May 19, 2023 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, after several self-defense shootings and the death of his son, it took a nonprofit to keep officer Charles Scott from taking his own life.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on the show,
including yours. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
They're some of our favorites. Today we have this story
of police officer Charles Scott, brought to us by nine
one one Eddies International. Nine one one Eddies International provides
(00:30):
first responders and their families access to free and confidential
trauma informed counseling. Officer Charles Scott grew up in the
Central Valley of California and from a young age she
knew he wanted to be in law enforcement. Here's Charles
with his story.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So that's always a question they start with in the academy,
is why do you want to do this? And I
was always one that didn't have an answer because it
was just always something I've wanted to do. My mom
has a essay I wrote in first or second grade
what do you want to be when you grow up?
And it was always a police officer. So I mean,
at this point where you get to drive fast, carry
a gun and they pay you to fight with people,
(01:14):
sign me up. So that's why I did it. It
was it seemed like it was better than working in
a bank or a corporate office, and yeah, it's been
an amazing ride. For sure. I didn't have any experience
with fire or police. Looking back, I sure wish I
had because there's so many opportunities in law enforcement. All
(01:35):
I thought, all I knew was what you saw on cops,
so that's what I wanted to do. But no, my
dad grew up, we grew up. He was construction superintendent
for construction company. My mom was a stay at home
mom with us boys, so yeah, it was more of
a just a working family. No law enforcement experience at all. Yeah,
(01:55):
I don't really know where it comes from. You know,
I'm a firm believer that you can't create eight leaders.
Leaders are born with a calling. And sure you can
do training and you can enhance your leadership skills, but
I think, you know, true leaders are someone that God
calls into leadership. And even at a young age, I
would always find myself being the class president, being the
(02:19):
captain of the sports teams. It's hard to look back
when someone says, Wow, You've done all these amazing things,
and you look back and like, I'm just living my life.
You know, you don't under you don't appreciate it as anything,
but that's just what I do.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Charles married his high school sweetheart and they have now
been married twenty five years. No, although he was offered
an athletics scholarship to college, he decided to get into
law enforcement as soon as.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
He could, seeing what's on TV with just the cops.
You put in the application and I went through the academy.
I think my first oral interview that I had, I
wore jeans and a collared shirt and thought that that
was good. So there's a lot of learning a curve
as far as that whole process. You really start being
(03:08):
evaluated from the time you submit an application, so it's
you know, the interviews, the background checks, the personal history statement,
then you have the chiefs interview. So it's just it's
a lot and being from a small country town in
the mountains, it definitely was a learning experience for someone
(03:32):
trying to figure this out. I was only twenty one
when I started this, so didn't have a whole lot
of life experience, but I figured, oh, we'll figure it
out on the way.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
After the hiring process, Charles started his career in the
Central Valley, where he got in his first officer involved shooting.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah. So I was at Chowchilla Police Department, which is
in Madera County, the Central Valley, and we got a
nine to one one transfer from CHP saying that there
was someone outside that wanted to kill themselves, so they
sent myself and another partner out to it. It was
really close. We actually walked from the police department to
(04:11):
where she was supposed to be located. We'd turn a
corner and she's laying on her back kind of I
call it in the birthing position, with their knees up,
and she's pointing a gun at us between her legs
kind of down towards us. My partner and I start
to separate. I start moving away from him because I
want to create distance between the two of us to
(04:32):
make her decide what she wants to do. As I
started moving away from my partner, I saw her kind
of tracking me with the gun and that's when I
started firing. I fired four shots. My partner fired two shots.
I actually shot the gun, which we found out afterwards.
I actually shot the gun out of her hand. I
(04:54):
shot her in the pocket, but she still wasn't responding
like you think they should when they getting shot, so
I thought I was missing, and that was the only
time I really told myself, you know, slow down, take
a deep breath, find your sites because you're missing. And
then I shot her and I saw kind of a
(05:14):
red spot on her clothes, and then it kind of
started to grow, and I knew that I had shot
her because that was the blood coming out. She called
nine to one one herself, and it was at that
time nine one ones always went to CHP and then
CHP would transform to Art Department. We didn't know this
until after they reviewed, and even the dispatcher missed it.
She actually said I'm going to kill myself and I'm
(05:38):
going to take as many cops with me as I can.
We didn't know that until later when they reviewed the audio,
and our dispatcher even missed it. So yeah, she called
for herself. It was a suicide by cop, is what
she was trying to do. The whole incident was really surreal.
I mean, we had a Smith and Wesson guns where
(06:01):
he actually had to decock them. Once they were cocked,
you had to manually do it. I don't remember doing that.
I don't remember putting my gun back in my holster,
so there's some things that you just respond so quickly
to your training you don't even realize you do it.
I remember thinking to myself as I'm watching her track
me with her gun, telling myself, you better do it
(06:22):
before she does. And that's what, really, you know, prompted
me and motivated me to fire that first round. It
was empowering once I started firing, because then I felt
like I was back in control. I was dictating the situation.
