a
• 10:39
  while before we found them.
• 10:41
  Uh, there was quite a bit of evidence at the house.
• 10:45
  Uh, you know, our v- our evidence collectors, our scene lab people
• 10:49
  were, are, were extremely good.
• 10:52
  I mean, the stuff they go through.
• 10:54
  We had one, our lead was an ex, uh … Her degree was in archeology.
• 11:01
  I mean, she was particular to the bone.
• 11:04
  They actually, out in the parking, parking lot where they were
• 11:07
  killed, they made a grid system and just got 55-gallon drums of,
• 11:15
  uh, trash cans and said, "Okay, this grid, put it in that one.
• 11:18
  This grid, put everything, scoop it up, put it in there."
• 11:21
  Wow.
• 11:22
  And that went way back, where that way they could actually go and map
• 11:25
  out the, uh, crime scene there.
• 11:27
  Right.
• 11:28
  I mean, so I, I think we would've caught him, but it, it was gonna
• 11:31
  come down to another witness.
• 11:33
  It was gonna come down to some kind of DNA at
• 11:36
  the scene, something.
• 11:38
  A- and it would not have been as fast as we did, I know that.
• 11:42
  Yeah.
• 11:42
  Wow.
• 11:43
  Did you have much interaction with, uh, uh, Holly G,
• 11:46
  um, for that day and night that you spent with her?
• 11:50
  I mean, uh, have you talked to her a- any time since, uh,
• 11:54
  and, and before the trial even?
• 11:57
  No, actually, uh, I spent the, you know, first night, first
• 12:03
  morning, whatever, went with her.
• 12:05
  And, uh, then, you know, my issue or my participation
• 12:11
  besides testifying and, you know, writing cases was done.
• 12:14
  The detectives were gonna take it from there.
• 12:17
  You know.
• 12:17
  And then when it got down to the court, you know, going, about
• 12:20
  ready to go to court- I, you know, me and detectives and, you
• 12:25
  know, thought it would be best if
• 12:28
  I didn't wanna have a conversation with her then and then say, "Okay,
• 12:30
  yeah, you had the conversation." You know, "You've, you're
• 12:33
  taking information from that conversation." So my testimony
• 12:36
  was it from everything that night.
• 12:38
  Uh, I've not talked to her since.
• 12:40
  I, you know, think about her a lot.
• 12:42
  I hope she's doing better today.
• 12:45
  She went through hell- Yeah … um, you know, 26 years ago almost.
• 12:49
  For sure.
• 12:49
  And,
• 12:50
  and
• 12:50
  I, I, I'm sure she, you know, suffers from the trauma.
• 12:53
  But I'm, um, for the purposes of today's interview and because
• 12:57
  I care so much about our police officers and their wellbeing, um,
• 13:02
  I worry about, uh, the effect of these kind of traumatic events on
• 13:06
  the officer, on you in this case.
• 13:09
  Um, we talk a lot on this show about how the average police
• 13:12
  officer has to deal with 400 to 600 traumatic events during
• 13:17
  their 20, 30-year career.
• 13:19
  Uh, the average person that's not a police officer maybe
• 13:22
  deals with two or three traumatic events in our lives.
• 13:27
  Um, it's gotta take a toll on you, and, and you
• 13:29
  alluded to it earlier.
• 13:31
  You talked about the fact that it's difficult to
• 13:33
  revisit this case, to do this interview today because of
• 13:37
  the impact it had on you.
• 13:38
  And I'm, I'm just curious, you know, uh, when you look back,
• 13:41
  uh, all these years, back to 2000, um, what impact do you
• 13:46
  think it had on you as a police officer and you as a human being?
• 13:53
  As a police officer, you know, like I said, I was on little over
• 13:56
  three years, and to me, three years you're a rookie still.
• 13:59
  I mean, th- this is probably one of the biggest cases I've
• 14:01
  ever worked on, on that end.
• 14:04
  And, a- and to be thrown into it the way I kinda was, it
• 14:08
  w- it was a little traumatic.
• 14:11
  You know, I hate to say
• 14:11
  I, I don't wanna go on and say I've, I, I've had horrible
• 14:14
  dreams or anything from this, but it's definitely one of those
• 14:17
  things that, you know … An officer told me one time when
• 14:21
  I was telling him a little bit about it, he was like, "Yeah,
• 14:23
  I can tell your voice cracks." And I said… He goes, "It's
• 14:26
  gotta be one of your demons."
• 14:28
  And I, I agree there.
• 14:29
  It's just, it's not that I can't talk about it, but it, it
• 14:33
  does, it brings back that night.
• 14:35
  And- Yeah … uh, and like I said, it was … I, I did.
