Episode Five: Consequences and Carnage

As the day of October 24, 2014, wore on, people all over the region were affected by the carnage and violence the two thugs had caused.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome to Facing Evil, a cop story of
murder, mayhem, and the aftermath.
This podcast is based upon the book of
the same name
written by Scott j Brown and Victoria m
Newman.
All episodes are sponsored by the National Police
Credit Union. We mean police business.
Learn more about the National Police Credit Union

(00:22):
at nationalpolicecu.com.
Content advisory.
This podcast contains intense recreations of violent criminal
behavior that may trigger those who've had previous
trauma and disturb those who have not.
Strong and offensive language is used throughout the
podcast as

(00:43):
well. Listener discretion is advised.
I'm Ken Bader, your producer and host. Deputy
Mitch, Rich Gray showed up,
and that's when Mike told him, hey. Or
Moose told Mike's been hit. Mike's been hit.
Rolled him over,
Saw blood coming out of his nose and
his mouth, and his eyes were ashy.

(01:03):
Moose like me,
he knew pretty quick. He knew what was
going on, but
he wasn't gonna give up on his buddy.
He started pleading with him. The bullet had
entered through his side, missed his vest,
and,
vertically, pretty much, you know, cut everything inside
of him in half as it as it
went through. So
their CPR wasn't

(01:24):
wasn't gonna do any good, but they didn't
know that. And and, you know, you see
one of your fellow officers
bleeding and dying. You're not gonna stop no
matter what. You're you're gonna go until somebody
till you either fall out physically
or until somebody
pulls you off of them.
Where we left off in our story was
Bracamontes

(01:44):
didn't just murder 1, but 2
police officers
on October 14, 2014.
It's important to listen to
Scott Brown
and his perspective
and his mindset
when he heard Bracamontes
take
another life, not only another life, all life

(02:07):
is precious,
but the life of a fellow officer, an
officer that he never even met.
But, obviously,
Scott felt a lot of pain
in what had happened that day and what
had happened to Michael Davis.
They rolled him in there as as they

(02:27):
got there.
We were finishing up at CID with our
pastor
or chaplain. I'm sorry.
And we walked out of the room, and
I remember walking out of the room.
And it's a cubicle setting, and everybody, of
course,
is trying to do their job. They're all
detectives. They're all trying to do their job.
And

(02:48):
one of the cubicles that we were pretty
much standing by, he was watching the news,
listening to the radio, radio traffic, whole bunch
of other stuff.
And I remember him saying,
oh my god. They he shot another one.
He shot a Placer County, he he got
another one.
And as soon as he said that, I
went from
having been somewhat comforting

(03:11):
to inconsolable.
I was I was done. I was done.
If
the guilt I felt over Danny,
like, I thought I had you know, something
I had missed, I could've protected him, that
kind of thing.
Soon as I heard the word about Mike,
and, of course, I didn't know his name
or anything like that at the time,
I felt like I might as well have
gone up there and pulled the trigger myself.

(03:31):
I I should have taken care of that
guy in the parking lot. I should have
shot that son of a bitch before
he managed to get away. And because he
got away and because I didn't get him,
he was able
to shoot a civilian, carjack a whole bunch
of others, and now he was able to
shoot and kill another cop
because I didn't do my job. That was
how I felt. That was the guilt that

(03:52):
I had crashing down, and I lost it
again. I I was inconsolable at that moment
because,
like I said, I felt like I had
done it.
While this was going on, Jeff had been
already was already at the hospital getting his
hand worked on, and they were taking shrapnel
out when all of a sudden the EA
or ER doors burst open.

(04:12):
And they're wheeling at Mike doing CPR on
him, and and Jeff was just in shock.
Like, he's all I know. That's Mike. I
can't what's going on? And
the
about the time they got him in there,
the doc called it,
said stop doing CPR. They checked him, and
the doc ended up calling time of death
at 1:12 PM on October 24th.

(04:34):
Soon as he called it, everybody left the
room, and Jeff felt like, oh my gosh.
I'm and I'm the only one in here.
They hadn't covered Mike up or anything. And
as he was about ready to get up
from his bed to go cover Mike up
and and show some you know, show the
respect he he deserved,
he looked over in the corner and realized
Jimi Hendrix was still standing there,
with his helmet on He hadn't left his

(04:56):
side during CPR, the medic And then now,
even then, he wasn't gonna leave the ER
Even though they told him to, he just
stood fast There's no way he was gonna
leave one of his brothers alone
And that's how it works with us. When
when an officer goes down,
they are never alone.
They always have somebody, another officer at their

(05:16):
side, at their casket,
in the coroner's office always until they are
laid to rest,
247.
And it's an honor to do that.
We'll probably talk a little more of that
down the road.
Well, when Moose heard that they'd stopped c
p CPR,
he was pissed. Why? How can you stop?
He felt like they had just started.

