Gotta love the graveyard shift.......

Many years ago back when I was on the graveyard shift, which is the most fun and exciting shift, I got one of those fun calls right around midnight. I was literally next door to the call when it came out. There was a guy pounding on the door to a Safeway trying to get in but it was closed. So I head over that way when updated info came out that the guy threw one of those large cement ashtray things through the store’s glass door. That would be clue #1 that this could be bad, and I love clues because they help me gauge what might happen. I pull up to the store knowing that my partner isn’t too far away and I see the bad guy in a fighting stance yelling at the manager who looks really scared (clue #2). I get out of my car and yell at the guy who looks over at me with a blank look (clue #3). I now realize that this is going to be bad.
I look at the broken glass door and think for a second about going in, but instead I yell at the guy to come out. Luckily he does decide to come out but he says something to the manager before he exits the store. We later learned that he said he was going to “kill that cop” and then come back and “kill you” referring to the manager. You’d think that would’ve been some really nice to know information that the manager could’ve yelled at me when the bad guy came out but I guess he decided to keep that small tid-bit of info to himself. Anyway, the bad guy comes out and is standing there all weird like so I try and talk to him but he just stares at me so I ask him why he broke the window and again he just stares at me. He’s not a big guy but he is about 6’03, 200 lbs so I keep a safe distance of about 6 feet away and ask him for some ID to bide time until my back up arrives. It’s either that or have a staring match for a minute or two. How awkward would that be to just stare at each other? Hey, you blinked first! Now you have to go to jail!
Anyway…. As my partner arrives the bad guy turns to walk away failing to show me his ID so I reach out to grab his arm and he turns back and starts throwing a flurry of punches at me. It was very quick and caught me off guard but somehow I was able to block all of them. This was the first time, but certainly not the last, someone tried to actually assault me. In my mind I was thinking “hey this guy is trying to hit me.” The punches were quick but my thoughts were in slow motion so it was a weird experience.
So the guy takes off running down the sidewalk of the store and I chase after him. I remember that my car keys fell off my belt and I dropped my flashlight but I couldn’t stop because there was no way this guy was getting away! I yell at the guy to stop but he isn’t listening so we keep running and I am catching up fast. We get to the end of the sidewalk by Mclendon’s Hardware and he turns back around to fight, but I am right there when he turns around and we end up against the wall.
Just as my partner runs up on us the bad guy starts throwing another volley of punches so I just duck my head into his chest. I yell for my partner to spray the guy, referring to our pepper spray, and I hear the sound of his can dropping on the ground rolling away. Great, all thumbs during crunch time! So this bad guy is hitting me in the back of the head but it isn’t bothering me yet so I yell for my partner to hurry up and spray him. Unfortunately these were the days before tasers. All of a sudden I see my partner hitting the guy on the arms and shoulders with his flashlight. Remember this guy is tall and my partner and I aren’t, so this was a losing battle as long as I was holding him against the wall. I go to step back when I feel a “wack” right on my face. It was an unmistakable sound of metal hitting someone’s head. Yep, my partner swung and missed but hit me right on my eye with his flashlight. I grab back onto the bad guy and yell for him to spray the guy now! All of a sudden I feel, hear, smell, and taste a whole can of pepper spray being dumped over me and the bad guy. This stuff is powerful! On a scale of hot, jalapeno peppers are 5,000 units. Our pepper spray is 5 million units.
So the bad guy now stops and we take him to the ground. I put handcuffs on him and look up only to see my eye starting to close on me. It swelled up like a balloon. I look over on the wall where we got sprayed and literally there is a shadow impression of us where you can see the outline of our bodies on the wall. It was crazy! I look at my partner through one eye and I’m like “dude?!” And he’s looks at me like “what?!” Well at least the bad guy went to jail and nobody got hurt except for me and my eye. I can live with that.
And two months later that guy was on America’s Most Wanted (Seattle area addition) for assault on a police officer because some judge let him out and he then failed to show up for court. Go figure! And then believe it or not a week later my partner sees him walking down the street. My partner gets me on the radio on a side channel and clues me in so I can hurry up and get there before everyone else. I race to his location to make the arrest and when we contact him is totally cool and actually apologized to me. He said that he was off his medication and barely remembers what happened. I felt a little bad inside because I was going there thinking he might fight, but instead I get a really sincere apology. Over the years I’ve seen him walking down the street a few times and even arrested him for a shoplift once. My job is just weird sometimes!