Hospital visits,,,,6 total

Every time a cop gets hurt, it requires a hospital visit. I have been treated 3 times for being punched in the face, once for being bit my a police dog, once for a minor gun shot wound and once for cactus needles. I’ll do that one now.

I was back at northern again, after being promoted to Agent in 1988. I was working graves in Clairemont when I saw a guy getting gas. He was on a motorcycle and he didn’t have on a helmet. When he left i followed and tried to stop him. Again, the chase was on. Dispatch advised it was a stolen motorcycle. He drove up Cole st and he didn’t know it was a dead end. He bailed off the bike and went into and back yard. I was lean and mean, due to the recent SWAT Academy, so I ran after him. We both rolled over a bent chain link fence and then into the canyon. Every time he would trip and roll, so did i. I finally rolled on top of him and I got my cuffs on him. I had lost my gun, radio and a gun magazine. Officers arrived and I found my lost items. I remember running through cactus and I told the Officers to check him for that.He had a thick leather jacket on and no cactus needles in him. I got back up to my car and I noticed that my right arm, from the elbow to my hand, was covered in cactus needles. My right thigh was in the same condition. A female sgt took me to a local hospital and I got a tetanus shot and a pair of tweezers. We spent the next hour pulling needles out of my skin. I got to go home early and I headed straight for the Jacuzzi with a large bourbon and coke. One of the needles worked it’s way out of my thigh a year later.

I was working SE graves in the mid 90’s. I had a reserve trainee and we were on Main st. It is the border of San Diego and National City. I heard a police siren and checked my radio to see if it was on the right channel. It was, so I thought it might be a National City unit. I saw a car go past us followed by an SDPD K-9 unit. I got in behind the K-9 and started to call the chase. After two blocks the suspect crashed into a parked car. He ran back toward us and I pulled up to make him run around my car. I told my trainee to get out and go after the guy. I opened my car door and started to get out. The next thing you know I looking at a German Shepard. The dog had bit my left arm. I knew better than to fight him, so I yelled at him in German and told his handler to come and get his “F@$&ing” dog off my arm. The dog released the bit and sat back. The suspect got away and I went the hospital. I was lucky. I had on a leather jacket and a long sleeved shirt. I still have a small scar from the dogs left eye tooth on my left forearm. The dog was running after the suspect, but when I pulled up he went for the door opening. It was just his training kicking in. The K-9 cop told me that when he runs code-3 his dog just starts barking and he is so loud the dispatcher can’t hear him on the radio. He was just going to chase the guy and see what happened.