(05:36):
It had been almost a half hour at
that point.
But to him, it just it was it
was almost, like, right then. Right?
Well, Jimmy, you know, he went and apologized
to Moose, and he said, I I I'm
sorry I couldn't save him.
I I can't even imagine what that felt
like I mean, to say that
And then Moose,

(05:57):
in his maturity and, you know, his big
heart
He said probably the only thing that probably
would have helped Jimmy at that point and
it was he told Jimmy that, hey. If
I'd have been shot, there's absolutely no one,
no medic, no person on the planet I
would rather have than you working on me,
which I I would hope,
you know, helped Jimmy in that moment.

(06:21):
At the same time as Mike was passing,
his brother Jason
was arriving to the scene or driving to
the scene.
As he was driving, he remembered what day
it was and it dawned on him like,
Wow,
it's the same day dad got killed.
Wouldn't it be weird, or ironic, or I'm
not even sure what the word is, if
something happened to me today, not knowing

(06:43):
that he's heading to the command post for
where his brother
had now been shot and killed.
As he arrived on the command post, he's
getting ready like all the SWAT guys do
And he heard his name,
kinda the side of his head
They called him over
and told him that he needed to stop
getting ready and head to the command post.

(07:03):
And the look on the person's face that
told him that and the way they did
it,
he knew immediately right then that it was
Mike. He knew that Mike was the one
that had shot because they he'd heard that
there was another deputy, a Placer County deputy,
that had been shot.
And he knew the second he heard that
and saw that, that it was Mike.
And so now he lost his father,

(07:25):
and now his brother all in the line
of duty.
Line of duty deaths
are
tough to take.
I was never a police officer personally or
had
any close relatives that were police officers or
first responders,
but, I have lost someone to violent crime,

(07:48):
and it's very sudden. And that suddenness,
where
one moment they're here with you and then
the next they're not
is very difficult to deal with.
And
I would assume that
it's something like that when it comes to
fellow officers in a line of duty death.

(08:09):
One of the things I think we we
need to do more of in the true
crime community
is
dig into who the victim was,
not necessarily
who the criminal was, but who
the victim was and what they took away.
To that end,

(08:30):
here's Andrew Scott from the Placer County Sheriff's
Office,
one of Michael Davis's colleagues.
Tell us about Michael. Well, you know, it's
interesting because I never met Danny. You know,
I I didn't know him.
And everything I learned about Danny was through
the people that did know him, whether it
was at the funeral or the book and

(08:52):
learning about him as best you can through
through that as who he was as a
person.
And
so when I talk about Michael,
Michael
I feel blessed that my memories of Michael
were his huge smile
and his laughter.
That's what I remember today whenever I think

(09:12):
of him. And he was just,
he was just enjoying life.
Not to say every day was great, you
know, no one's is, but
my memories of him were was his laugh
and his and his smile.
And,
he was definitely not afraid to give his
opinion even when it when it ran,

(09:33):
contrary to conventional wisdom or the or the
the group he was in. I remember one
time I was a DSA president. We had
a meeting and it was over contract or
something and it got a little contentious and,
things were getting a little bit out of
hand and and Michael stood up and said
some really nice things and he gave his

(09:53):
opinion which was very supportive of of the
board.
And I just remember him because he didn't
have to do that.
Those meetings
can sometimes especially when there's alcohol involved, they
get a little bit crazy, but,
he just he didn't fear
saying what he thought even if it wasn't
popular.
And,

(10:14):
he's just a really good guy and and
that's what I think I want people to
remember about Michael.
Yeah. Yeah. You got,
you know, we've heard so many stories about
Danny.
You got
other than the obvious one that just told,
got any stories about Michael?
Well, the the one I remember the most

(10:34):
is is that meeting,
and him willing to,
I guess, risk the,
displeasure of people who had opposing opinions and
just willing to stand up
and and give his peace and say what
he felt was right. And
that's just what I remember about him was
was just

(10:54):
how he enjoyed life
and,
was not afraid
to state his opinion.
And, I think that's what I wanna remember.
How long did you know him?
Well, let's see.
At the time when he was killed, I've
been with the sheriff's office for 24 years.
And,
I'm actually really good friends with his brother,

(11:16):
Jason.
So I knew Jason better than I did
Michael.
And I learned a lot about Michael just
from Jason, you know, listening to him talk.
Like I didn't know about his brother Christopher,
or his dad at that point, you know,
killed earlier in the line of duty.
So I learned a lot about Michael through
Jason.

