Within minutes of getting into the police car, Kat got a call to pick up and serve an Emergency Protective Order – EPO. Say what?
A lady had filed an EPO against her husband alleging that during a fight, he put a gun to her head and stated that he would kill her and their children. Nice huh? She called the police and requested that an EPO be issued by the Magistrate. It required that the husband stay away from her and the kids for no less than 72 hours.
Kat made numerous calls on her personal cell phone trying to coordinate a meeting with this guy to no avail. Around 11:00pm we had to call for backup and went by his house. The police do not EVER go into a domestic violence situation alone. Talk about the potential for some crazy sh*t going down!
This part was pretty cool! Just like in the tv show “Cops” (without any cameras damn it) we parked in front of a neighbor’s house on a very dark street. Kat went up and knocked on the front door while our backup went to separate locations around the house. No lie, I hid behind a big tree in the front yard. I’m no dummy!
His neighbors certainly thought it was “great tv”! I was watching them watching us and trying to watch out for my own butt all at the same time! Sadly, the alleged abuser was not found during our shift and I have no idea what ended up happening.
Being a naive rookie that night I asked why we weren’t arresting him for the death threat. No warrant had been filed. I jumped straight into judgment mode and got pissed thinking she should have pressed charges and had his butt locked up. Wouldn’t you?
After stepping back and thinking about it, maybe she feared that if she had him arrested he might have lost his job and any hope for child support payments would have disappeared? The truth is, I don’t know what her circumstances were at the time and since I’ve never been in that situation who am I to judge her?
All joking aside this is scary, real life stuff and my fear is that with our current economic mess, it is on the rise. If this story hits a little too close to home, or you have any questions here are a few resources for you:
- The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
- The Samaritan House 757-430-2120
- The Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence web site 800-838-8238
- How to get an Emergency Protection Order
Get help before it’s too late!
