It was a routine patrol for Oklahoma City Police Officer Katie Lawson. It was around 10:30 on the night of August 29, 2010, when she heard a sheriff's deputy radio for assistance. He had been trying to pull over a DUI suspect who wouldn't stop. The suspect drove home but then wouldn't exit his car. Officer Lawson responded to the call, and she and the deputy persuaded the suspect to get out of the car.
Meanwhile the suspect's two adult sons and hysterical wife were in the front yard talking away in a foreign language. The deputy handcuffed the suspect and put him in his patrol car. The deputy said he didn't need any more help, so Officer Lawson proceeded to drive away. She turned the corner and spotted a suspicious looking person in an open space outside the fenced yard of the DUI suspect's house. They spotted each other at the same time.
He turned his back as if to walk away. Then he whirled around with an AR-15 pointed right at her face.
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Let's take a breather at this point in the story. Katie Lawson is now a sergeant, and she was the keynote speaker last night at the Midland Police Department's 21st Annual Awards Banquet. Chief Price Robinson and the other members of the command staff presented awards to members of the MPD who did outstanding police work last year. Some of the awards were for routine matters, such as physical fitness or marksmanship. But four officers stood out, Margarita Strahan, Nathan Lane, Earl Davis and Todd Stanley, for saving a drowning man's life. Kinda makes a person proud of the MPD, doesn't it?
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Anyway, back to the story. Oklahoma City Police Officer Lawson was in her patrol car and a guy was pointing a AR-15 at her face. He started shooting, and muzzle flashes lit up the night. Bullets hit the car door, the mirror, the windows, the head rest, and her.
As soon as the shooting started she leaned away from the car window. Her training kicked in, and she drew her gun and rose and shot back, 11 times without hitting him. He turned and ran back toward the house. She got out of the car to chase him. But she noticed that she was wet and weak, and she realized she had been hit. “I thought I might pass out and fall to the ground and never wake up.”
Now on the ground, conscious, and with the shooter in retreat, she focused on her radio expecting to hear all kinds of chatter about what was happening. But to her surprise there was no radio traffic. There she was all by herself, and no one knew what was going on. So she called for help, and it seemed like forever before anyone arrived. A police colleague arrived first. He pressed on a wound. "You're hurting me," she said, and he replied "I'm trying to stop the bleeding!"
She had been hit a total of six times -- in the chest, in the back, in the buttocks, and one bullet grazed her cheek and pierced her ear. She had on a protective vest, but as we've demonstrated before, vests by themselves don't stop AR-15 bullets. However, many of the bullets passed through the car door first which slowed them down. Bullet fragments and pieces of the car flew around inside the car like shrapnel.
The shooter was the original DUI suspect's oldest son named Hector Escalante, and the family was afraid that if daddy was arrested he would be deported. Some strange family or cultural value told them the solution to their problem was to shoot it out with that one police officer. But once she shot back the suspect retreated and tried to hide the rifle. The police got a warrant, searched the house, found the rifle, and arrested all three.
The mom, Vilma Escalante, the other brother, Alex Mercado, and Hector were charged with conspiracy. At trial, Hector got life plus 10 years. A life sentence in Oklahoma is 25 years. Alex got three years, and Vilma was acquitted. Daddy got deported.
And last night Katie Lawson, alive and well, told a riveting story. She kept the audience on the edge of their chairs as she told of her experience. As we watched and listened, several times before she finished her story I had to remind myself that since she was standing right there in front of us, she did make it through that horrifying event.
In case you were wondering, yes, she was wearing a protective vest the whole evening.
Links:
TV news report shortly after the shooting;
TV news report which replays a portion of Lawson's radio call for help;
Newspaper trial coverage.
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Posted by: Cindy | April 06, 2013 at 12:48 AM