(11:37):
And I mean, I just feel blessed with
everything that's happened that my memories of him
are positive ones. Yeah. And aren't aren't aren't
the trauma or the tragedy
that, came later.
Yeah. Well,
as comfortable as you are, you know, dig
into that day, you know, as much as
you remember and are willing to share, what
was that day like?

(11:58):
Well, I was in the range that day.
My pastor
was a big gun nut, and I got,
him into the range and, you know, some
shooting some,
set special enforcement team weapons and just having
a good time. And
I heard the radio call come out,
and I wasn't aware at the time what

(12:19):
had been going on in Sacramento
because I was, you know, in the range.
It wasn't,
really paying that much attention. I was at
support services at the time, so I didn't,
wasn't involved in law and patrol work or
enforcement at that time.
So I heard the call go out and
I jumped in my car,
and

(12:39):
the offices in North Auburn, and the shooting
with Michael was in South Auburn, so it
wasn't very far from me.
And I'm racing down there. I was a
lieutenant at the time. So I'm starting to
go through my checklist of what needs to
be done because I don't know who's on
scene yet.
I couldn't look it up. I didn't have
an m MDC in my,
unmarked car.

(13:00):
But I get down there,
and I saw one of my best friends.
He he was a lieutenant at the time
as well. He's now a captain at the
sheriff's office. And he was working out the
back of his,
Durango, you know, kind of a little mini
command post what was going what was going
on.
And I remember when I approached
the crime scene, like, or the the incident,

(13:21):
I focused on him, see what he was
doing because, you know, I was gonna fill
in the next needed task.
And I remember seeing
one of our unmarked patrol cars or unmarked,
detective cars coming out of, I guess, the
hot zone. And Michael was on the hood,
and they were doing CPR.
And so I followed the car to the

(13:42):
h twenty, the CHP helicopter, the medevac.
And we carried him over to the helicopter,
and
I was doing
I was watching them do CPR, and I'm
going through my mind. Okay. What needs to
come next? What needs to come next? What
do I need to take care of? And
I'm going through my checklist,
and all the things that I could possibly

(14:03):
do, I realized were
done. There was nothing
immediate that I had to do.
And, Scott, you probably remember this, back when,
like I said, I've been there 24 years
and you kinda build up a wall between
what's going on
with
with whatever you're dealing with so you can
deal with it. And I just remember for

(14:25):
an instant that kinda came down. It came
it came really real
that this wasn't just some person that came
upon came upon that had been shot. This
was someone you knew.
And that,
that moment was somewhat emotional for me just
because I remember
it intruded into my personal life,

(14:46):
and it wasn't just taking care of business.
It was pretty much a roller coaster from
there because
they were going to load him up into
the helicopter. And I thought, well, that's a
good sign, you know, that, you know, yeah.
He's under CPR, but they must be really
hopeful they're gonna put him in the helicopter
and get him down to the trauma center
in Roosevelt.
And then they decided not to.

(15:08):
And this is kind of an emotional just
real let down. Because to me that meant
they didn't think there was a possibility.
And they loaded him in the ambulance, and
so I decided
what I was gonna do. I got a
hold of the other lieutenant and said, hey.
I'm gonna go down with the ambulance because,
honestly, I just didn't want him to be
alone.

(15:28):
So
I'm in my car following the ambulance down
the hill, and they're driving
crazy. They're bad out of hell. They're,
you know, they're trying to get that,
to the hospital as soon as possible. To
me, that was great news. You know, they're
driving like this. They think there's a chance,
and they wanna get help as as fast
as
possible. So then I'm like, oh, you know,

(15:50):
maybe this is gonna turn out okay. You
know, he's gonna be okay.
And then when we got there,
we go in the back and Roseville Hospital
has always been
really, really supportive of us.
When a few years earlier, like, 3 or
4 El Dorado officers were shot deputies were
shot, and they all and several of them

(16:12):
were at,
the trauma center there in Roseville.
And they let us come back where they're
working on them, you know, because we wanna
know what's going on and and is there
something we can do to help and, you
know, their fellow cops. And,
whenever someone ended up there in law enforcement,
we'd be there for them.
I remember when star 6 went down,

(16:33):
one of the one of the guys was
there. And I remember being
there and,
but they let us write in there to
help
or do whatever we could,
which they didn't have to do. That was,
and actually I'm kinda surprised they did, but
they that was a consistent theme with them.

