Back in April, I was leaving the rec center at the school where I was coaching. The street near the main entrance of the rec center is wide. It has a lane for traffic going each way and then parking areas on each side of the street. I was waiting for oncoming traffic to stop so that I could do a K turn.
As I was waiting, a car turned the corner in front of me at a high rate of speed and was driving directly at me in my lane. With a car parked on the side of me, I couldn't really do anything other than blare my horn at him as he got closer. At the last minute, the driver barely swerved, somehow managed to miss my car, but stuck up both middle fingers at me and had a serial-killer smile on his face as he passed by me. It probably only took about 5 seconds from the time he turned the corner until the time he passed me, but it was one of those things that seemed to be happening in slow-motion but you couldn't do anything about. Right after it happened, I heard somebody say "Holy fvcking shit!" There was a young guy sitting in his truck parked next to where I was in the street, and that was his reaction after seeing what happened. I waited for about 20 more seconds until oncoming traffic subsided, and then I proceeded with my K turn and drove back the opposite direction.
I drove about a mile through campus and ended up at a T intersection (I had a stop sign and could turn left or right, but there was no more road straight ahead). As I was reaching the T intersection, there was a car in front of me at the stop sign. I noticed that car was the first one at the intersection, as there was a truck that had pulled up after him at the stop sign on our left. As I stopped behind the car at the stop sign, I noticed the driver wave me around him (or so I thought). But I couldn't go around him, because the cars to our left who had a stop sign would simply proceed to turn right and run into me. After a few seconds, the driver again motioned to me, but I knew he should be able to see that I couldn't go around him without causing a shitshow for the cars turning into that lane. At that point, I thought there may be something wrong with the driver or the car, so I quickly got out to see what was going on. As I just about reached his back bumper, I started to say "What are you doing?" Before I could get all of it out, I saw the driver reach his arm out of the window, realized it was the same serial-killer smile guy from a few minutes earlier, and saw something in his hand. Again, in what seemed like slow-motion, I saw the object had a red hole in it and then saw a stream of some substance shoot out. I tried to turn my head, but whatever it was sprayed all over the side of my face and my shirt.
All I could think to say was "You're going to fvcking jail" as the car peeled out and disappeared. As he drove off, I was able to get his license plate number. A couple of cars saw it and asked if I was alright, but I jumped back in my car trying to find this guy. Within ten seconds, I realized I had no idea where he disappeared to.
I called the police and they had an officer come quickly to my house. She was a city police officer. As she took my story, she stopped and said that since it was an incident on campus, she had to contact her dispatcher to tell campus police to come take my statement. She said campus police gets very upset when city police intervene in their jurisdiction. So she waited with me for about twenty minutes (and had a ton of cool stories to change the opinion about my city which I thought was pretty damn safe for a huge college town). The campus officer came over, took my statement, took pictures of my face, was given the license plate number (after I had already told the dispatcher), etc.
I asked him if I was alright to clean my face off, etc., and he said that was fine to do. It was a mild burn with a strong odor. Hours later, I received a call from another officer. He asked if I had washed my face, which I told him I had. I told him that even though there was only a mild burn originally, as soon as I tried washing it off my face it became a very severe burning sensation. He then asked if I had washed the shirt yet. I told him that I hadn't, so he asked if I could drop it off as soon as possible. They wanted to send it to their lab to test what the substance was (of course, the responding officer should have thought to have done that). I dropped off the shirt to the campus police station and spoke to the investigator in charge. I asked him about who the guy was and inquired if they had any previous encounters with the guy, because it all seemed too planned out and weird. The guy clearly was trying to start an incident, he waited for probably a full minute at a stop sign hoping I would pull up behind him, then he immediately had a spray of some sort that was wrapped in some sort of fabric around his wrist . . . something that took some time to put on.
The investigator said that based on the plate number I gave, they were familiar with the driver and said that they have had some incidents involving mental health issues with him over the last 1.5 years.
