When My Clock Got Cleaned..by Michael Martin, ECPD Retired

About the author...Michael Martin (pictured front row, far right in the 1981 photo) is a retired veteran of 25 years on the Eden City Police Department, and has penned a number of anecdotal writings recalling his experiences.

I was Shift Sergeant on "A" shift back in the mid-seventies and I had the finest shift of fellas any sergeant could ask for. It was a real quiet summer night and the calls were few and far between and I had a rookie police officer, I think it was Richard Byrd assigned to the draper beat and I tried to check with him often. It must have been somewhere between midnight and one AM when I heard the dispatcher give a call to the Leaksville car, Domestic disturbance at xxxx North Hamilton street, complainant says the suspect is still on the scene and he is armed with a handgun.

Officer Dwight Denny worked the Leaksville beat that night and took the call, as soon as the call went out, Officer Ronald Brown headed his cruiser in the direction of the call wide open and I was caught out of place, I was way down in Draper with my boys facing real trouble six miles away.....I burned the wind to get to my boys. About the time I crossed the tracks at the Aiken Summit Road, I heard Denny check out at the address, then nothing, as I got to the traffic circle in spray, I heard Brown check out at the address, then nothing. I raced up Church Street wide open and made the turn on 87 N which was N. Hamilton and slid into the apartment complex, I saw Denny's cruiser was there and Brown's cruiser was there and I made my way to the door to see my boys still standing. Thank God, so far, so good as I entered the apartment and saw why there was no radio traffic.......The man with the gun was one of ours....that's why no further traffic had came from this call, our boys did not know exactly what to do. I walked into the room and was told of the situation by my officers.

I decided that the situation was not going to improve until I took the pistol. Our boy was hesitant and I told him," you either give me the pistol, or give it to M.O. Clark (Chief of police Marshall Owen Clark) because I can have him here in ten minutes...We can handle this thing on the shift bubba, but you gotta do what I tell you, otherwise its gonna get all outta hand, give me the damned gun, now. The man reluctantly gave me the pistol and I shoved it into my Sam Browne belt and when the woman involved saw that he no longer was armed......she launched herself into a fighting fit of rage into her ex-lover and began to strike, scratch and kick the man, I stepped between them and said "lady, stop this...." I saw her little fist coming, but it was too late...this beautiful little woman hit me in the eye as hard as a hit from a sledge hammer and she actually staggered me back a step or two, my eye was smarting as soon as I could focus, I saw her whipping her ex again......The real pain was....Denny and Brown were laughing at me.

By that time, the Draper car had rolled up and it took the entire A shift men to handcuff that little woman and put her in jail.....I thought, "please lord, just let me get back to chasing bootleggers and capturing burglars......I don't want no more of this woman.