(16:53):
They were very supportive of us. So So
when we got to the hospital with Michael,
I remember they were still doing CPR on
him and they're bringing him in. I go,
well, that's not good. You know? So you
had another kind of emotional
downward trend.
And then I followed them all the way
to the back, and they're in the bed.
And and the other deputy that was shot

(17:14):
was, you know, to the right side.
And they're working on them, and they're you
know, I'm staring maybe 10 feet, maybe 5
feet from the foot of the bed trying
not to be in the way, but wanting
to see what's going on. Is how's this
gonna turn out?
And,
then they stopped. You know? But I'm looking
at them, and they're working so hard. So
I'm thinking, okay.

(17:35):
This is gonna maybe this maybe there's a
chance. They think there's a chance, and I'm
gonna think there's a chance. And then until
they didn't, you know, and they stopped.
And that was another emotional letdown, but that's
not one that
is gonna change. You know? At that moment,
I realized
this is written in stone. This is he's
gone.
And,
I just remember the emotions of

(17:57):
you can't even hold
a glimmer of hope that somehow it'll work
out. I mean, it was hope is extinguished
at that point.
So I just remember sitting there for a
few minutes
and thinking about it and just kind of,
working things through my head, I guess, because
I've never been in that position where someone

(18:18):
you know
died so violently.
And then
I was in there for a while.
It was actually very quiet after that.
I talked to the other deputy for a
moment, and then I I just had to
leave. So I went into back into the
main ER portion where they treat,
noncritical

(18:39):
patients, I guess.
And I'm still in my head. And I
look up,
and off to my right is Jason and
his family.
And I'm just, like,
like, stopping my tracks. I mean, because
it was Jason. It was his brother who
was back there.
And he looks at me, and I'm just

(19:00):
like, oh, he's gonna talk to me. What
do I say?
And then it just came to me, just
tell him the truth.
I mean, what else can you do? So
he go he asked, and I just said,
he's I'm sorry. He's gone.
And
that was that was really difficult because

(19:20):
now I'm having to give the same lack
of hope to Jason that I just experienced
for myself moments earlier.
So
the look on his face, you know, I
I can't forget it.
And then he went over and talked to
his his mom,
and,
I just couldn't be there anymore. So

(19:42):
I found somewhere else to be, and,
it was just it was that was a
really emotional moment for me, and I'm sure
for Jason as well.
I hated giving that news that,
hey. There's no hope anymore. This is it's
this is the reality.
And
I didn't like getting it. I sort of
didn't like giving him that same finality

(20:03):
to what he I'm sure was very, very
praying and hoping would be different.
So that that was a difficult moment.
After that,
I just remember
sheriff came down who did a phenomenal job,
sheriff Bonner.
He really led the agency through that dark
period phenomenally well.

(20:26):
He was very inspirational,
and it wasn't too long after that I
was back at the office, and everyone just
kinda
started showing up there. If they weren't involved
in the investigation,
people coming in from off duty and
were everyone just wanted to be with each
other.

(20:48):
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One of the things
that
really stood out to me when I heard
this story,

(21:51):
especially when I was reading the book written
by Scott Brown and Vicky Newman,
is the human element
of all of these officers.
I think that there's a portion of society
that doesn't see the person behind the badge
with with real feelings, with real needs, with

(22:11):
real issues.
In what they're dealing with, they just simply
see a uniform,
or maybe not even a uniform, just an
arbitrary badge
and
judge
the person and the profession that way.
One thing I wanna make sure of in
this podcast
is that

(22:33):
we really drive home the human element
of every single law enforcement
professional
out there and what they go through.
It's pretty obvious that
most
of what law enforcement
did on October 14th,
2014
was the right thing,

(22:53):
was by the book. It was what they
were trained to be,
what they were trained to do.
That's probably why Scott Brown is still with
us today.
The way that
he reacted, muscle memory, the way he moved,
once his partner got shot,
that probably
saved his life.

(23:14):
So it's interesting that in in Scott Brown
comments on this as we get back to
our story
that
the stark reality
is and and this is one thing that
the public needs to understand
that a police officer could do
everything right,
and still

(23:35):
we could end up with a bad or
negative result.
This was one of the first times in
my entire career where I I always used
to think that you could do if you
did everything tactically right, you followed all the
rules, did what you were told and trained
to do, that everything would come out okay.
This was the first time I realized that
that wasn't the case anymore.