I was no longer responding to a threat. I was
now trying to eliminate the threat. And everything kind of
(06:45):
slowed down.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And you're listening to police Officer Charles Scott tell his story.
He knew in the first or second grade he wanted
to be a cup. We also learned about his first
encounter with someone who was armed and who is intent
on killing cops. Suicide by cop, it's known by the
way in the business, and this was exactly what he
was faced with as a young cop. And when we
(07:10):
come back, Police Officer Charles Scott's story continues here on
our American Stories. Here aret our American Stories, we bring
(07:32):
you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith and love.
Stories from a great and beautiful country. That need to
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click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot,
(07:53):
help us keep the great American stories coming. That's our
American Stories dot com. And we continue with our American Stories,
and we've been listening to Officer Charles Scott shares stories
(08:15):
from his time in law enforcement. We left off after
Charles had gotten in his first officer involved shooting with
a woman was attempting suicide. By cop Let's return to.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Charles, she survived, thankfully. I actually got to talk to
her about two months later. She was doing really well.
She actually thanked us oddly as had sounds. But I
went through some counseling with the department. Really didn't affect me.
(08:47):
My wife when I came home after the investigation of
the initial investigation, she asked, you know, how are you
you just shot someone. I said, well, I've shot a
thousand people in my mind trying to prepare myself for it.
So there really wasn't a whole lot of emotion attached
to it, and really at first, that's what kind of
freaked me out, was that I wasn't freaked out about it,
(09:09):
but talking to the doctor kind of laid it out
a little bit for me. Went back to work. I
actually I got to witness with her. I actually prayed
with her on the street, and I think that played
a lot in my recovery and how I was able
to go back so quickly. I really didn't have any
lasting effects because I think I kind of got to
(09:30):
close that chapter with her. She didn't die, and she'd said,
you know, I haven't had a drink of alcohol since
that day, and she said, I don't attend to to
ever again. So she was fortunate that I wasn't a
better shot, I guess, but it all worked out, and
I think that played a big part in my healing,
(09:52):
was knowing that she didn't die and there was a
purpose for it maybe, So there wasn't really any residual
effect because of that shooting. And after that shooting is
when my wife and I decided that if we were
going to be doing this kind of line of work,
we should be doing it in an area that we're
raising our boys in a good environment. Where we enjoy it.
(10:14):
Who doesn't enjoy the central Coast. So that's what kind
of generated our desire to kind of find an agency
back over here, and landed at Lompot Police Department. I
had three boys at the time. At Noah was about
twelve when we moved over here, maybe a little younger,
and then Jordan's our middle son, so he'd be about ten,
(10:37):
maybe eleven. And then our baby in the family was
probably seven or eight, Zachary at the time. So we
come over and you know, we're living at the coast.
We're homeschooling our boys. So we're going to the ocean
and the beach on Tuesday at ten o'clock in the morning,
really living our best life. I was succeeding doing really
well at the department. I was a lateral so I
(10:58):
had a lot more experience than of the newer guys,
So that immediately gave me some credibility at the department.
I had been in a shooting. No one at the
department had been in a shooting, so again that lends
to some credibility to my abilities. So yeah, we were
doing really well. We started fostering, started trying to help
(11:19):
kids in the foster care community ended up adopting. Now
we've ended up adopting three little ones through the foster care.
We were living as perfect of a life as I
ever wanted or ever hoped for.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Charles and his family were enjoying their life on the
coast until their whole world got turned upside down when
they got terrible news about one of their children.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Noah was fifth fourteen at the time. He started losing
some weight, He started getting really pale, and we could
start seeing some physical changes in him. He had recently
bought himself fitbit watch and he started trying to walk
a little bit more, run a little bit more. So
we thought maybe he was just losing some of the
baby fat because he was starting to work out a
(12:07):
little bit more. One day, he walks down the stairs
into the living room and my middle son, Jordan says, Noah,
you look like a ghost. Even your lips are white.
So my wife took him to his pediatrician and after
some tests, probably about two months in July of twenty sixteen,
we were told that Noah had all leukemia.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
That's a cute limphoblastic leukemia, a type of cancer of
the blood and bone marrow. That affects white blood cells
and is the most common childhood cancer.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
It was difficult to hear, obviously, when you spend your
life protecting people and fixing problems, to hear that your
son has cancer and that there's nothing that you can
do to fix it was difficult it. Obviously, we have
such a close family with my side of the family
as well as my wife Kristen's side of the family.