• 14:38
  I sat there and was taking every word she said down, and in the
• 14:42
  back of my mind I'm trying to, I guess, correlate how a human
• 14:47
  being can do what these two guys did to a group of kids.
• 14:52
  I mean, it just wasn't, you know, your best way.
• 14:54
  It just wasn't computing in my mind.
• 14:57
  And I believed every word she said, but I'm just trying
• 15:00
  to figure out the humanity of how somebody could do
• 15:02
  that to another human being.
• 15:04
  Really.
• 15:05
  Yeah.
• 15:06
  You know, and, and, uh, you see on TV, you know, these cop shows
• 15:10
  where a cop might be involved in a shootout and, you know,
• 15:14
  he ends up killing the bad guy, or a partner of his dies in
• 15:17
  the line of duty, and the next day they're back at the water
• 15:20
  cooler talking to their friends, back on duty the very next day.
• 15:24
  Um, I know we're doing better today than we
• 15:27
  were doing back in 2000.
• 15:29
  But did, did you or maybe the other police officers who were
• 15:33
  on the scene of the murders, um, get any counseling?
• 15:37
  Did you go right back to work the next day as if nothing happened?
• 15:41
  I mean, uh, walk me through that process.
• 15:45
  Well, I did go back to work the next day or the next night.
• 15:48
  I mean, got home, got probably about an hour and a half sleep
• 15:51
  and was up, had dinner with the wife, and, uh, headed back
• 15:55
  to work at 11:00 at night.
• 15:57
  But no, my department was really good.
• 15:59
  We had a, a, you know, major incident stress, uh,
• 16:04
  meetings that you can go to.
• 16:05
  Right.
• 16:06
  Uh, talk to people about it, you know.
• 16:09
  Uh, I- my father was in law enforcement, and before I
• 16:12
  became in law enforcement, I dealt with law enforcement
• 16:14
  officers all the time.
• 16:16
  So, you know, and I had good friends on, on… Uh, the shift
• 16:20
  I was working was probably one of the best group of guys I've
• 16:23
  ever worked with, and they were good about, you know, keeping
• 16:26
  an eye on each other, you know.
• 16:28
  And we'd discuss it, talk about it.
• 16:31
  You know, you, you gotta be able to do that.
• 16:33
  For me, it's as long as I can kind of talk about it, you don't stick
• 16:37
  it in that box at the back of your brain and never open the box up,
• 16:41
  'cause then it's gonna eat at you.
• 16:42
  Yeah.
• 16:43
  Um, but, uh, m- my department then and still is very, very
• 16:48
  good at having those major incidents, you know, meetings
• 16:52
  or if you need to go see, you know, somebody to talk to.
• 16:56
  Um, you know, I had friends to talk to about it.
• 16:59
  I guess that was the way I got through it.
• 17:01
  And, and again, I don't, you know, I, I look back
• 17:03
  at her and go, "Oh."
• 17:05
  Me hearing about it is, you know, minuscule to
• 17:08
  what happened to her, so.
• 17:09
  Yeah, that's true.
• 17:11
  Were, were you married at the time?
• 17:12
  And I'm just wondering, uh, uh, your wife or your significant
• 17:15
  other at the time, did you talk much about it with them?
• 17:19
  I, you know, married to the same girl I'm married to now.
• 17:21
  Uh, yeah, we…
• 17:24
  I mean, I talked a little bit about it, and over time kind
• 17:30
  of a little bit more came out.
• 17:32
  And, uh, but she was good.
• 17:34
  She never pushed it.
• 17:35
  And I… You know, there was a lot of things I didn't tell her about
• 17:39
  that came out later in the trial.
• 17:41
  Um, but no, my wife's my rock.
• 17:43
  I mean, she's… You know, she understands.
• 17:46
  I'll tell her a little bit about…
• 17:47
  You know, some officers go in and tell her, "I don't tell anything
• 17:49
  to my wife about anything." You know, it's like, well, that's
• 17:52
  the way you wanna handle it.
• 17:53
  Mine's, she's kind of my little sounding board.
• 17:55
  Yeah.
• 17:56
  You know?
• 17:56
  And, um, laughs at me when I do something stupid, so I
• 18:00
  mean, she keeps me humble.
• 18:02
  And we all have wives
• 18:03
  that do that.
• 18:04
  Don't we, don't we have that?
• 18:05
  Yeah, for sure.
• 18:06
  Yeah.
• 18:07
  Sure.
• 18:07
  Now, what, uh… Go ahead.
• 18:09
  No, I was gonna say, um, I'd like to hear, Dave, a little bit about
• 18:14
  what Dave is up to right now.
• 18:16
  I know you have retired, uh, from Wichita, but you are still very
• 18:21
  much involved in law enforcement.
• 18:23
  Can you tell us what you're up to now and a little
• 18:26
  bit about it, please?