(23:58):
So Brock Monness is still on the run.
He's still outstanding. The public's calling in. We're
trying to take the calls, trying to sift
through
the the, you know, the I think I
saw him in the BS through the actual
intel.
You know, of course, all the local area
law enforcements are in shock, but they're on
a manhunt. I mean, thousands of people, hundreds
of cops

(24:18):
scouring the area looking for this guy.
You know, and then, of course, we're dealing
with crime scenes. We have 4 crime scenes
in Sacramento alone. So CSI is responding, trying
to process all those for evidence, trying to
catch the guy.
And now there's 3 different crime scenes up
in Placer County that they're dealing with as
well.
You know, down the road, we figured it

(24:39):
out. But also at the time,
luckily, when I was shooting at him, one
of the rounds of my many,
went through
and got him. And he was, luckily bleeding
the entire time, left blood at all the
crime scenes putting him there, which was great.
Plus, we had all these eyewitnesses that had
seen him, described him, told what he'd said,

(25:00):
but these guys still at large, we still
were trying to find him.
While all this was happening,
they decided,
you know, Danny was moved from the hospital
to the coroner's office.
While this was happening,
the department and everybody else was making arrangements
for Susan
to come from San Diego. She was down

(25:21):
there on the business trip. And, of course,
you know,
our plane was ready, but our pilot wasn't.
And then there was a pilot ready, but
he wasn't, you know, certified on a certain
plane. And and all these agencies were trying
to trip in.
And the only thing that really worked out
was a flight for Southwest from San Diego.
Now at this point, Susan had already been
officially notified

(25:42):
by,
San Diego down there.
So she knew, and I can't I can't
even imagine getting on a plane
full of a whole bunch of strangers who
she didn't know,
going on with their lives,
just being told that your husband was murdered
and you're heading back up.
I I don't even know what that trip
was like, and I I have never actually
talked to Sue about it.

(26:04):
But I can't imagine it was good at
all.
While this is happening,
Holst, the civilian that was shot in the
parking lot,
he's in surgery, still in critical condition. All
the El Ocalario Schools are in lockdown.
Every helicopter in the area was up, ours
and all the news, you know, just up
there looking for something.

(26:25):
And all this is happening,
and I felt at the time that it
was all happening because of me. That it
was my fault that all this was happening
because, again, like I said, I didn't take
care of him when I was supposed to.
I didn't protect Danny.
All this stuff was because of me. The
guilt and
the anxiety was just I mean,
it was a weight that I couldn't bear.

(26:46):
I felt like I had a mountain on
top of me.
After Brockmanis had left, the patrol car in
the driveway after shooting Mike,
he was down in a canyon looking for
some water, that kind of thing. Found a
muddy puddle, was drinking out of it. And
about that time,
lady walking her dog saw him, kinda gasped
a little bit because, you know, I mean,

(27:06):
he's dirty. He's got a gun. He's covered
in blood.
He picks up the rifle,
tells her not to tell anybody, and he
he runs off.
Of course, she didn't do that. The first
she
ran up the hill in the first plaster
unit that she saw, she told what she'd
seen.
So, of course, now they have some intel
to work off of. While this is happening,
Jason Davis,

(27:27):
made it to the hospital. They they told
him about his brother, and so he was
there.
But then once he got there, he waited
for his mom to arrive. And this is
something that Jason was
dreading because, again, 26 years is a day.
Mike's dad had been killed in the line
of duty.
Now Mike. And then

(27:51):
17 years prior,
Jason's younger brother,
had died. So
this was gonna be, you know, Jason telling
her that the third man in her life
was dead before his time.
So when she got there, he notified her.
And she just, you know, it was she
collapsed. It was she she crumbled.

(28:12):
And who could blame her. Right?
The stuff this woman has been through.
Again, I can't even put myself in those
shoes.
But I've had some great conversations with her,
and she truly is an inspiration to strength.
At this time, they decided I needed to
do walk through the scene. Now, a lot
of times in a officer involved shooting,

(28:34):
these don't happen right away. A lot of
times, it's the next day, 24 hours later,
after you've had time to process and listen
to radio traffic,
see videos, that kind of thing. But because
he was still at outstanding,
they were trying to decide, you know, if
there was any intel that I could give
to help them catch this guy.
So when they asked me, you know, was

(28:54):
I willing to do it? I said, I'm
I'm
willing. I don't want to, but if it'll
help catch this guy, of course, I'm gonna
do anything I can.
The union vice president, Dan Cabral, had been
assigned to me,
so he was kind of my shadow for,
god, next 3 or 4 months, I felt
like.
But especially that day, the guy never left
me. He was there to give me advice,

(29:15):
tell me what was coming.
He was amazing. I didn't really know Dan
prior to this. But after
Danny and everything else that happens after that,
I definitely felt like I could call Dan
a friend. He was an amazing man and
prior homicide investigator and everything else. So he
he was a resource that,
you know, he helped me through it.

