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06/20/2007: "This Is Why You Don't Give Mall Cops Guns ..."
You're an Army PFC in Baghdad, patrolling the streets as part of the "surge". You've been in country for a while now, and have seen things you never thought you'd see. But you've been lucky, too - you're still alive and kicking. You near a "soccer mom" van parked at the curb and smile at a grimy child walking down the street. As you pass the van, there's a horrific blast.
You awake in a field hospital surrounded by medics. They're yelling at you and each other, and you can't tell what they're doing as you fade into and out of consciousness. You only realize it's bad as you pass out once again ...
... Only to awake in an ambulance at Baghdad International Airport. You're being loaded onto a C-17 along with twenty or so fellow wounded soldiers for a flight to West Germany. You're in pain, but you're headed home.
In Germany, several surgeries follow. Slowly, the talented medical teams put the pieces of your shattered body back together. After several days, it's another flight - this time stateside, with the destination of Walter Reed Army Hospital. Sure, you've heard the stories about the rundown conditions, but at least it's back on US soil - far from the gunfire. Or so you'd think.
A security officer at Walter Reed Army Medical Center pulled out a handgun and fired 10 rounds at another officer this morning during rush hour at the hospital's main entrance, but the bullets hit only two cars and a utility pole, D.C. police said.
Security officer Dwan Thigpen, 34, was charged with assault with intent to kill while armed. Thigpen, a veteran of the Iraq war, is due in court tomorrow, police said.
The argument started at about 8:50 a.m., when the victim, whom police did not identify because he is a witness, started joking around with Thigpen, said Fourth District Comdr. Hilton Burton.
"He was messing with him and called him retarded," Burton said. "The suspect didn't take kindly to it."
Thigpen reached for his gun, and a third officer stepped in to stop him, Burton said. Thigpen "broke free" and stated shooting at the officer who called him the name, Burton said.
The officer ran across Dahlia Street, bullets flying behind him. One round made a hole in the front of a red Mitsubishi Eclipse; another went through a blue box-shaped Army truck parked nearby. A third nicked a utility pole.
The shooting was recorded by a security camera, and the footage is very clear, Burton said. "It's very dramatic."
This is troubling on so many levels, it's almost impossible to tell where to start ... almost.
- I realize he's just a rent-a-cop, but they're giving him a gun. Don't they ask a few questions first about, say, his sanity?
- As an Iraq War veteran, this is quite an indictment of the kind of person they're recruiting these days, or the affect the war has on the soldiers - or both.
- I'm going to guess that, spelling aside, this guy's name is pronounced "Dwayne". Remember Johnny Cash and "A Boy Named Sue"? Fiction becomes reality.
Fortunately, Deadeye Dick didn't hit a damned thing, other than a parked car or two. That miracle makes this a story we can laugh about instead of a tragedy to mourn.