• 18:29
  You know, to make a short story a little long, uh, while I was
• 18:32
  still with the department, a very good friend of mine was
• 18:35
  working for an organization, a nonprofit organization
• 18:38
  called the United States Deputy Sheriff's Association.
• 18:41
  He was one of their trainers.
• 18:43
  One of these guys that can… I mean, is just a heck of an out
• 18:48
  athlete, probably one of the best fighters I ever met pound for
• 18:50
  pound, and I trained with him.
• 18:53
  And, uh, he was one of the trainers, and he asked me one day,
• 18:55
  he says, "Hey, uh…" The position I had with WPD at the time, uh,
• 19:00
  kind of let me set my own hours.
• 19:02
  And he was like, "Hey, I've got some training in, uh, in Alabama.
• 19:07
  Do you wanna… The guy that usually helps me with
• 19:08
  the training can't go.
• 19:09
  Do you wanna go?" I said, "Oh, I'd love to."
• 19:12
  So I kind of got hooked with that, and I did a part-time,
• 19:15
  was one of the trainers for this organization.
• 19:18
  And, uh, unfortunately in 2010, the, uh, director and the guy
• 19:22
  that started it passed away, and, uh, the organization
• 19:26
  floundered a little bit.
• 19:27
  And, uh- The board came to Mike and I and said, "Hey, we'd
• 19:31
  like you guys to take it over."
• 19:33
  And we did.
• 19:34
  And to make a short story, I was getting on my 20 years, still
• 19:38
  doing the training, helping out as much as I could with the agency,
• 19:42
  and I wanted to do something.
• 19:43
  I was to the point where, in law enforcement, I loved going to
• 19:46
  work, but my wife was retiring and I thought, "Okay, I, I
• 19:52
  think I can go and move on."
• 19:53
  So I went to the board and said, "Hey, I'd love to be the executive
• 19:56
  director of the United States Deputy Sheriff's Association."
• 19:59
  Great.
• 20:00
  And they were either smart enough or dumb enough, I'm not too sure
• 20:03
  yet which, and they went, "Okay." So I retired a little over nine
• 20:07
  years ago and, uh, immediately came on as the executive director.
• 20:10
  Still one of the major trainers for the organization and, and
• 20:14
  it kinda keeps my hand in.
• 20:16
  I get to go out and meet a bunch of guys, you know,
• 20:18
  doing law enforcement all across the United States.
• 20:20
  Still kinda keep my hand in there.
• 20:22
  But, uh, you know, I, I still miss the hot calls.
• 20:26
  I still miss-
• 20:28
  Sure
• 20:28
  you know, the camaraderie with the, you know, those guys.
• 20:31
  I don't miss going on homicide scenes, though.
• 20:36
  Understood.
• 20:37
  Yeah, that's- And, and- … it's tough duty
• 20:40
  … and
• 20:40
  Dennis, in the interest of full disclosure, uh, I've gotten
• 20:43
  to know Dave a little bit.
• 20:44
  I, uh, a few years ago, I, uh, joined the board of the US Deputy
• 20:49
  Sheriff's Association, and it was at a, a recent meeting where Dave
• 20:54
  and I were talking about the radio or the, uh, podcast and, and some
• 20:59
  of the guest, uh, ideas that we had, and he, he talked to me about
• 21:02
  this, uh, the Wichita Massacre.
• 21:05
  I'd never heard of the case, and he gave me a,
• 21:08
  a, a brief summary of it.
• 21:09
  Uh, we've gone deeper today, thank goodness.
• 21:12
  And, um, I, I was intrigued, uh, for many reasons.
• 21:16
  Uh, it's a heinous crime for sure.
• 21:18
  But then he started telling me about his role, um, his
• 21:22
  response, uh, his comforting of the survivor, um, you know,
• 21:27
  capturing all that, uh, important information that led to the, uh,
• 21:30
  immediate capture of the killers.
• 21:32
  Uh, it just struck me that this is one of those heroes behind
• 21:35
  the badge stories that we talk about every, uh, every week.
• 21:39
  Yeah.
• 21:39
  And, um, I'm so glad that Dave joined us here today.
• 21:43
  And by the way, I love the work that he's doing, that Mike Willis
• 21:46
  is doing, that he's doing in this Deputy Sheriff's Association.
• 21:50
  They provide free training to departments across the country
• 21:54
  that can't afford it otherwise.
• 21:56
  Wow.
• 21:56
  They also provide equipment, uh, safety equipment for officers,
• 22:01
  uh, you know, bulletproof vest, et cetera, um, that are
• 22:04
  life-saving equipment really and have saved the lives of
• 22:07
  many officers undoubtedly.
• 22:09
  Sure.
• 22:09
  But they provide that equipment free of charge to
• 22:11
  departments that otherwise would not be able to afford it.