(29:37):
During this time, Liz had been talking to
Becky Amos.
You know, they're making calls, notifying people, making
arrangements,
stuff like that.
And,
you know, Sue,
this is when Liz found out that Sue
was set to arrive at about 3.
And this was also the time,
talking to Becky, that she found out that

(29:58):
Danny was officially declared
dead.
Liz had been holding on some hope a
little bit this whole time. I think in
her heart, she knew. But she'd been holding
on some hope. But Becky was the one
that,
unfortunately, had to officially notify Liz. And
luckily, they're friends and have a great relationship
and still do.
But that was the time that that it
was final, that it really set in for

(30:20):
Liz, and that everything I had been saying
was true.
So
at this time, it was determined I was
gonna go do my walk through,
and then that Liz was gonna go to
the airport to meet Sue because,
she couldn't come with me to do my
walk through. It was official crime scene and
everything else. And
I really couldn't be with Sue because of

(30:41):
it, but I I needed somebody to be
there on my behalf. And so, Liz was
a perfect,
person to fill in for that. So
as I was going to the crime scene
to do walk through, Liz was going to
the airport to be with Susan as she
arrived.
So, like I said, Jason had told his
mom and another thing that was

(31:03):
not interesting.
It's totally a horrible
chance, but,
you know, not only did Mike have to
tell
or Jason have to tell his mom about
Mike, but also it was 5 days before
his birthday. And we'll get more into that
later.
And then, Moose at the hospital as well,
having to tell Jessica.

(31:24):
Moose distinctly remembers,
about 2 weeks before Mike was killed, having
a conversation with Jessica.
And she was telling Mike to keep, you
know, Moose to keep him safe because, you
know, she couldn't live without him.
So when he saw Jessica,
all he could really say was, I'm sorry.
I let you down, which,

(31:45):
you know, pissed Jessica off. She she got
mad at him. She said, this is not
your fault, Mike. Don't don't take this away
from Mike. Don't don't put this on a
shove. You have no reason to hold this
on yourself. The you didn't kill Mike. That
son of a bitch that shot him killed
him. And,
I had a similar conversation, which I'll talk
about later with Jessica, but,
you know, she didn't she didn't hold him

(32:06):
responsible. And thank god she didn't, because,
and,
I can't imagine how it would have been
for Mike had she had she had she
questioned, you know, had she done that.
Now, again, I know I'm bouncing around a
lot, but this day was like that. And
for at least for a while, it kinda
does this. So,
as we know, Monroy, his wife, the suspect's

(32:27):
wife, was in custody at this time, and
they did question her trying to get some
more information out of him.
And she talked, but pretty much everything out
of her mouth was a lie. She lied
about his name.
She tried to say that she was forced
drugs.
She lied about where they were heading to.
She claimed to have no knowledge of guns,
tried to play the victim, domestic violence. There

(32:48):
were bruises on her, which she tried to
claim were,
you know, domestic violence related. Turns out that
they like to choke each other during sex,
and that's what the bruises were actually from.
She pretty much lied about everything. And it
you know, through the course of the investigation,
turns out she was a willing participant in
the whole thing, not not a victim as
she liked to claim.

(33:11):
You know, at one point, she tried to
while she was getting interviewed, she tried to
claim heart attacks and medical problems. But then,
of course, you know, when when the medical
people showed up, she was fine and,
you know, cried on cue and all that
other stuff.
So, yeah, she was just
just as evil as him, in my opinion.
So for the walk through, I arrived at

(33:32):
the motel 6. It was myself,
and Dan who drove me, and then our
union lawyer,
who was assigned to me.
She was great, by the way. I had
never met her before, but, again, she was
she was very
aggressive
in,
in my defense of, like, you know, just
making sure things got done right and and

(33:53):
looking out for me. Right?
You know, of course, as we got there,
my anxiety
went through the roof. I remember
driving up, and they moved the crime scene
tape aside. And,
you know, I remember seeing the 2 actually,
the 2 ride alongs that we had that
day for the pop team.
We went through their entrance, and they both

(34:14):
just had this wide eyed look on their
face. And
as we drove up, we parked and,
you know, I walked up with Dan
and and, Swisher, the the lead detective. He
arrived separately because they determined, and I didn't
know this at the time,
that, you know, if I arrived with him,
they would know that I was the other
officer involved and the media would swarm and

(34:36):
that kind of thing. So they had us
arrive separately.
And I walked up, and I remember going
to the corner of the parking lot, not
quite there yet, but and there was a
giant van, CSI van or something like that.
And it was there to block the view
of the,
the media and everybody else, but also so
I kinda
got there and, like, tried to catch my
breath and

(34:57):
leaned against it. And I remember just taking
a a deep breath and and,
you know, when they they told me it
was gonna be quick and just asked me
a few questions, and they asked if I
was ready,
and I wasn't. There was
I was not ready,
but,
you know, they asked me if I was
ready to go, and I I said, yeah.

