Verde Valley Vigilante
I was a certified police officer and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), working as a park ranger in a county park system. There had been a competitive shooting match in a place called Willard Springs, a wilderness area between Phoenix and Flagstaff, Arizona, just off Interstate 17, which I attended. The match had ended late that afternoon, and I was headed back to Phoenix. I had just entered Verde Valley, a small, rural town half-way back, nestled at the base of a valley.
At the base of the valley floor, a two-door sedan skidded off the road onto the dirt shoulder, spinning slightly before coming to a stop. Approaching from behind, there was no driver visible in the driver’s seat, so I stopped to see if there was a medical emergency or some other problem I could help with. I was not on-duty, so I had no radio. As I approached the driver’s door, there was a man, leaning over to the passenger seat, holding a woman down, beating on her with his fist. I opened the door, identified myself as an off-duty police officer, and ordered the man to stop. Within a minute, the two were separated, outside the vehicle, and I was trying to calm them down, and get them back on the road. The woman suddenly took off running towards the woods; when I started after her, as she was in bare feet, running through very rough ground, the man got back in the car and left.
When I caught up with her, she had crawled into a culvert to hide. It took me about 20 minutes to talk her into coming back to the highway, as it was going to be dark soon, and she could get hurt walking around in the scrub, cactus, and broken glass at night. When we got back to the highway, she ran out into the middle of the lanes, and started walking up the middle of the road. I got into my truck, and drove behind her with my 4-way flashers on. I couldn’t call for help without a radio, and couldn’t let her walk up the middle of the highway to get killed. A catch 22!
Luckily, traffic was light, but… there was some. Sure enough, a pick-up came along; she jumped out in front of it, causing him to swerve across two lanes, almost causing an accident. He slammed on his brakes, pulled over, and came back to see what the hell was going on. I had already grabbed the woman, picked her up, put her in the bed of my pick-up, and held her there. I told the driver I was an off-duty police officer, and asked him to drive up to the top of the valley wall, flag down a commercial truck driver, and have him radio in that I was holding a mentally ill woman who was attempting suicide on the highway, which he did.
Now for the good part… three state troopers showed up. One went over to talk to the woman, then immediately came over and asked if I had touched the woman. I said yes, than started to explain that I pulled her off the road for attempting suicide by jumping in front of moving vehicles. Before I could even finish my statement, he told me I was under arrest for assault. He never asked me any questions, just placed me under arrest. I identified myself as an off-duty police officer, and that he was not placing me under arrest! One of the other troopers grabbed my left arm; I looked him right in the eye and asked if he really wanted to be part of this? He let go. The “arresting” trooper told me to sit on the curbing, which I declined to do. I called over the third trooper, explained exactly what had happened, and expressed my condolences to her for having to work with such a complete idiot. Evidently, my assessment wasn’t too far off; she chuckled.
Eventually, the man who had left the original scene came back. It turns out they were married. They got back into the car and headed for Phoenix, and the “idiot” commenced to tell me I was free to go. I commenced to tell him I was always free to go, but stayed to make sure at least one of you got the right story. He was not amused; I was. And off I went.
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