Recovered .30 cal, someone's unhappy

[ReefGuy]

Got a callout yesterday morning at 10:50. There had been a homicide in Port Charlotte, and the suspect had reportedly tossed the weapon in a canal behind his home.

We searched approx 100 yards of canal over the course of 4 hours, coming up dry. That's speaking figuratively, as it rained almost half of the search time. As better intel came up, we switched positions and found the .30 cal on the second sweep in around 10' of water. The other FNG of the team (we tried out together) came up with the find.

Of course, the timing was perfect. I blew my eardrum last weekend and am out of the water for 2 1/2 to 3 weeks. I expect we'll get several more calls during this period, followed by a long period of inactivity after I recover .

I worked comms on this dive, which was our first non-training dive using AGAs and comms. They really made a difference, especially coordinating the extraction of the rifle, which was immediately turned over to crime scene.

Late last night, they made the arrest, so I went over to check the guy out. This was his first arrest (and will probably be his last). I think that the reality of the situation was becomming clear to him, as he was sitting in his cell crying "Oh god, please help me" over and over. He's 20, approx the same age as his victim.

 

[Fort Collins Bob]

Good Work ReefGuy !!!

You just helped make the world a better/safer place.

bob

 

[Gary D.]

This was his first arrest (and will probably be his last). I think that the reality of the situation was becomming clear to him, as he was sitting in his cell crying "Oh god, please help me" over and over. He's 20, approx the same age as his victim.

BUBBA is watching and awaiting his arrival. Sweet fresh meat.

Good job guys.

We had a very confined area in one of our lakes which made finding a broken fingernail fairly easy. That nail was from the suspect when he shoved the woman’s body over the small bank and into the lake. That was over 20 years ago so I'll bet he's out by now.

Evidence searches can be boring, exciting, rewarding, disappointing, devastating and any other words you can add for both high’s and low’s.

Again, Good Job!

Gary D.

 

[CBulla]

Thats what I'm talking about dude! Rock ON!

BTW - those AGA's are great!

 

[Toolbox-13]

Great Job...Kudo's to you and your team...

 

[Yotsie]

Sweet!!!
Get ready, as you predicted you'll probably be busy right up til you get cleared to go back in. Aga's are the only way to go, makes life much easier.

Good work!!!

Paul

 

[ReefGuy]

Thanks, guys. The AGAs made a world of difference. We could have done the job without them, but the ability to communicate diver to diver and diver to shore made an immense difference at crucial points in the search.

The recovery went almost perfectly (if long), but we could have done one thing better. We should have done our own site survey (well, a better one anyway) before we started our pattern. It was hard to tell from the near shore where the suspect entered the water, as there were several recent trails (I'm sure some were made by LEO's), but the exit was immediately obvious to our guy on the other shore. The suspect drug a lot of seaweed out of the water.

I didn't really think about this until after the debrief, but I'm bringing it up at our next training - which is our Underwater CSI class!! If my ears aren't better for this, I'm going to shoot myself.