My Badge & My Big Mouth – Combat Stories

If you’ve ever been involved in a life and death street confrontation you know that it’s nothing like the movies, it’s a chaotic, brutal, and life altering experience. To bring this point home for anyone lucky enough to have made it though life thus far without a brush with death, I giving you access to the shocking and true story of one man’s close call from our vault of combat stories.

It’s also a great reminder for everyone of how quickly a simple verbal dispute can escalate to a struggle for your life.

Bob Pierce
President FightFast / Threat Response Solutions

As told to Red Zone by Deputy Morano

I’ve worked for the Sheriff’s Department for many years, two of those years working in the jail. In all that time I’d never been in many fights aside from arresting drunks and controlling crowds. The first serious [fight] happened when I wasn’t even on duty. Still, it was my badge and big mouth that got me into trouble.

I met a couple of my buddies one night at Shakey’s for a beer and a pizza. We were at our table waiting for the pizza when these three guys started hassling the girl behind the counter. Stupid me decided to be a badass and step in. My buddies tried to get me to be cool but I wasn’t having any of that.

I walked up to the counter next to the guy who was making all the noise. He was telling the girl that he gave her a fifty, not a twenty, and he wanted more change.

As he tried to reach over the counter into the register I got his attention. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” He glared over at me and said, “Hey, F–k you, ese.” He pulled his hand back and faced me. I pulled out my wallet and flipped it open, flashing my badge. I told him, “You take money out of that register and your ass is going to wind up in jail.”

The guy looked at the badge and then at me. He shook his head and glared at me, saying, “That ain’t real.” His buddies were a little more convinced and one of them put his hand on the trouble maker’s shoulder and whispered something in Spanish. The guy facing me spit on the counter and took a step back. He flipped me off, turned around and walked out with his two friends.

The girl at the counter said, “I ain’t even got no fifty in the register.” I looked over to my two buddies and noticed that the pizza was sitting on the table. My only thought was that my pizza was getting cold. When I sat back down, my buddies harassed the crap out me. We laughed about it and ate our food.

After we finished eating and bullshitting, my buddies split. I took a leak first, then walked out to the parking lot.

As I pulled my keys out of my pocket to unlock my car door I looked up over my hood and saw the trouble maker from earlier walking toward me.

My first thought was, “Sh**–no gun.” It was sitting under the driver’s seat in my car, but I hadn’t even put the key in the door yet. My second thought was: “where are his friends?” I turned behind me and sure enough, there they were rushing me.

They both tacked me to the ground and one of them checked my waist and under my arms. The other one hit me in the face. It didn’t really hurt at all. I was still in shock ‘cause I couldn’t believe this was happening. I don’t think it had set in yet that I was in serious trouble. I hadn’t even tried to fight back.

The guy that frisked me said, “He ain’t got nothin’.” The trouble maker kicked me in the head, once, then hauled back and accidentally kicked his friend in the arm. Both guys jumped up and all three started kicking me. The trouble maker said, “You ain’t no f–kin’ cop, asshole.”

I rolled onto my knees and elbows and tried to get up bat all three of them were still hitting and kicking me. I covered up my head as much as possible and kicked my foot back hitting the guy behind me in the leg. About that time I guess there were some people nearby ‘cause I heard them yelling about the cops coming.

I caught the leg of one guy up under my arm and got up to my knees. I shoved the guy back and tried to get up. The trouble maker kicked at me but I managed to block it with my forearms. The other two guys split. The third guy took two steps back and I knew he was going to rabbit on me. I should have let him go but I was seriously pissed.

As I got up he tried to hit me but I stepped in and grabbed his shirt with both hands. I let go with my right hand and hit the guy twice in the face. I let go of his shirt with my left and whipped an uppercut into his jaw. I heard his teeth clack together, loud.

I hit him with a right hook and grabbed him again by the shirt with both hands. I tripped and fell forward as he fell back. I landed on top of him. I straddled him and hit him again in the face, screaming and cussing at him the whole time. He bucked his hips up and reached his [right] hand behind his back. I didn’t think much about it and kept hitting him.

You know that feeling you get when you hit your funny bone? Suddenly, I felt that feeling on my left side. Right in my ribs. My back arched and the guy shoved me off of him. I sat back on my ass and felt a sharp pain in my left side.

The guy sat up and spit on me. He came off the ground and slapped me in the head. I couldn’t figure out why I hurt so bad. I started seeing big black spots and was getting light headed. I realized I was hurt but didn’t know how. Meanwhile this asshole was still hitting me.

I grabbed at his leg with both arms. He stumbled and fell back and I clawed and struggled to get on top of him. I couldn’t catch my breath and was really starting to panic. This guy was beating the shit out of me even though I was on top.

I felt like I was wading through water and knew I had to end this. I gripped the guy’s larynx with the tips of my fingers and thumb and dug in as hard as I could. I grabbed all the way around the guy’s throat with my other hand and pushed down with all my a
Weight.

His eyes bulged out and he started bucking and hissing like a cat. It didn’t seem like l was getting anywhere and I thought I was going to pass out. I thought, “Where are the cops?” I looked down at his face and saw these big red spots of blood splattering on him. It was blood that was pouring out of my nose.

I took one hand from around his throat and grabbed him by the hair. I lifted his head up and slammed it into the concrete. I slammed his head against the parking lot a couple more times and on the fifth or sixth time his skull made this flat, cracking sound.

The guy’s arms flopped out to his side and he stopped moving. I felt his body shudder and I got off him. I sat there forever before anyone showed up. A fire truck showed up first and I tried to identify myself as a sheriff’s deputy, but none of the firemen would go near me until the cops showed up.

When the paramedic finally checked me out he pulled a Spyderco Police Model folding knife out of my left side.

The blade had slid between the back of my ribs and the tip of the blade had punctured into my kidney.

I found out the next morning that I had killed the guy I fought with. I spent a week in the hospital and after an inquiry it was determined that I acted in self defense.

I don’t feel bad about what I did. When it’s all over you have time to sit back and think of all the things you could have done differently. But when you’re in it, things move so fast you just do what you have to and sort the rest out later.

Deputy Murano recovered completely from his injuries and went on to work undercover on drug detail for the Sheriff’s Department.

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