Which story is better?
“Everyone was very dirty, and did every stupid Chinese joke. After the show we’re drinking in the lobby with Bobby W. ‘Rrrr, we were fucking great tonight. We fucking killed. …’
“A little man comes over and goes, ‘Aw, listen, you big mouth. You do your thing in that room, and that’s fine. You now in lobby. OK? Watch your language, big mouth. OK? Chinese people don’t like that stuff. OK? Show some respect!’
“Byron said, ‘OK, pal. Take it easy. Didn’t mean to offend anybody. Alright? OK, that’s better.’ They shake hands.
“I turn around, and Bobby goes, “Fucking Chinks!’
“The guy turned around, ‘You! You think you’re tough guy!’
“‘Take it easy, Small Fry!’ says Bobby.
“I said, ‘Oh, Bobby. Let’s get out of here.’
“‘Why? What are you afraid of?’
“I said, ‘Let’s get out of here.’ We walked to the car. then we hear, ‘Woo woo woo!’ And there’s fourteen of them with knives and cleavers, running at us. We got in the car, locked the door and took off. I literally wet my pants that night. They were banging on the roof of the car. It was very scary.”
A captain that I knew tells me the story and jokingly says, “Make sure this guy doesn’t die.” I even smiled, a little bit, good-natured gallows humor. It turns out four hours later we shoot this guy to death in the hallway. The captain who was by then off duty called me up and apologized.
In his apartment the guy had his eighty year old father at gunpoint. Our tactics and response unit drilled a hole from the apartment above and put down a little filament which is a television camera, a little wire hanging down over his refrigerator.
This guy wanted cigarettes.
We could see him standing at the door with the gun. We said no. This is a bad guy. As a tactic we cut off communications.
He wants to talk to us now. He threatens, “If youse don’t talk to me I’m going to set the house on fire.”
You’ve got a building with forty families in it, and he’s on the first floor. We call in the fire department stand ting by, all lined up in the streets with their hoses.
The guy does in fact start a fire. It’s starting to go good in there, but you can’t run in because he’s got a gun.
All of a sudden the smoke starts to get real heavy. Through the smoke we see he’s got his father in front of him, this eighty year old man. He’s pushing him forward. One cop grabs the father and pulls him out of the smoke.
There’re two guys with rifles in the hallway. They shoot this guy on the spot. He goes down. Every body gives him quick CPR. You don’t want him to die. We put him on a stretcher ran him out past the firemen.
They say, “What happened to him?”
One of the cops says, “We shot him.”
“For starting a fire?” He didn’t know what was going on in the hallway.
Those was only the second that I lost in thirteen years, but they came a week apart. They just went sour. If a guy comes out with a gun, it’s kill or be killed, and like a gunfight in the street when someone starts to draw.