(35:18):
Let's let's do this. Let's get it over
with. And
I felt like I was almost pushed. I'm
sure they weren't, but I felt like that
was the only way I could get out
there. And as I got closer and I'm
telling the story,
I mean, I felt like I was there
again. I I
I'm pretty sure I even flinched, like, when
I was telling the story as if the
bullets were going by my head.
You know, the their their Mercury Marquis was

(35:40):
still was not there anymore, but, you know,
there was a puddle of blood where Danny
was, and I could still see him there.
Our car was still where it was,
hadn't moved at all.
The whole thing took about 40 minutes.
And, I just remember doing it and thinking,
you know, there's so many eyes on me

(36:00):
or at least I felt like there were,
and I just didn't wanna let them see
me cry. I don't know why. I mean,
it would have been totally appropriate
and nobody would have judged me. But for
some reason, I was like, nope. Can't let
them see me cry. I gotta play that
whole tough guy thing,
which I think is part of a problem
with our our culture. And I think that's
why we have a hard time moving on.
But

(36:20):
it is what it is.
It is a different culture.
I'm not a police officer, but I've worked
with enough of them
over decades to know that it definitely is.
In, much like my other podcast, cold culture
corner,
which talks about business culture.
Yeah. Every culture has their good and bad.

(36:42):
And I I personally think that, when it
comes to law enforcement,
that most of it is good.
And we're certainly working today
to, to change some of the not so
good aspects of the culture.
But before we wrap up,
a few times in our podcast and a

(37:02):
number of times in the book,
2 individuals are mentioned,
Daryl Amos
and Becky Amos.
Daryl
was
a close friend of Danny Oliver, and Becky,
is,
obviously Daryl's
wife.
And we had a chance to talk to
them about this day and the difficulties.

(37:26):
Let's hear from them before we close-up this
episode.
What can you comfortably kinda go into that
day that that Danny was killed?
I remember,
I started out I it was Friday because
I remember I was at my son's school.
You're off. I was off,

(37:47):
and I was in charge of doing Friday
folders at my son's elementary school. So I
would pack up all their all the kids'
arts and crafts and whatnot
and put them in their folder. So I
remember,
doing that. I left,
and I was on my way to

(38:07):
Chevron to get,
grab, you know, something to drink, and,
I could remember,
pulling into the parking spot.
My phone rang and kinda simultaneously
got out of my truck while I answered
the phone.
And I remember walking up to the curb
and to the window when my brother called

(38:29):
it was my brother on the phone and
he called, and
he didn't even hesitate to mention what had
happened. So my brother is Brian. He was
a, I believe, a sergeant.
Is he k 9? I think he's k
9. 2,009. So he was k 9 2014.
So he was k 9 at the time,
and he's been in a he works for

(38:50):
the sheriff's department also.
And
he was,
I think,
at the office at the time at work,
and I wanna say it was around, like,
that 10 o'clock hour. He
calls me up and he says, hey. Danny's
been shot, and it doesn't look good.

(39:11):
And just kinda, you know, you take those
words and, you know, and you're kinda like,
what what are you what are you talking
about? You know? I'm just walking up to
Chevron. I'm just trying to do, like, any
normal day.
And,
So his brother was working at the time,
but
his brother made sure to make it a
priority that he contact be the first to
contact Daryl and not just somebody else. So

(39:33):
or or hear it from somebody else. You
know? You didn't want Daryl to pick up
the phone and hear it from you know,
or read it anywhere or anything like that.
So because it was it it was still
see of Brian getting to Daryl
was a big priority for Brian. He needed
to and then he after that, he needed
to physically see his
brother. Because I think it was pretty fluid
when it was going on. I think my

(39:54):
brother was able to have a radio, and
my brother had the his our computer,
system that we can monitor calls with. I
think he had that available to them. He
did. So he was listening to it not
only live, but watching the
updates come out for the call in full.
And,
and
it it, you know, everything just kind of

(40:15):
shortens down your eyes, your peripheral vision, you
know.
I was kind of hyperventilating a little bit
because I was kinda like, what are you
talking about? You know, like, because and I
mean, being in that line of work and
hearing that,
you know, it didn't take too long to
put it together.
And, you know, now it's just,
like, let me call you back. So I

(40:35):
think I called my wife, Becky,
and,
just
I got I don't have a lot of
information, but this is what happened. This is
what my brother told me. It's kinda like
in a panic of what to do,
you know, looking for some guidance.
Because it it kinda changes things a little
bit.

