Maybe 11:30pm or so
We got the call and my partner and I looked at each other
"An armed robbery?" He said. "On a Tuesday night?"
We flipped a u turn and the lights on an raced to the shell station the dispatcher had directed us to.
Not often we saw an armed robbery around here. Especially at gas stations. That was more of thing that we hear about happening in the city and ghettos.
By the time we got there, another cruiswr was pulling up behind us, apparently the criminal had a gun.
So I, being the driver, opened my door and kneeled behind it, gun drawn. My partner called out over the CB radio "come out now! We have you surrounded!"
Times like these my heart always beat and I thought of my family. While I was mostly safe behind this sheet metal door and I had my gun ready. But I knew the man or woman in there had a gun too, and that my reactions sure are slower than a gun. If he came out Beside me, I'd just have to pray he'd miss.
"Come out now!"
The voice was echoing out of the speakers.
Everyone near this gas station had cleared out once they heard the loud shouting inside and the police sirens.
We saw the shadow of a taller man inside the store with long dark hair carrying a what looked like a .357 magnum and a sack- probably full of money.
We began to look at each other as this man strolled over to the window, looked out, then headed to the door.
I, being closest to the door became more nervous and cocked my gun.
The man opened the door and looked at us. He definitely had a gun, but he seemed in no hurry.
"Drop your weapon and put your hands up!" The officer in the other cruiser behind us shouted
What happened then made time freeze for me. The next 10 seconds play in my mind as a 5 minute event.
The man, who i later realized was a young man, opened the door and came charging at me, his gun pointed straight at me. My heart stopped and I thought for sure this was it and so I never tried to pull my trigger. It was a fraction of a second later I noticed that this perhaps 18 year olds fas was red and there were tears streaming down his face. He was pulling the trigger to his gun but nothing was happening, all the while running at me. I couldn't bring myself to shoot him, still caught in between his tears and the confusion and fear that I would be shot. Just then I heard a loud gunshot that was very familiar to me although this time it seemed very loud. I looked down at my side to see if it was me who had been shot, then I looked at my partner, his gun ejecting a freshley released bullet falling to the ground. I looked back at this boy who had fallen on his knees, a puddle of blood growing under his chest and around his face.
I tha up to him, ignoring the shouts of the other officers. I rolled him over and he had one eye opened, tears covering his face. "
What are you doing?" I stumbled out
He looked at me and through offs of blood barely let out, "tell my girl I love her."
And with that he took half a breath and dropped in my arms. I looked at his gun. It was a plastic toy gun with not a single bb in it. I cried the rest of that night over that boy lying in a puddle of blood in his tie dye shirt and his toy gun next to him.
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