Case:Black - 8. Chapter 8

Las Cruces, NM

August 25, 2005

"Oh my god, I think that I killed him!", the young woman shouted holding a shovel.

Officer Ron Ward of the Las Cruces Police Department answered, "I'll check. Where is he?"

She said, "In the back yard. He surprised me on the patio. He tried to grab me but I smacked him." Her hands were shaking as she held the shovel at port-arms.

Ward pulled his Beretta and mag-lite.

He keyed his radio and said, "This is one-L-19 responding to complaint of a prowler, I'm Code 2 at 145 Pine Valley Highway. 10-70 reported in the back yard. Roll back up."

Dispatch responded, "One-L-19, Code 2, any available backup please respond."

Ward wasn't holding his breath for back up. As crazy as things were going that night, he wasn't really expecting any for a while.

"Mam- go inside and lock the doors. I'm going to clear your back yard."

She disappeared inside the garage door with her shovel and he heard the latch snap.

If it was illegal aliens in this neighborhood it would be a first. The surrounding terrain was some of the roughest desert in the South West. This little berg was a well-to-do far flung suburb of Las Cruces way out south.

Ward went around the side of the house and found the gate to the back yard standing open. There was the diffused blue light coming from a bug-zapper on the other side of the fence. As he passed the gate there was a distinct smear of dark blood. Ward thought to himself- it looks like she got a piece of him.

As he went into the back yard, he yelled, "Las Cruces Police! Let me see your hands!"

He swept the yard with his mag lite and saw nothing on his first inspection. It was a nice place. It was a fenced in back yard with a pool, pool house and tool shed. The tool shed door was standing wide open and a light was on inside.

As he swept the yard with his mag-lite, he saw a shadow move in the tool shed. He came around the house, put the mag-lite and Beretta on the door of the shed and ordered, "You in the shed. Come out and let me see your hands."

Suddenly a big guy in army fatigues, combat boots and a holstered side arm appeared in the door of the shed. The flash-light beam in his face made him stop. There was blood on the side of his face and he appeared quite pale. What bothered Ward the most was the blood on his hands. Holy shit. What have I stumbled into?

On seeing his side arm he yelled, "Drop the weapon. Drop it now!"

The soldier started coming toward Ward and began accelerating.

Ward yelled one more time, "Drop the weapon and get on your knees. Last warning!"

The soldier kept coming.

Ward shot him twice in center mass and the soldier fell on his back.

Officer Ward keyed his radio mike and said, "Shots fired, shots fired, suspect down! I need a bus and a supervisor now!"

He approached the suspect, leaned over and took the pistol out of his holster. As he was securing the weapon, the suspect opened his eyes and made a grab for his legs.

"Stay down! There's an ambulance on the way!"

The suspect rolled over, got up and came after Ward again.

Ward took two more shots and dropped him again.

This time the soldier got up faster. Ward put two more rounds in his chest and another two in his head. This time the soldier didn't get up.

Ward looked around at the scene and there was blood and gore everywhere.

Somewhere in the night he heard the boom of a shot gun. The shot gun went off three more times and there was a blood curdling scream.

He heard the gate creek and turned to see another messed up person shambling into the back yard. The man was in his thirties and had a bloody neck wound.

Ward ordered him to halt but he kept coming. He shot him twice once in the chest and once in the head. As soon as he had dropped a horribly injured Mexican man came through the gate snarling and running toward him. Ward shot him twice and his Beretta locked open on an empty chamber. He quickly slammed another magazine into his gun and decided that it was time to get the hell out of Dodge.

As Ward ran through the gate there were two more. He shot them both and sprinted for his cruiser when he saw dozens of those things in the street coming toward him. He jumped in the patrol car, fired it up and ran over three of them as he ran like hell.

What had just happened? Why had he just left the scene of a multiple shooting and run over three people? What the hell was going on? What was wrong with his freaking bullets? Nobody got up after taking center mass shots at close range. Nobody.

He listened to his police radio as unit after unit reported gunfire, officer involved shots fired and people acting crazy. The world was falling apart for no apparent reason.