The story of an Akron Police Officer who came face-to-face with his own gun and lived to tell about it is compelling enough on its own. Believe it or not, it wasn't the only officer-in-trouble call that happened to APD yesterday.The suspect, 31-year-old Damond Herrington, is a known violent offender who's done hard time in prison. After taking the officer's gun by force, Herrington told the officer he was going to blow his head off.
Fortunately, the officer remained calm and talked to Herrington until backup arrived and they could subdue him without a shot being fired. (Can you imagine the restraint the second officer showed by not shooting the suspect who was holding a gun to another cop's head?)
What's hidden in the news copy is that this was the second "signal 21" (code for "officer in trouble") that went out on the police scanner yesterday afternoon.
The first one occurred just 30 minutes earlier.
A resident called 9-1-1 to say that an Akron Police officer was getting pummeled by a suspect on East Exchange Street.
The dispatcher called it out as a "signal 21" and every car in town started towards Exchange Street. Turns out it wasn't an Akron Police Officer but a private security office who was in struggle. Akron officers arrived to assist, but I'm told the security officer got beat up pretty good.
What you need to understand is that a "signal 21" gets an officer's blood racing like nothing else. It means a brother-or-sister-in-arms is in a life-or-death situation and needs immediate help.
A police supervisor told me that the department typically puts out about three "signal 21" calls per year.
Yesterday, there were two .. just 30 minutes apart. Both certainly could have ended in death.
I can only imagine how the blood must have been pumping for the dayside officers as they finished up their shifts last night.
2 comments:
Now think about it Eric. pluquellic says that we don't need more officers. Some of us out in the communittee think otherwise. Granted this may be isolated at this time but I believe it shall get worse. We out in the communtiee are seeing what we can do to change the situation in our own way (yes Eric, Legally) So let us see what we can do.
And so it begins. The message has been made clear by our Akron officials. Go ahead & commit crimes because our law enforcement cant do anything. We might get reviewed by the Police Auditor or the Labor relations and lose our jobs too. What a shame!
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