Shoot Me!

[charlie sherrill]

The caller said some guy was lying near the side of the road. I was the only one in the area and I went to see what was going on. What I found was a pine thicket about 50 yards behind a grammar school. I didn't see anyone at first and as I got out of my patrol car what looked like a wild man emerged from the thicket. My first thought when I saw him was "Wild Man Of Borneo." As he approached me I noticed he was carrying a .20 ounce Dr. Pepper bottle. I didn't think too much of this until I noticed most of the bottle was covered in high gloss gold paint. He fell to the ground befofre he got to me.

I asked his name and his reply was "shoot me!" I turned my radar up some as I told him I really didn't want to shoot anybody today and that I was there to help him. He said his head hurt really bad and the only way the pain would go away is if I would shoot him. I managed to get him to tell me he was a full blooded Indian and his home was a reservation near Philadelphia,Ms. He was dirty and his clothes were tattered and his little spot in the woods looked like it had been occupied for several days. He had long black hair that had specks of what appeared to be gold and silver paint. He had gold and silver paint all over his mouth and teeth. I managed to keep the guy somewhat calm for the few minutes I knew it would take my backup to arrive. At first I thought he was spitting something into the Dr. Pepper bottle until I realized he was drinking paint.

Deputy Jon arrived and I was able to look around a little. I found empty cans of high gloss silver and gold paint. There were several other soda bottles laying around and all were covered in silver or gold paint. They looked like something someone would use to make a Christmas decoration. Apparently he had been "huffing" the paint as he sprayed it from the aerosol cans and when they ran out of aerosol he would just drink the paint. He was messed up to the point he might die so we called an ambulance. We later found out he was a resident of a halfway house for folks with mental problems that was located not far from the grammar school. Sounds like some poor planning on somebody's part. As they loaded him on the ambulance he said "If you had just shot me we wouldn't be having this problem right now."

 

[WC145]

Hard to argue with that kind of logic.

 

[Cobroller]

Charlie, I understand why you didn't want silver and gold paint in your car. I would have called the ambulance too.
Saw on tv this morning about people huffing whip-it and whipped cream, including some people who should know better.
Stay safe out there.

 

[armadillo]

What he told you is the same story I heard a dozen times. Once they start drinking the gold and silver paint, they don't live too much longer.

 

[NE450No2]

For a Paint Sniffer, Gold and Silver is best. Next is Black.

Paint sniffing rates right up there with Crack, Meth or "H".

I have seen the results of the "fried brains" of Paint Sniffers...

 

[chud333]

Wow, Anything for a high for some people i guess. Good that he was'nt
violent towards you though. Stay safe my friend.


chuck

 

[jbull380]

Sounds like he had just enough brain cells left to pump blood and breath. I quit asking how one gets to that place.

 

[joeintexas]

Reminds me of the movie Airplane. " Guess I picked a bad week to stop sniffing glue!"

 

[Moonman]

Keep it safe Charlie!

 

[Onomea]

I'd like to say that I very much admire your humanity, and your reasoned judgement, AKA "common sense," Charlie.

Thank you for doing what you do. And doing it so well!

Wish there were more of you.

 

[glenncal1]

For a Paint Sniffer, Gold and Silver is best. Next is Black.

Paint sniffing rates right up there with Crack, Meth or "H".

I have seen the results of the "fried brains" of Paint Sniffers...

Think I will stick with the occasional cigar and Guiness.

 

[M29since14]

I'd like to say that I very much admire your humanity, and your reasoned judgement, AKA "common sense," Charlie.

I have always thought the same when I read your posts. You're a good man and seem to do a great job of keeping your bearings in spite of the sadness you have seen.

 

[Stu Honea]

Good job,Charlie.People are just nuts when they do this stuff.Good judgement on your part,you never know what they'll do.
Several years ago we had a police officer's son who died from it.He was huffing the paint in a utility room on the carport.
The combination of the fumes and the gas water heater caused a fire,the kid died.Horrible scene.

 

[forresth]

I hate to say it, but you didn't do him any favors by not shooting. I know shooting was not an option, but it would have been the best thing for him and society as a whole.

Why do people start **** like that? Does anybody ever come back from that? They've got to know before they start that it's just a delayed and denigrating form of suicide.

