Planning Ahead: The John Schoen Incident
back, couldn’t even draw his gun. “My God, I have to get out of this position!” he thought, and spun out of the doorway onto the porch. His earlier decision to jump off the porch
fl ashed through his brain, though he was barely conscious of the thought. Almost with- out thinking, he launched himself off the porch. It was a drop of about 12-15 feet, but Schoen’s airborne training took over. With his feet and knees together, and bending his knees at just the right instant as he hit the ground, he made the best parachute landing fall of his life without further injury. He knew he had to keep going, to get out of the range of that shotgun. His cruiser was too close, but there was a line of trees about 50 yards to his right.
T ey should be far enough away, and would provide him with good concealment while he regrouped and decided what to do next. As he struggled to get up, he realized that his arms weren’t completely useless. He still couldn’t draw his gun—a .40 caliber GLOCK 22—from his level III retention holster while running, but he could remove his portable radio from its carrier. As he drew the radio and tried to call for help, he heard Shimpi’s shotgun booming away at him again from the porch. Four blasts rang out as pellets tore into his fl esh along the entire length of his back, from the back of his head to the calves of both legs. But he still felt no pain as the sound of the deadly shotgun drove him on toward the trees. Sud-
Figure 1: Deputy Schoen is shot while attempting to enter residence and immediately exits the hot zone by jumping off the porch.
Living Room 2. 1. 3. Porch 4.
denly, he caught a glimpse of his lower right pants leg being shredded as a shot ripped into his calf. T e revelation that he was still taking hits infuriated him, but all he could do for now was keep heading for the trees while working the radio.
He called again and again, but he was too far away to reach any of the county’s towers. He changed channels, tried again, and then tried several more channels until he fi nally reached a repeater on a local volunteer fi re department’s tower. Abandoning all radio code, he simply yelled into the mic that he had been shot, re- peated the transmission, and kept running until he fi nally reached the relative safety of the trees. T en yet another obstacle got in his way. Unexpectedly, he encountered a barbed wire fence just inside the tree line. He was running too fast to stop, but still had time to dive over it. Clumsily, he made it over without breaking any bones or getting tangled up in the fence, and immediately took action to get back into the fi ght. He needed his gun, but he had to push down on it, twist outward, and rock it forward to release it from his complex holster, and his feeble unwieldy right hand wasn’t up to the task. Still, Shimpi wasn’t coming for him yet and he was well concealed in the trees. T is
1. 2. 5.
Schoen opens door and starts to step inside.
Shimpi suddenly spins into doorway and shoots Schoen twice.
3. Schoen is wounded; both arms are disabled. 4.
5. 6. Key: = Offi cer
Offi cer Schoen
= Offender
Offender Shimpi
38 The Police Marksman Jan-Feb 2014
www.policemarksman.com 6.
Shimpi runs out onto porch, where he fi res four more shots at Schoen.
Schoen is wounded four more times as he runs toward the tree line.
Unable to return fi re, Schoen immediately runs to edge of the porch and jumps to the ground.
Ladder
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