• 22:14
  That's great.
• 22:15
  I mean, what, what a great, uh, great story.
• 22:17
  And, and they give, um, uh, benefits to the surviving
• 22:21
  family members of officers killed in the line of duty.
• 22:24
  I mean, this is a group that it, it just is doing tremendous
• 22:27
  work, and Dave's at the helm.
• 22:29
  And, and, uh, Dave, I'm so glad you joined us here today
• 22:32
  to tell me about, uh, the story, uh, of the Wichita
• 22:35
  Massacre, and especially Holly G and her survival.
• 22:38
  What a courageous story that was, and, uh, how you handled
• 22:42
  it so beautifully as a, as a professional police officer.
• 22:45
  So thank you, sir, for joining us here today.
• 22:48
  Uh, Dave, how do people get in- Very much for having
• 22:50
  me … how do people get in touch with you and with the
• 22:52
  Deputy Sheriff's, uh, Association?
• 22:55
  Give us your information here to the public, and, uh, if
• 22:59
  they would like to reach out, they'll know where to reach out.
• 23:02
  Uh, best thing to do is go to our website.
• 23:04
  It's, uh, usdeputy.org.
• 23:06
  Uh, explains everything on there.
• 23:08
  And, and like said, Craig said, we have several programs.
• 23:10
  That's … Everything we do is free of charge to
• 23:13
  the agency and the officer.
• 23:15
  There is no catch.
• 23:16
  I always tell people- We're not gonna call you up a week and
• 23:19
  ask you to sell Amway for us.
• 23:23
  Oh, good.
• 23:23
  And some people get that, some don't.
• 23:25
  Yeah,
• 23:25
  yep.
• 23:25
  Uh, but, uh, yeah, everything we do is free.
• 23:28
  The free training, free, uh, safety equipment to
• 23:31
  under-funded agencies.
• 23:33
  And of course, the, we give $1,000 to the family of every officer
• 23:36
  who perishes in the line of duty.
• 23:38
  Wow.
• 23:39
  Uh, but visit our website.
• 23:40
  Uh, and if, uh, you have any questions, all our
• 23:43
  information's on there.
• 23:46
  Thank you.
• 23:46
  I hope people will do that.
• 23:48
  Uh, uh, again, I wanna thank you for being our guest today, Dave.
• 23:51
  I also wanna thank you for your service.
• 23:55
  Not only- Thank you … as a police officer, but now
• 23:58
  serving in different ways.
• 24:01
  It may be even more important ways, because you're reaching
• 24:03
  a lot of people, and, uh, and that's the name of the game.
• 24:06
  So, uh, thank you for your service.
• 24:09
  Thank you.
• 24:09
  You are… Your story is exactly the kind of story we like
• 24:13
  to feature on Heroes Behind the Badge, because sometimes
• 24:16
  these stories are hidden.
• 24:18
  You know, sometimes people don't know.
• 24:20
  Sometimes people don't know that an officer, 911 call, steps
• 24:26
  up and takes care of business, and gets things done that
• 24:31
  help solve a crime faster than it normally would be solved.
• 24:34
  That's you, and for that we thank you, and the citizens thank you.
• 24:39
  And, uh, Wichita was lucky to have you.
• 24:42
  So again- Thank you … congratulations.
• 24:44
  Uh-
• 24:45
  Thank you, and thank you for all the support you
• 24:46
  guys do for law enforcement.
• 24:49
  Absolutely.
• 24:50
  Well, we're gonna ask our listeners, our viewers, uh,
• 24:54
  one more time, if you liked anything Dave had to say…
• 24:58
  Remember, this is a free podcast, Heroes Behind the Badge, okay?
• 25:03
  But you can help support us and support the men and women of law
• 25:07
  enforcement by getting involved with citizensbehindthebadge.org.
• 25:13
  Citizens Behind the Badge sponsors this podcast.
• 25:15
  We would love to have your comments.
• 25:18
  We would love you… If you liked anything Dave had to
• 25:20
  say, subscribe, follow, like.
• 25:23
  That way you'll know exactly when we release a new episode.
• 25:27
  You'll always be, uh, informed first.
• 25:31
  And again, you can get involved with the hundreds of thousands
• 25:34
  of men and women in the United States who have supported this
• 25:38
  podcast, and support the men and women of law enforcement.
• 25:42
  Uh, signing off for this episode of Heroes Behind
• 25:45
  the Badge, Dennis and Craig, we'll see you next time.
• 25:48
  Thank you.
• 25:50
  Thank you for joining us on Heroes Behind the Badge.
• 25:52
  If you stand with the men and women who wear the badge, add
• 25:55
  your name to the declaration of support at behindbadge.org.
• 26:00
  There's another story waiting for you.
• 26:02
  Stay with us.