An Error in Judgement Almost Cost Me
Bob McMahon
October 2026
Seems like it was just a couple years ago, but when I really think about it, it was several years ago. I was a training officer for a law enforcement agency in southern California. We were working in an area of mixed demographics, with the Asian population growing. In some Asian cultures, there is very little trust in banks or Law Enforcement. Because of their lack of trust in banks, often business owners would bring the daily profits to their homes. This makes for easy pickings for the portion of the same culture to commit robberies and burglaries. Because of their lack of trust in law enforcement, most of these crimes were not reported. And in some cases, home invasion robberies. The area we were working in had a noticeable increase in the latter. Victims could be chosen by visiting the workplace of potential victims and watch their habits at the close of business to see the likelihood of a profitable stash of cash. Then, crooks would follow the victims home and start their plan. Sometimes they would strike during the day. Other times forcing their way into the victim’s homes in the early morning hours.
We were working the early morning shift, what most people call graveyard shift.
One night, my trainee had progressed enough to be the driver. At around 2:00 a.m., we were assigned the assist, along with other units, on a home invasion in progress. Rarely would we get the “in progress” call. Most of the time it was a “just occurred” call. As all of us were responding to the call, follow-up information told us that one of the family members managed to stay hidden in the house with a phone and call 9-1-1. The caller was able to tell the desk that the suspects were still inside and were armed.
My trainee and I were the first in the area. A couple of blocks away, I told him to turn off the headlights and hit the “kill switch” to turn off the brake lights and we unbuckled our seatbelts. Because of the numbers in the address, I assumed it was in the middle of the block. As we cautiously approached the target street, we saw that the street was at the beginning of a T intersection, meaning we could only turn left to get onto the street. I told my trainee to slowly make the left turn and pull to the right curb to take up a position to watch the street for any activity while waiting for other units to arrive. As we were just rolling to a stop, the garage door on our right side of the car opened with the lights on inside the garage. As soon as the door was open enough, a male ran out of the garage directly towards my car door. He was carrying a shotgun at port arms, meaning across his body with the barrel pointing in an upward angle and the trigger/buttstock around his waistband. I am not sure who was more surprised, us or the male. As I ordered the trainee to back up to the intersection, the male abruptly turned around and ran back towards the garage. I exited our patrol car as the male ran into the garage and the garage door started closing. I got on the radio to advise responding units of a confirmed crime in progress and armed suspects.
I ran to the sidewalk that was on the east side of the house, passing a car parked in the street adjacent to the house. I continued running to the street behind the target house so I could establish what later became a strong containment about a block wide. From my position, I stayed in visual contact with my trainee, who had by now positioned our patrol car so the headlights and spotlights were directed on the front and east side of the target house.
Until then, the other units assigned to the call were responding quickly, but quietly. The quiet usually associated with that time of night quickly erupted into the sounds of sirens, seemingly from all directions. On our department, one unit is assigned the “handle.” That unit is responsible for developing a plan and communicate that plan to the assisting units. The handling unit immediately started coordinating responding units to tactical positions for a tight containment. Because of my position and the position of my trainee, I knew we had them in a proverbial net.
This whole time, the staff at the desk kept the caller on the phone, a key element in this event. The desk advised that the suspects had all fled the house. Actually, as stressful as this situation was, I was relieved they all fled. Much better than taking the occupants hostage. Once the containment was established, we had all the occupants come out and confirmed they were residents and not suspects playing a role in deceiving law enforcement. Luckiy, none of the residents were injured. We requested a K-9 unit to assist us in tracking and locating the suspects. On our department, the K-9 units are assigned to the same bureau as our special weapons teams and frequently trained together. Normally, one of the units assigned to patrol would accompany the K-9 unit during the search. However, these were not typical circumstances. The K-9 unit requested one member of the special weapons team to accompany him with firearms that were not available to patrol units. Using information from the residents as to where the suspects were last seen, the K-9 and special weapons units began their search, yard by yard. One by one, all the suspects that fled the house were taken into custody without a shot being fired. While they were searching for the suspects, other units checked the car that was parked in the street on the east side of the house. We then learned that it was their (the criminals) car, with a driver waiting inside the whole time.
It is common for a lookout to honk the horn as a signal to the rest Maybe that explains why one suspect ran out of the garage when we first arrived. If he did honk, it must have been when he was us a couple blocks away and out of earshot, as we did not hear a horn. If that was their signal, they certainly did not have a plan on what to do when the horn sounded. Thay all panicked. That was a blessing.
When I think of this incident, I can’t help but second guess my reaction to jumping out of our patrol car and running past an unknown car parked adjacent to the target house. What if those crooks had planned better?
What if they better understood what the warning meant and how to react to it?
What if they simply took up positions in the shadows in the front yard to ambush our responding units?
What if the driver in the car was better prepared and flanked us from his position?
This incident occurred some 25 years ago. Would I have done the same thing today?
Was this an error in judgement? Or was it just part of the risks we take?
About the Author:
Bob McMahon is a friend of the blog and trusted expert on all things law enforcement; he is retired Law Enforcement Officer with 31 years of experience. He will be contributing to the blog going forward.....trust me on this, his stories will be worth coming back for.