(40:55):
Yeah. What kind of guidance did you give,
Becky?
So he doesn't remember all these details, but
I I do remember these kind of details.
He apologize.
Yeah. No. It's fine.
Brian called him. Brian saw what was going
on, everything. He that dinner was his first
priority, and the plan was to meet at,
his mother mom's house, which is in Roseville.

(41:16):
So we're pretty lucky. We have,
not only do we have close friends around.
We have a lot of close family that
we live, like, within a 15 mile radius
of, and then 3,
relatives
in the share in the actual sheriff's department,
Sac County. So his brother,
my sister's husband, our brother-in-law,
and then his brother.
Essentially, I have, like, 3 brother ones that

(41:37):
were at the time there.
So very lucky to have everyone looking out
for us, but the plan was to meet
at, his mom's in Roseville. We were in
Lincoln at the time, and I was in
Rockland at work. So that was kind of
the central location,
and
Brian kinda just needed to put his eyes
on Daryl and then we could go from

(41:57):
there
and figure out what was gonna happen. So,
Brian, his wife Julie,
and Daryl and I all met at in
Roseville.
Yeah. I remember took a little bit of
A little bit of coordinating through the phone.
And some time. And then at some point
in time
Do you remember roughly about how long from
when he called you to you guys finally

(42:19):
meeting? Oh, like, 20 minutes. No. It didn't
it didn't take long. Yeah. It did I
dropped everything, honestly. Mhmm. Yeah. I mean, I
honestly couldn't tell you the the time frame,
but I remember going home Everyone was obviously
super supportive on you. So And then,
Yeah. I called my mom, and I called
my I called my sister first, I think.

(42:39):
And
then I called my mom, whom my dad's
retired,
Fremont,
PD. So
everyone kinda understood immediately what was going on.
And it was like, okay. We got the
kids. They took care of our kids, and
they knew we were gonna whatever was happening
from then on was gonna that was our
priority.
I think my brother had brought up an

(43:00):
idea that that I think that the lobby
of UC Davis Hospitals where everybody was kinda
being, where all the planning was kinda gonna
take place.
So I think we kind of obviously, we
met at my my mom's house and
and had planned all that. And I wanna
say, I believe, after we left
my mom's house, I got a phone call.

(43:20):
That was after we left.
I think I can't remember the
the rank or the person,
but it was our employee relations officer, I
believe, at the time had called me and
and
had said, hey. You know,
just to let you know that you were
Danny's notification
to his wife in the event of

(43:43):
of his death.
And
and that just brought on a whole another,
like,
just
a bunch of emotions that I was
it's just I can remember actually driving out
of my parents' neighborhood through the gate. Yeah.
I was driving. She was actually driving
out my mom and dad's, you know, gate

(44:04):
to their community.
And I just told her I go, I
I
I can't do it. I I can't do
that. And I go, I don't think she's
even in town
because I remember Danny had mentioned something about,
Susan being
out of town on a conference.
And I said, how am I supposed to
do that? I got I got a hold

(44:26):
of basically Susan
based on being with Danny because that's the
kind of relationship I had with Danny. So
I didn't just call Susan because I didn't
have her phone number. It would be Danny
getting hold of Sue. It would be like,
this is what we're doing tonight. So I
was
and it was
so we had pulled over and then, you
know,

(44:47):
Becky being Becky, she
perfectly laid it out for me like why
I should,
you know, he made you the notification.
You should do his, you know, this is
the wishes he wanted.
Because I had no idea, because we had
discussed it at, I believe, a barbecue at
our house. Mhmm. And just jokingly, he's had
mentioned, you know, he's like, I want you

(45:08):
to be my my notification,
you know, to sue. And I
I was like, okay. You know? I didn't
you know, it wasn't like set in stone
where I knew he went to the office
and he filled out all the paperwork and
he wrote my name on it. So
I was like, okay. Cool. That, you know,
you do because you don't think about those
things.

(45:28):
You you're we nobody wants to think about
that, you know, that it's gonna happen or
I'm gonna have to notify somebody because,
you know, we don't wanna think that way.
But it did. It came to reality.
And it was one of those
just like whole leak out how do you
do it? How am I in the hard
part was in my my mind is
racing it like how do I let her

(45:50):
know I don't wanna do it over a
phone?
I don't know. How do you do that
to somebody who's
you know, in a different part of the
the state?
And then they have to fly all the
way back. I just I was just so
confused at how
to accomplish that. What's my wife?
I'd said, you know, you should do it.

(46:15):
This has been Facing Evil, a cop story
of murder, mayhem, and the aftermath.
This podcast is based upon the book of
the same name written by Scott J Brown
and Victoria M Newman.
We encourage listeners to purchase a copy of
the book on Amazon.com,
as well as to share, rate, and review

(46:36):
this podcast.
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(46:57):
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