A couple of weeks passed, and I surprisingly didn't hear anything. I know it isn't a murder case, but it was an assault that happened on campus, and if the guy had a history of mental issues, I would think it would take somewhat of a priority for them to contact him. I reached out to an investigator who apologized and said they had crossed up some paperwork; one investigator thought the other investigator was handling it. Yet another couple of weeks passed without hearing anything, so I again contacted the police station to inquire about it . . . didn't hear anything for a week. By this time, between their claim that they had some paperwork confusion, the responding officer telling me to wash my face and not thinking to take possession of the shirt to test it, them not responding for a month, etc., I realized these guys were jerkoffs. At that point, I emailed the university president to alert her of an assault on campus that happened and the police had not acted on it for a full month.
Days later, the investigator contacted me. He apologized (the other investigator apologized the last time) for the delay and this time blamed it on a new filing system they were utilizing. He asked me to come down to the station to give a complete statement and help identify the guy in a lineup.
I arrived and did the whole "The First 48" interrogation room thing. The investigator said the lab came back and said the substance had a nasty mixture of liquids in it which should have severely burned my face. They weren't sure how I wasn't in excruciating pain and was able to keep it on my face for over an hour. I had to write and sign a statement, then they had me try to select the guy out a lineup of six people. All of them looked alike -at least to the extent of how I had described the guy. I was sure that two of the six were not the guy, but I told them that I didn't want to choose one unless I was absolutely positive, so I could only narrow it down to four.
A few days later, the investigator told me that a warrant had been issued for the guy, who was a 31 year old student, and he'd be in touch in the near future. A few hours later, he called to tell me that they had arrested the guy. He said "With what we have him on, he won't be getting out anytime soon." I looked in the paper the next day and saw the guy was arrested and charged with a felony: aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. A day later, I looked up the online jail records and saw that he had been bailed out.
This was in late April.
Two nights ago, I decided to Google it to see why I hadn't heard back about the criminal case. I came across some uncomfortable news: the guy killed himself in August, four months after his arrest.
Now, I know it's not my fault. I know the police said they were familiar with him from incidents they had with him because of mental issues. I know his family even put in his obituary that his favorite saying included "die young." I know that one of his close friends commented on Instagram about how he had some long-standing issues that he couldn't overcome. But still, it makes me wonder what I (or anybody) could have done differently.
As I was waiting, a car turned the corner in front of me at a high rate of speed and was driving directly at me in my lane. With a car parked on the side of me, I couldn't really do anything other than blare my horn at him as he got closer. At the last minute, the driver barely swerved, somehow managed to miss my car, but stuck up both middle fingers at me and had a serial-killer smile on his face as he passed by me. It probably only took about 5 seconds from the time he turned the corner until the time he passed me, but it was one of those things that seemed to be happening in slow-motion but you couldn't do anything about. Right after it happened, I heard somebody say "Holy fvcking shit!" There was a young guy sitting in his truck parked next to where I was in the street, and that was his reaction after seeing what happened. I waited for about 20 more seconds until oncoming traffic subsided, and then I proceeded with my K turn and drove back the opposite direction.
I drove about a mile through campus and ended up at a T intersection (I had a stop sign and could turn left or right, but there was no more road straight ahead). As I was reaching the T intersection, there was a car in front of me at the stop sign. I noticed that car was the first one at the intersection, as there was a truck that had pulled up after him at the stop sign on our left. As I stopped behind the car at the stop sign, I noticed the driver wave me around him (or so I thought). But I couldn't go around him, because the cars to our left who had a stop sign would simply proceed to turn right and run into me. After a few seconds, the driver again motioned to me, but I knew he should be able to see that I couldn't go around him without causing a shitshow for the cars turning into that lane. At that point, I thought there may be something wrong with the driver or the car, so I quickly got out to see what was going on. As I just about reached his back bumper, I started to say "What are you doing?" Before I could get all of it out, I saw the driver reach his arm out of the window, realized it was the same serial-killer smile guy from a few minutes earlier, and saw something in his hand. Again, in what seemed like slow-motion, I saw the object had a red hole in it and then saw a stream of some substance shoot out. I tried to turn my head, but whatever it was sprayed all over the side of my face and my shirt.
