Had a firearm related close call today on the medic

[paramedic70002]

Responded to a structure fire with possible trapped occupants reported by a passerby. My medic first on scene. Light smoke coming from the rear of a singlewide trailer a mile out of town. Do a walkaround checking and banging on doors and windows. Found a S&W semi-auto, hammer back, lying on the ground right in front of the front door, next to an empty holster holding an extra magazine, and a picture frame. Nearby was a truck with flat tires.

I picked up the firearm with a gloved hand and placed it into the holster, alerted my partner who radioed for LEOs to expedite, then turned it over to the first LEO to arrive. I didn't want it to be in the middle of stampeding firefighters both for evidence and safety reasons. I also didn't want us to be the next ambush victims, so we withdrew and waited for the Firefighters and LEOs to handle the situation. An LEO Supervisor who lives across the street came over and said he heard gunshots about 10 minutes before we got on scene.

Seems the wife had a meltdown over some marital issue after the husband went to work, set the house on fire on both ends, shot the truck tires, then fled. Adjust the time a couple minutes and we might have arrived on scene while she was still shooting. As it was we probably passed her en route. She was picked up later after attempting to elude the police.

The husband is part of our EMS community. He was able to salvage some clothes and a couple of 10 gauge Browning shotguns, one with heavy smoke damage, several boxes of ammo, but everything else is toast, and he did not have insurance. I'm actually surprised the whole thing wasn't lit off. Trailers have a pretty high volatility factor.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Bacon]

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

[SigPapa226]

Word to the wise, "Don't ....uh...irritate the old lady".

[StevePVB]

I know this will come across as second guessing -- and I wasn't there and may be missing a lot of details. But what's up with the LEO supervisor that lives across the street, heard gunshots, and apparently did nothing (including picking up the phone)?

[lionround]

I know this will come across as second guessing -- and I wasn't there and may be missing a lot of details. But what's up with the LEO supervisor that lives across the street, heard gunshots, and apparently did nothing (including picking up the phone)?

I was wondering the same thing. You would think that he would have called/radioed in with shots fired. The OP didn't say how many tires were flat, but it is in the plural so I must assume it's at least two.

[paramedic70002]

I didn't want to go there but there was a surprising lack of curiosity regarding gunfire that did not go unnoticed by me.

[packinnova]

uh...around here seemingly random gunfire is not out of the norm especially in the winter and during daytime hours...perhaps that area as well? Granted I'm in a rural area... Or perhaps the LEO didn't like the guy either and figured someone saved him the trouble later.

At any rate...at least you all came out alive.

[sixgun]

I didn't want to go there but there was a surprising lack of curiosity regarding gunfire that did not go unnoticed by me.

That is interesting. But Good that you are all ok after an incident like that.

[linuss]

I had an arrest a couple months ago where it was my truck and an engine on scene in a rather unkempt house. The firefighters were doing compressions while I, as the lone Paramedic, was doing pretty much everything else. One of them was just chilling, looking around, and saw a handgun on a table 15 feet away and made a show to tell everyone "Careful guys, there's a handgun there"


I look. It was a 1911, holstered, with the safety on. I, in turn, made a show to say that unless the patient came back as a zombie and grabbed the gun, it wasn't going to shoot on its own and if that happened, we'd have bigger issues with the zombie than the handgun.

[F350]

Originally Posted by StevePVB
I know this will come across as second guessing -- and I wasn't there and may be missing a lot of details. But what's up with the LEO supervisor that lives across the street, heard gunshots, and apparently did nothing (including picking up the phone)?

I was wondering the same thing. You would think that he would have called/radioed in with shots fired. The OP didn't say how many tires were flat, but it is in the plural so I must assume it's at least two.

Depends on the area; where I lived in SE Missouri the sound of gun fire was as common as as the birds singing. If I had investigated every gun shot I'd have done nothing else. I had a 500 yard rifle range and it was in a valley so I set up my pistol range shooting into the bluff, I use to practice shooting out of my Bronco while driving etc. all 3 neighbors within a half mile also had ranges, somebody was shooting almost every day.

[MrsHB]

Guess that's the downside of teaching your wife to shoot.

Wonder what he did that made her mad enough to burn her own house down?

[goldshellback]

Ya'll.... and you... did a hellava job PM70002 !

[chiefjason]

So, basically, you ended up in the middle of a country song?

[BelaOkmyx]

If I saw a trailer on fire, then weapons laying around, my first thought would be that there was some cooking going on in there, and I don't mean stew. Don't want to get tangled up in that.