Dave Eggers - Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?

— I don’t think he threatened her, no.

— Thank you. So how long until the SWAT team arrives?

— Twenty, twenty-five minutes.

— How many on the SWAT team?

— Ten.

— All men?

— All men at that point.

— And so they arrive. Then what?

— They spread out throughout the property.

— What, like on the roof, backyard, everything?

— I think there were probably two covering the front door, two on the back porch door, and two on each of the other exits.

— What were the other exits?

— There were two basement windows that could be opened. Two of the men saw him near one of the windows, so we kept them guarded.

— And at that point, did you tell him to come out or what?

— We told him that he needed to come out, hands up, and surrender.

— You’re using a megaphone?

— Yes.

— And did he answer?

— He told us to fuck ourselves.

— That’s it?

— That was it for a while.

— How long did the verbal exchange go on for?

— Forty minutes maybe. He only answered us a few times. We tried to call him, but he was not picking up his cell phone.

— So for forty minutes, you’re talking to him intermittently. Did you have any reason to believe that he was arming himself in any new way?

— How do you mean?

— Did he ever say, “Now I have a grenade,” or anything like that?

— No he did not.

— He didn’t build himself a cannon or nuclear warhead?

— No.

— So you still think he’s a guy with a knife, walking around his basement. And he’s alone.

— Yes. But we don’t know if he’s armed himself further. The mother said that there was the possibility of him hiding a gun down there.

— Had she ever seen a gun on him?

— No.

— Did she have a gun in the house he might be using?

— I don’t believe so.

— So you have no real reason to think he’s acquired a gun somehow.

— No hard evidence, no.

— Then what happens?

— Well, at a certain point, I’d say an hour in, he said he was coming out through the front door.

— Okay.

— And so we sent more of our team to the front door.

— How many men at the front door at that point?

— I would say twelve officers.

— And were you there?

— I was.

— Okay. Eight SWAT team members at the front door, and you and three regular Marview cops?

— Yes.

— All right. And who’s guarding the backyard at that point?

— Two SWAT team members.

— And then what happened?

— We wait at the front door for a few minutes, and we see no sign of him at the front door. Then one of the SWAT guys in the backyard says that he’s just emerged from one of the basement windows.

— So the front-door thing was a ruse.

— That was our understanding.

— So he comes out the back window. And then what? Where was he going?

— He seemed to be trying to escape through the backyard. He was heading for the fence at the back of the yard. We had to assume he was going to hop the fence and make off into the neighbor’s property. So the SWAT team member saw him and told him to halt.

— And did he?

— He did. He stopped, turned, and that’s when the officer saw that he was still carrying the knife.

— The same knife.

— Yes.

— Remind me how big the knife is. What kind was it?

— It was an eight-inch kitchen knife.

— Like the kind you’d use to cut what, a steak?

— Yes, a steak, a turkey.

— Was the blade eight inches, or the whole knife was eight inches?

— I don’t recall.

— Okay, we both know it was a regular steak knife. The kind you get at Outback. A little bigger than a normal one at the dinner table.

— I can’t confirm that.

— Well, I can. It’s a fact. So he’s standing there, and he’s holding the Outback steak knife.

— He was holding the knife and he would not relinquish it. The officers demanded he drop the knife, but he refused.

— And when did you come to the backyard?

— Almost immediately.

— How soon till all fourteen cops are in the backyard?

— Two stayed in the front yard.

— Okay. Twelve of you.

— Maybe twenty seconds.

— So twenty seconds after he emerges from the basement, all twelve of you are in the backyard with him. And he’s holding the knife, and you’re all yelling for him to drop the knife.

— That’s correct.

— Where in the backyard was he standing?

— He stopped running near the back fence and had taken some steps back toward the house, so I’d say he was in the middle-back of the yard.

— Okay. And where are all you guys?

— We made a half circle around him.

— So there are twelve of you surrounding him, all of you with guns drawn?

— Yes.

— You’re pointing what kind of gun at him?

— My service revolver.

— And the SWAT guys?

— Semiautomatics.

— So there are twelve guns pointed at him.

— Yes.

— And what’s he doing at this point?

— At that point he was waving the knife around in a threatening manner.

— Like how, exactly? He’s jabbing it toward people?

— Yes. He’s jabbing, and he’s yelling.

— What was he saying to you?

— Saying he was immortal, that he would cut our eyes out. That kind of thing.

— Hold on a second. I didn’t know the part about being immortal. That wasn’t in the police report. Tell me everything you can remember him saying.

— Well, there was the stuff about being immortal. He would say, “You know, you guys are just shades.” He called us shades. He said he was the source of light, that he was the sun. He said he was the sun and he couldn’t be killed.

— That’s it?

— He told us to stay away or lose our eyes.

— He mostly threatened your eyes?

— Yes. That he’d cut out our eyes.

— Anything else?

— He also said he wrote the Bible. He quoted some line.

— What line?

— I don’t remember. Something about missing fathers.

— Did he say he would kill you?

— I think he said he would live forever. That he was a prophet.

— Did he say he would kill you?

— Not that I can remember.

— Now how far away from him are you at this point?

— Me myself?

— Yes.

— Maybe twenty-five feet.

— Did you fear for your life?

— I felt in danger, yes.

— Let me back up a second. What were you wearing at that point?

— Just my uniform.

— No bulletproof vest?

— I was wearing a vest, yes.

— Okay. So you’re wearing a bulletproof vest. Are the SWAT team members wearing vests, too?

— Yes.

— So all twelve of you were wearing vests?

— Yes.

— Okay. Would a bulletproof vest stop a knife?

— How do you mean?

— If I threw a knife from twenty-five feet away, would the vest stop it from penetrating your skin?

— Yes. I would think so.

— It can stop a bullet, right? So it could stop a kitchen knife.

— Yes.

— Okay. Were you wearing a helmet?

— I was not.

— But the SWAT guys were.

— Yes.

— So most of you are wearing helmets, and everyone’s wearing vests. But you say you were concerned for your life.

— I was.

— Please explain that to me.

— We had an armed man who was in some kind of psychotic state. He attacked his mother and he was acting erratically, swinging around a large knife.

— But there’s twelve guns against one knife. And with the vests, you’re basically standing behind bulletproof glass.

— Vests are not like bulletproof glass. And remember, this man had legs. He could get to any one of us in a second or two.