By Mike Simmons
In 1977, a young family – dad, mom, and two little girls, lived in a cute house on the east side of Pensacola. Like all young families, they had their struggles. Lately, however, the couple’s arguments increased, and family members were concerned.
On a Sunday in August, the man placed a gun to his wife’s head and threatened to kill her. She took the children and left. The man became distraught, and called a family friend looking for his wife, but she hadn’t shown up there. She was somewhere else. He hung up.
The next morning, the young wife went to her job as a bank teller. She was stressed, but her job kept her mind off her troubles. It was good for her to go…until…
At about 1:00 PM, the man walked into the bank and walked up to his wife’s window. At first, she didn’t see him, so he called her name. As she looked up, he fired. She ducked, but he walked around the counter and fired three more times. Then he ran out of the business and jumped into his maroon car. He shot out of the parking lot en route to his house.
A detective in the area noticed a maroon car driving recklessly and fast. He called it in and gave chase. Meanwhile, the Pensacola Police Department received the information about the shooting. It didn’t take long to figure out the two were related. Officers from all over town began heading that way.
The man arrived at his house and ran inside, barricading the door. Within seconds, fifteen police officers showed up and surrounded the house. Of course, reporters and cameramen from the media showed up almost as soon as the police.
Rick Steele, a young, hotshot detective, was one of the first. He took up a position using a police car as cover. A few minutes later, Rick heard what sounded like it could be a gunshot, but he couldn’t tell.
Two other detectives, Charlie DeCosta and Henry Cassady, were also on scene. Taking stock of what they had, this is what they came up with. A young man had driven recklessly and then barricaded himself in his house. Meanwhile, a woman was shot downtown and had been rushed to the emergency room. Were they related? Probably. They soon discovered that the woman who was shot was the wife of the man who was barricaded. Made sense. The officers and dispatchers contacted the family members of the young man and had them come to the scene…maybe they could talk sense into him.
Now what? What do they do? Wait him out? Wait! Here’s a good idea – CALL THE SWAT TEAM! This was a perfect situation. Okay, go ahead and call them. Uh, wait a minute…the Pensacola Police didn’t have a SWAT team. This was a new concept and was still being established.
Detective Henry Cassady had an idea. He was good friends with Fred McFall, the local FBI agent in charge, and the FBI had a SWAT team! So, he found a telephone and called Fred. Within an hour, the federal SWAT team was in place. They gave the young man’s father and his brother use of the megaphone to try to talk some sense into him.
The man’s father was a very practical man with a level head. He and his wife had eleven children, so he had seen a lot. After trying to communicate without success with his distraught son, the father looked at the officers and asked them to let him go inside and talk with the young man. The officers flatly refused. They felt it would be too dangerous.
“You could get killed,” they said.
“If my son is going to kill me, let him,” the father replied.
They tried more negotiations. Nothing. Finally, they agreed to go inside with the father.
Detectives Cassady and Decosta entered through the front door with the father. They soon found the dead body of the son, which had one bullet in his head. Slowly and reverently, the father picked up the body of his son and laid him on the bed. Sad.
However, the wife not only survived but thrived. The two children grew up to become successful citizens.
The story was on the front page of the Pensacola News Journal. What escaped the front page, though, was the Pensacola Police’s obvious need for its own SWAT team. Immediately, the work began. Soon, the police department had copies of policies and procedures from other agencies, and the process of interviews and competition began.
The first team looked more like a party of deer hunters than it did professional police officers, but it was a start. Over the years, the SWAT team has continued to train and to stay on top of the newest equipment and tactics. And the job has seen some changes also. While the SWAT team was called in the past for barricaded suspects, its use was limited. Today, in addition to the traditional use, SWAT teams are used for high-risk entries, search warrants, high-risk arrests, transports, and other items where their tactical training is desirable.
Interesting…
