Barefoot 2 Yo girl walks towards police with hands up during dad’s arrest
Justice does not always work as it should. That is something we all know, and that, in some way, we have accepted. However, there are occasions in which we will be forced to skip the protocol due to exceptional circumstances that go beyond doing our duty and the established laws, as it happens in our story today, in which our protagonists will demonstrate to us that no matter how many rules there are, at the moment of truth and during a situation of maximum tension with innocent lives at stake, the last word will always be left to the people in charge of ensuring their compliance.
Vernon Graham was an experienced police officer who had been patrolling the streets of the sunny city of Tallahassee, capital of Florida, for more than 20 years. It was a beautiful, bustling city full of scenery and charming places where tourists loved to be photographed, but where crime was also rife. When it came to justice and catching bad guys, our protagonist was always a sure bet for success. Graham was married and led a relaxed life with his wife, Jennifer, and their two daughters, Anna and Sydney, aged 14 and 16. Being a husband and father had never interfered with his law enforcement duties; in fact, it could be said that his family was the main reason he took to the streets every day to ensure the safety of others.
However, there are complicated cases in which it is precisely the family, and having small children waiting for us at home, which will give us a different view of things, forcing us to act in a totally improvised way and break the rules that we are supposed to enforce. It was a case as complicated as the one we are about to tell you about, and in which the former law enforcement officer Vernon Graham, instead of following his instinct as a policeman, decided to break the rules and follow his heart.
It all happened while Vernon Graham and his current patrol partner, Katherine Dixon—a rookie who had only been in the police department for 6 months—were on their traditional nightly patrol of downtown Tallahassee. Suddenly, they received a radio tip that an armed robbery was taking place at a small grocery store.
“All units please advise, all officers in the vicinity of the location to move in quickly. Two suspects are armed, there are two of them, and they are dangerous. I repeat, armed and intent to shoot. There are many hostages inside the store, we must act quickly to avoid innocent victims,” said the radio alert.
The case seemed serious, so the agents hurried to turn around and head to the grocery store they had been told about.
“Step on it, Dixon. This is going to be your first robbery with guns and hostages, so I suggest you do everything I say and don’t try to play hero. That never goes well, I tell you from experience. Got it?” Graham said to his patrol partner as they drove at full speed toward the scene.
“Got it, sir. I got your back,” Dixon replied, concentrating hard on the road as she accelerated with her hands on the steering wheel.
In just 5 minutes, the agents arrived on the scene. What they found, however, didn’t look much like what the radio alert had told them. It was a small grocery store located on the side of the main road. It was a place that was usually crowded, mostly by tourists. Luckily, at that time of night, there were only five people inside the store, not counting the robbers and the store owner, who was behind the counter with his hands in the air.
“Looks like we’re the first to arrive. We’ll get out of the car quietly and try to negotiate. Follow me, we mustn’t scare them. That could make them start shooting, and we don’t want injuries, okay?” Graham suggested to his partner while analyzing the situation from the car.
Indeed, Agent Dixon and Graham were the first on the scene, and it would still take a few more minutes for reinforcements to arrive. However, for Vernon, those few minutes of head start were more than enough to realize something was amiss. In front of the store was an old van, badly parked, and the officer knew it was the vehicle of the assailants. It didn’t look like the car of an organized gang, but that of an ordinary family. In fact, as he got a little closer, he caught a glimpse of a baby seat in the back. That put him on alert and completely changed his plans.
“There are kids. No way, that’s going to complicate things. Damn it, Dixon, listen to me. It seems to me the assailants are parents and that inside the car there’s a child hiding. We must go in to neutralize the assailants as soon as possible, because as soon as reinforcements arrive, everything will get out of control, and I’m afraid we might make a mistake,” the policeman ordered his partner as they approached the door cautiously.
A few moments later, the two officers entered the store and attempted to negotiate with the assailants, a man and a woman who looked like a couple. The couple was only carrying a small shopping bag filled with bread, some fruit, milk, and baby food. Upon seeing the milk and baby food, Graham’s suspicions about the presence of children were confirmed, and he began to fear for their lives.
“Put the guns down right now. If you cooperate and don’t hurt anyone, I promise you justice will be kind to you. Come on, put down your weapons, don’t complicate things further,” Graham ordered the assailants, trying to remain calm.
However, as the man began to lower his weapon and appeared ready to surrender without resistance, the waiting reinforcements arrived. As Graham had suspected, the situation spiraled out of control. In a matter of a couple of minutes, the store was surrounded by police cars and officers armed with assault rifles and pistols pointing inside the store. A terrifying silence fell over the whole place until suddenly, from the loudspeaker of one of the cars, the captain of the police department warned the assailants that they would not hesitate to open fire if they refused to cooperate.
“Attention, you are surrounded! Come out of the store with your hands up and leave your weapons on the ground! Don’t try to do anything, because at the slightest suspicion, my men are authorized to open fire!”