 

[feralmerril]

When I first read this my first thought was I am glad I dont have to handle a mess like that! But thinking about it I did a number of times years ago. My thoughts now are with sympathy for the indian. I lived with a full blooded indian like that for a short time back in 1964. I had hired him when no one else would. Sober he was a pleasant and very handsome hard working man. I had hired a crew and several of the guys came up to me complaining that "Nelson" was a crazy local trouble maker that loved fighting everybody includeing the local police. They were scared of him. Nelson liked me, and we got along well. Then one day he wanted me to meet his family. He was liveing with his in laws with his wife and a small son. We walked into the house into a situation that he didnt like. To me the situation looked like it could have been innocent, but I guess he had past info to suspect his wife had been cheating. His wife, a white girl, was standing behind a guy with her hand on his shoulder, playing poker at the kitchen table with her dad.
Everyone totaly froze and never said a word while we were there. Nelson just said, "Do you prefer this to me?" Then he spun around and said, Lets go boss. We got in the truck and he wanted me to drive him to his dads house on the other side of town. (I later found out from my dad that his dad once was the sheriff of that county years back and had got in some kind of trouble).
He had me wait while he went in the house. I seen him through the liveing room picture window walking back and forth and figuered he must be looking for a gun. He was wearing tight jeans and I decided I would unexpectedly just cold cock him if it looked like he had a gun in a pocket. I didnt have to. He came back and said they must have called his dad as his dad wasnt home and the guns were all gone! Then he broke down and started bawling how he had to kill her! He said, "It is the way of my people!"
I am sure that now days I would handle things different, but I was young and dumb back then. I figuered I would get him so drunk he would be harmless. Well that worked for the short term. In our day or two blow out at one point he told another guy at a bar that he had to kill his wife. "It is the way of our people". The do gooder called his preacher to see nelson and nelson agreed. I drove him over to the church that we were to meet but the parson hadnt arrived yet. The door to the church was open but vacant! Nelson walked up to the alter, got on his knees and asked God to give him strength to kill her! Besides my hair standing on end, I was getting sick of him saying even to God, "It`s the way of our people!" The preacher did come and I sat there listening to everything. While the preacher did seem to calm him some, it wasnt like the rough old time type preachers I was used to in my own faith (AG). Anyway, I found him a cheap motel room, threw him on the bed and left him with a bottle. I now felt I could drive to my folks house about 50 miles away and get my neglected PW and company reports done.
Now it was sunday morning. I skipped church and was doing my PW when I got a call from that towns PD. They had nelson. I didnt get the straight of the gory details but told them I would stop there about two or three days later. I was closeing that contract up in wisconsin and was to start another job at sault st marie michigan in a couple days. I owned a 17 1/2 ft travel trailer and pulled it with a company truck in those days.
I got to the station and they wanted around $200s bail or fine for nelson. I told them I would take him with me out of state on a job but I didnt have a fraction of that amount. They come back with a fine of I think, $22s to clear things up! I got nelson in the truck and asked him what he had done. He said he made it to church and durring the song worship he clapped his hands and said, "Hey! Thats purty good music, lets have a hoe down! The ushers took umberance at that and the fight was on! Anyway I took nelson with me to the UP. He worked hard but got to drinking and crying again and told me once too many times, "I have to go back and kill her. It`s the way of my people!" I put him on the road and he had 4 bottels of beer. One in each pocket. I asked him what I was to do with his stuff. He said, "Throw it in the river! I wont need it where I am going! That was the last time I seen him. I called that PD, told them he was comeing back to town to kill his wife.
Nelson had met my folks. Maybe 15 years later my mother sent me a news paper clipping where he was driveing drunk and hit another car head on killing 3 or 4 people and he was hanging on to life in a coma.
I really liked him.

 

[Wyo]

Years ago, when I lived in the northern part of Wyoming, we had lots of migrant workers that would come to town to work the sugar beet fields in the area. Among them was a contingent of Kickapoo Indians, and they liked their paint! The usual practice was to spray gold or silver paint (these were the preferred colors even then) on top of a can of beer, then drink the beer and huff the paint at the same time. They ended up with a ring of paint around their mouths that looked kind of like an off-color Bozo the Clown getup, and Charlie's description of the Wild Man of Borneo is exactly correct. You could spot them a block away from the paint, and they usually looked like they had just stuck their finger in a light socket. And talk about CRAZY! Some of the stuff they did just defies description. I didn't know that kind of paint sniffing was still popular, but the story sure brings back some not-so-fond memories of days gone by.

 

[G.T. Smith]

All this "paint sniffing, or huffing, or drinking, really makes me want a good toke of freon............(not really), but it is amazing to see the ways people come up with to alter their spirit. Maybe God will step in at some point and help out. No matter what they put in their systems that alter, they are still human beings,at least there's that.
Pray,
gordon

 

[A10]

Thanks for sharing the story Charlie. Never any such thing as an average day, is there? I am appalled (never surprised) at what some folks do.....