All I could think to say was "You're going to fvcking jail" as the car peeled out and disappeared. As he drove off, I was able to get his license plate number. A couple of cars saw it and asked if I was alright, but I jumped back in my car trying to find this guy. Within ten seconds, I realized I had no idea where he disappeared to.
I called the police and they had an officer come quickly to my house. She was a city police officer. As she took my story, she stopped and said that since it was an incident on campus, she had to contact her dispatcher to tell campus police to come take my statement. She said campus police gets very upset when city police intervene in their jurisdiction. So she waited with me for about twenty minutes (and had a ton of cool stories to change the opinion about my city which I thought was pretty damn safe for a huge college town). The campus officer came over, took my statement, took pictures of my face, was given the license plate number (after I had already told the dispatcher), etc.
I asked him if I was alright to clean my face off, etc., and he said that was fine to do. It was a mild burn with a strong odor. Hours later, I received a call from another officer. He asked if I had washed my face, which I told him I had. I told him that even though there was only a mild burn originally, as soon as I tried washing it off my face it became a very severe burning sensation. He then asked if I had washed the shirt yet. I told him that I hadn't, so he asked if I could drop it off as soon as possible. They wanted to send it to their lab to test what the substance was (of course, the responding officer should have thought to have done that). I dropped off the shirt to the campus police station and spoke to the investigator in charge. I asked him about who the guy was and inquired if they had any previous encounters with the guy, because it all seemed too planned out and weird. The guy clearly was trying to start an incident, he waited for probably a full minute at a stop sign hoping I would pull up behind him, then he immediately had a spray of some sort that was wrapped in some sort of fabric around his wrist . . . something that took some time to put on.
The investigator said that based on the plate number I gave, they were familiar with the driver and said that they have had some incidents involving mental health issues with him over the last 1.5 years.
A couple of weeks passed, and I surprisingly didn't hear anything. I know it isn't a murder case, but it was an assault that happened on campus, and if the guy had a history of mental issues, I would think it would take somewhat of a priority for them to contact him. I reached out to an investigator who apologized and said they had crossed up some paperwork; one investigator thought the other investigator was handling it. Yet another couple of weeks passed without hearing anything, so I again contacted the police station to inquire about it . . . didn't hear anything for a week. By this time, between their claim that they had some paperwork confusion, the responding officer telling me to wash my face and not thinking to take possession of the shirt to test it, them not responding for a month, etc., I realized these guys were jerkoffs. At that point, I emailed the university president to alert her of an assault on campus that happened and the police had not acted on it for a full month.
Days later, the investigator contacted me. He apologized (the other investigator apologized the last time) for the delay and this time blamed it on a new filing system they were utilizing. He asked me to come down to the station to give a complete statement and help identify the guy in a lineup.
I arrived and did the whole "The First 48" interrogation room thing. The investigator said the lab came back and said the substance had a nasty mixture of liquids in it which should have severely burned my face. They weren't sure how I wasn't in excruciating pain and was able to keep it on my face for over an hour. I had to write and sign a statement, then they had me try to select the guy out a lineup of six people. All of them looked alike -at least to the extent of how I had described the guy. I was sure that two of the six were not the guy, but I told them that I didn't want to choose one unless I was absolutely positive, so I could only narrow it down to four.
A few days later, the investigator told me that a warrant had been issued for the guy, who was a 31 year old student, and he'd be in touch in the near future. A few hours later, he called to tell me that they had arrested the guy. He said "With what we have him on, he won't be getting out anytime soon." I looked in the paper the next day and saw the guy was arrested and charged with a felony: aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. A day later, I looked up the online jail records and saw that he had been bailed out.
This was in late April.
Two nights ago, I decided to Google it to see why I hadn't heard back about the criminal case. I came across some uncomfortable news: the guy killed himself in August, four months after his arrest.
Now, I know it's not my fault. I know the police said they were familiar with him from incidents they had with him because of mental issues. I know his family even put in his obituary that his favorite saying included "die young." I know that one of his close friends commented on Instagram about how he had some long-standing issues that he couldn't overcome. But still, it makes me wonder what I (or anybody) could have done differently.