Graham knew that if the suspects acted rashly, it would end in tragedy, so he decided to take the initiative and do the exact opposite of what his boss had asked him to do: negotiate with the suspects.
“I know you have a girl and she’s in the car. If you don’t want anything to happen to her, I advise you to turn yourselves in now. I know my boss, and I also know how this will end if you don’t do exactly as you’re told. Come out with your hands up and don’t make any suspicious moves, understood?” Vernon explained to the two robbers, who were looking at him in terror.
It was clear the pair of thieves were not professionals and that they were trying to get some food out of necessity, not for pleasure. They didn’t expect the cop to realize they had a little girl waiting for them in the car, because as soon as Graham mentioned it, the woman dropped the gun and her face went from anger to fear—the fear of a mother who will fight to protect her children to the end.
Unfortunately, the policeman’s suggestion did not have the expected effect, and in a matter of minutes, the calm that apparently surrounded the place turned to chaos. Graham managed to convince the husband to turn himself in, but the wife had other plans that would scupper the experienced policeman’s clever negotiation. A mother’s instinct to protect is more powerful than any deal. So, as the husband walked out the front door with his hands in the air and let himself be handcuffed by the policemen waiting outside, the wife started running towards the car that was parked a few meters away from one of the police cars that were surrounding them. She didn’t care that there were more than 10 men pointing rifles and pistols; she could only think of protecting her baby.
Unfortunately, before the mother could reach the car, she was stopped by a bullet in the shoulder and fell to the ground, seriously wounded. It wasn’t fatal, but it was enough to stop her and prevent her from continuing to run. The husband started shouting in desperation, calling out killer policemen as he tried to free himself from those guarding him to go to his wife, but he found it impossible.
Graham rushed out to check on the woman’s condition and tried to explain to his superior what was really going on, but before he could do so, something would happen that would leave them all speechless and end up shaking the entire country.
A barefoot little girl had stepped out of the car the woman had tried to go to. She was a baby, barely 2 years old, and was walking very slowly toward the armed police with her hands in the air. As the officers held her father for attempting to rob the store and her mother lay on the ground unconscious, wounded from a gunshot, everyone stared at the little girl, not knowing what to do. No policeman moved or said anything about it while the little girl advanced down the road as if she were surrendering, just as her father had done a few minutes prior. The officers, armed with pistols and rifles, held their firearms aloft as the little girl walked slowly toward them.
“She’s my daughter, please don’t shoot! She’s just a baby! Don’t be afraid, Dad’s fine, stay still, Maggie!” shouted the girl’s father desperately as he tried to free himself from the agent who was holding him.
“Put down your weapons, for God’s sake! Don’t you see she’s just a scared girl looking for her mom? Captain, please, you know better than I do, there’s no criminal here, this is unnecessary!” Graham yelled at his boss.
The policeman had stood in front of the girl to protect her. The little girl had stood completely still, looking at her mother lying on the floor. The image was bleak.
“Put your weapons down, that girl doesn’t pose any danger. We already have the two suspects arrested, there’s no risk. Call an ambulance quickly and someone take care of that poor girl,” the captain finally ordered, giving in to Agent Graham’s request to end the operation.
Finally, Chad M. Bom and James W. McCullen were arrested on petty theft charges, but a few days later were released on bail and charged after it was found the guns they were carrying during the event were pellet guns. The pair posed no real danger, and neither had any intention of harming anyone that night. It was all a terrible misunderstanding.
The girl’s mother, Chad M. Bom, who was wounded in the operation, recovered without problems from the gunshot she received and was able to return home with her husband and daughter. Vernon Graham, for his part, suffered a reprimand for insubordination to a superior officer—a small punishment that the police officer accepted without complaint, but which didn’t prevent him from expressing his indignation at the attitude of his boss and colleagues during that night.
But the matter wouldn’t end there, as the police still had to deal with a much bigger problem than having a police officer dissatisfied with his job: public opinion.
That night, the operation that took place around the store was so large it was impossible not to attract the attention of neighbors and people passing by. Within hours, the internet collapsed with images and videos of the moment when the police officers targeted the 2-year-old girl walking with her arms raised while her mother lay on the ground. Social networks began to criticize the police harshly, and users expressed their indignation at the excessive use of force against defenseless people.
“My God, it’s just a child, it’s a baby, why don’t they put the guns down? Why do they keep aiming at her? What a shame,” commented a user watching the video.
The anger of the citizens with what happened forced the Tallahassee PD to give explanations for what happened that night in the grocery store. However, at no time were they sorry for what they did, nor did they give reason to those who accused them of abusing their power. TPD Chief Michael DeLeo told the Tallahassee Democrat that the officers were heavily armed as store personnel reported the suspects had a gun with them, and this was protocol for such an operation. The force was satisfied that the officers acted properly.
Fortunately, in this harrowing story, there were no victims to mourn, which will not prevent us, upon hearing it and knowing all the facts, from feeling that it has had a bittersweet and terribly unfair ending.
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