 

[DWFAN]

We had a kid at the local technical school die from huffing freon. It wasn't a quick death and the kids who saw it said he couldn't even scream. Gives me the shivers just to think about it. The freon is under lock down now. A bit to late for that young man.
DW

 

[wuluf]

i knew a guy who wound up looking as you describe, Charlie, and his "drug of choice" was Liquid Paper thinner. He would start foaming at the mouth and acted street-crazy..I'm sure he's dead by now...

 

[COL Jagdog]

Charlie,

Your reaction was compassionate and well-thought -- that is the kind of story that the media needs to embrace -- no one seems to consider the decisions LEO's have to make on a day by day basis.

Haven't been quite in that situation -- but have been in circumstances where very badly wounded insurgents were captured (some of whom had been doing drugs, such as hash -- in order to screw up their courage to engage us) who simply wanted the bullet to end it and medics take heroic measures to try to preserve their lives.
I always told my troops "Always do the right thing, even when no one is looking". First, you will be doing the right thing, second, it avoids a lot of angst if you do things the wrong way. I also told them "Make your decisions based on how you would feel if the result was on the front page of the next morning's paper and your parents, wife/girlfriend
(either or both, lol), friends were reading it" -- my young guys really figured it out then. It's all about academic and intellectual honesty when dealing with life's situations.

Thanks for sharing that story.

All the best to you.

 

[monet61]

Good job. It's sad that people go to those levels for a high. Just glad he didn't try to hurt you.

 

[cass]

Was his name Bobby Rush??

 

[pawncop]

Here in our fair city, we had one of our local "characters" that was a well known "huffer". He only liked the gold paint spray cans, telling us the silver did not have enough punch for him.

You could see him slowing deteriorating and starting to circle the drain.

Then one night a citizen caught him trying to break into his car and shot him in the head.

It didn't kill him and after he got out of the hospital he stayed off paint.

We (the cops) were amazed he survived and even more amazed that he seemed to straighten up.

Last I hear he had a job, and was no longer a frequent flyer at the county jail.

 

[jbcap]

You can't fix stupid!!

 

[forresth]

You can't fix stupid!!

Sure you can. Didn't you read?

Here in our fair city, we had one of our local "characters" that was a well known "huffer". He only liked the gold paint spray cans, telling us the silver did not have enough punch for him.

You could see him slowing deteriorating and starting to circle the drain.

Then one night a citizen caught him trying to break into his car and shot him in the head.

It didn't kill him and after he got out of the hospital he stayed off paint.

We (the cops) were amazed he survived and even more amazed that he seemed to straighten up.

Last I hear he had a job, and was no longer a frequent flyer at the county jail.

it just takes a bullet to the brain

The bullet performed some sort of lucky lobotomy that apparently killed off his "addiction center". I really doubt it was a glimpse at mortality that did it.
I hope some some people are studying the damage to better see what was taken out. there are many other conditions less severe than paint sniffing that people will cut chunks of brain out to fix.

 

[Marshwheeling]

Sure you can. Didn't you read?



it just takes a bullet to the brain

The bullet performed some sort of lucky lobotomy that apparently killed off his "addiction center". I really doubt it was a glimpse at mortality that did it.
I hope some some people are studying the damage to better see what was taken out. there are many other conditions less severe than paint sniffing that people will cut chunks of brain out to fix.

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."

 

[Gary]

Awhile back my air conditioning repairman told me a story about his going to a house several times to try to find a leak in the A/C. He would fill the system and watch the gauges for any indication of a leak, finding nothing. He finally got a call from the homeowner saying that he caught his teenage son huffing the freon in the system. He didn't know what happened to the kid. Sad.

 

[Old 44 Guy]

Another long sad story from Charlie & Merrill. I like them anyway. I was living in a small gold rush town in the Sierras that had a Indian reservation close by. Everything was quiet until the Govt. checks came for the Indians, then all Hell broke out. Usually on Saturday night & this town of 775 people came alive. Both bars were busy & the Constable & Deputies stood by just waiting for the drinkers to head home. Sometimes fights broke out & it took several cops to straighten things out. No use hauling them 26 miles to jail as they would stay there instead of paying fines. Three square meals & a roof over their heads beat where they were living on the reservation. Some Huffing went on I'm sure but I didn't see it. Later on drugs took the place of liquor & I moved out. This was in 1981. On a visit last year I went there & the town, while never much since logging went to pot, is just a rat hole. Sure glad to be out of there.

 

[feralmerril]

Was that Hoopa?