Dueling 40s: the J.R. Parrow incident

American Handgunner, Nov-Dec, 2007 by Massad Ayoob

Situation: You and two brother officers are attempting to arrest a violent, woman-beating parolee when he pulls a loaded .40 caliber auto pistol.

Lesson: In a close quarters gunfight, circumstances may go against conventional wisdom and compel you to get closer--and the aftermath can be an ordeal.

September 7, 2005. J.R. Parrow has served for more than 20 years on the Scottsdale, Arizona Police Department. Currently, he's a K9 officer. He carries a department issue Glock 22 pistol, loaded with 16 rounds of issue Speer Gold Dot 180 grain ammunition, caliber .40 S&W. He has not yet had to shoot a human being in the line of duty.

That happy state of affairs is about to come to an end.

Parrow has started his shift shortly before 2:30 PM, leaving home with his Czechoslovakian Shepherd and his assigned department vehicle, having just done a 5K run and showered. His first order of business has been to go to a local high school to talk with the principal about dogs on premises for sniff searches of lockers. He's interrupted when a call comes over the air. Parrow and his dog are needed.

Parrow is dispatched to 2200 North Hayden Road, a probation office, reference a dispute. Officer Brad Conley is heard over the radio responding to the same call for service. A convicted criminal's probation is to be violated, and the cops' job is to scoop him up and bring him in. Sergeant Bobby Myers is also responding. Myers has 20 years on and is a SWAT supervisor. He and Conley are there when J.R. arrives.

Additional information comes to them from Dispatch. The suspect is Darnell Clements, black male. He's in the lobby of the probation office with a magazine, and doesn't know if he's being arrested today or not. "With a magazine?" Parrow envisions a man reading a periodical. But soon, Scottsdale's well-trained dispatchers have inquired as to that report and gathered scary new info. What Clements has been observed holding is a magazine of cartridges for a semiauto pistol. It will turn out he is concealing a loaded Taurus .40 under his shirt, and has been nervously playing with the magazine.

The officers learn it's about a domestic violence arrest. The suspect's girlfriend of some years is now in the hospital with her eyes swollen shut from a beating she says Clements administered four days ago. Parrow feels himself go from the Condition Yellow of constant, relaxed alertness to the Condition Orange state of alert to increased danger.

Arrest Plan

The officers formulate a plan. The arrest site layout inside is the T-intersection of a tight hallway coming off a stairwell. The dog will be left in the vehicle; there will be little room to maneuver. The cops will have to move in single file, with Myers in front, Conley in the middle and Parrow behind. The Probation Office Manager will bring the subject into her office to get him out of crowded lobby. As she leads him into the canal of the hallway, hopefully moving the action safely out of range of people in the lobby, Sgt. Myers and Bobby Conley will rush him, seize him, and stun him into a wall. Myers will be on the left side and Conley on the right. Parrow will stand back, acting as lethal force cover if the dangerous suspect is able to unlimber his gun. What the policemen cannot know is their quarry has a plan of his own.

He has backed his old sedan into parking spot outside, angled for a quick getaway and containing plenty of spare .40 S&W amino for the weapon tucked under his shirt. He suspects his girlfriend has dimed him out, and he may be arrested today. He does not want to go to prison, and he's prepared to murder as many police as he can to prevent that, and to sustain a running gunfight if necessary.

Contact

Parrow and the sergeant are both big men, and Conley is tall and slim. Their quarry, however, stands six-feet-four with a massive build. As the officers come down the hallway, Clements sees them and immediately breaks into a run, pumping his legs like pistons.

Myers grabs him, slams him into the wall, but Clements shoulder-blocks him and Conley off. Myers manages to hang onto Clements' left hand. Parrow moves up behind Conley, who sees what Myers cannot: Clements has drawn a Taurus automatic and is rapidly swinging it up in a straight-armed stance. Conley comes up over the gunman's back and grabs him, reaching hopelessly for the gun in the tight hallway.

The two officers and the giant suspect are locked together now, like a lumbering six-legged beast pushing down the hallway together rapidly, driven by the big parolee's desperate attempt to escape. In seconds, the fight has carried them a distance that will later be measured as 52 feet down the hallway. All the way, the uniformed officers have been yelling, "Drop the gun! Drop the gun!" They have swept past one closed door, and are approaching another. J.R. has come up alongside the struggling mass of the other three men, his Glock 22 up and ready.

Movement stalls as the three struggling men hit the next doorway. Myers is now jammed into the doorframe by the subject. A chair and desk are in the way. Darnell is using his enormous physical strength to his advantage. The sergeant is trying to hold onto Darnell Clements' hand and get to his own pistol at the same time, but the Glock in its right-handed holster is trapped between him and Darnell's body, and he can't get to the pistol. Meanwhile, Conley is not gaining control, and realizes he is beginning to lose his grip on the gunman's arm.