(13:04):
Were so close with all my siblings and our parents
that it really affected the entire family knowing that Noah
was having to go through this, and really that July
of twenty sixteen is when we started this sixteen month
in my life that I wouldn't wish on anyone. I
wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I went from having
(13:28):
the picture perfect life, picture perfect kids, successful in my job,
to literally in my life like a snow globe, being
turned completely upside down in the matter of eighteen months,
a matter of actually sixteen months, we went from my
son being diagnosed with leukemia. Four months after that diagnosis,
(13:49):
I'm in my first officer involved shooting at Lompo Police
Department where a guy charges at me with a knife
and I have to shoot and kill him. That's in
November of twenty sixteen. June thirtieth of twenty seventeen, my
son Noah passes away from leukemia. I go back to
(14:10):
work soon after his funeral, and three hundred and sixty
three days from my first officer involved shooting, I'm involved
in a second officer involved shooting where we had to
shoot and kill a subject who had just killed his
ex girlfriend's new boyfriend. So in literally sixteen months, I
(14:33):
went from the perfect life to my son being diagnosed,
being in an officer involved shooting, my son dying, and
then being in another officer involved shooting.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
It was a time filled with unmeasurable stress. When anyone
goes through difficult times, they need support, and thankfully Charles
community rallied around his family in amazing ways.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I can't speak highly more highly enough about the Central
Coast and specifically Longpoke when my son got diagnosed. At
one time, my chief put a ribbon on every one
of our law enforcement vehicles for the department in support
of Noah. They would do fundraisers. They did a fundraiser
(15:21):
out a pizza factory in town and there was a
five hour wait for pizzas because the community turned out
so strong in support of Noah. They literally painted and
put ribbons and balloons down the entire main street in
Lompoke for orange and black, which are the leukemia colors
(15:43):
for the kind of cancer he had. The support was
tremendous when Noah was diagnosed, and then, obviously because we
were so out there in the community, when I was
involved in the shooting, my name got released and the
community was amazing and supporting my family during that. Losing Noah,
(16:03):
the community was as devastated as we were. I'll never forget.
Two days after he passed, I had to take our
younger kids to the mall in Santa Maria to get
some clothes for the funeral. And as I'm writing, the
escalator going down, this woman looks at me and she
immediately starts crying. And I've never seen this woman in
(16:25):
my life, and she when I get down to the
bottom of the escalator, she hugs me and says, I'm
so sorry. I was really praying for Noah, And to
this day, I have no idea who she was, but
she recognized me and came up and she was heartbroken
over the loss of Noah. So the community was just
amazing and supporting Noah and my family during this difficult time.
(16:50):
Losing a child is it's undescribable. They don't even have
a word for it. And I know why, because every
part of you hurts. And to have to deal with
not only that, but going through two officer involved shootings
within a year, it was a very difficult time for
my family and I.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
And you're listening to police officer Charles Scott's story in
what a sixteen month time period that was for him,
his family and as you could hear, the community itself
which rallied to his support and helped not just for
his family but his extended family. But still, how did
he cope? How did he get on day to day?
(17:34):
How did he continue to do his job? The answers
to these questions and more, The story of Charles Scott
continues here on our American story, and we returned to
(18:09):
our American Stories into the story of Charles Scott. He's
a police officer in Lompoc, California, and that's coastal California,
north of Los Angeles. We left off after Charles had
had the most difficult year of his life. Within sixteen months,
his son got sick and passed away, and he'd experienced
two officer involved shootings. Let's return to Charles Scott.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
So, looking back at that sixteen months after the first shooting,
I went to speak with our doctor that was basically
contracted with our agency. I felt okay about that. I
didn't have a whole lot of baggage because of that.
I mean, it was difficult. I took someone's life, so
it was difficult, but slowly that it just started kind
(18:58):
of adding up and piling up. You know, my son
was diagnosed, we were dealing with my son's treatment. Then
I have my first shooting, and then my son passed away,
and nobody really knows what to say to you. You know,
if you haven't had a child die, you can say
what you can, but nobody really knows what you're going through.
(19:19):
So then the second shooting, and I'll never forget this
kind of will illustrate just how dark of a place
I was in when the second shooting, when he started
shooting at my sergeant, I remember getting out of my
car and thinking to myself, today I'm going to see Noah,
and that was my son's name that passed away, And
(19:39):
there was no fear there was no sadness. I didn't
even think about my wife or my other kids. It
was just I missed Noah so much that that's what
I was excited about. And after it was all said
and done and I wasn't hurt or wasn't killed, I
remember being so angry at that guy, not for me
(20:02):
having to kill him, but because he couldn't kill me.
Because that's how dark it was for me, as I
just missed my son so much that I was mad.
And that's when I really identified that I was in
a dark spot. I have a loving wife I have
at that time, I had four other kids that needed
(20:24):
me as a dad, but it was so dark that
all I cared about was seeing my son again. After
that shooting, they sent me they recommended that I speak
to the doctor again. He wasn't real responsive. He was
from LA and it was always changing his schedule and
(20:45):
it just didn't work really well. The last session I
had with him, he had to do it over phone,
and that's when he tells me, well, I think you
need to really think about what you're passionate about because
I don't ever see you going back into law enforcement,
which was like a dagger in my heart, because that's
all I really knew, that's all I was really good at.
(21:08):
And now this doctor's telling me, in the darkest time
of my life, that he's going to take something else
away from me. I went and I spoke to my
chief in desperation and said, this is not working. He
wants to retire me. And you know, at that time,
I wasn't even forty years old yet, and I said,
(21:28):
I don't know anything else. My chief and my captain,
who has now been promoted to my current chief, they
were good enough to say, you know, if you know
somebody or if you know a program, that you need
to reach out to do it and we'll make sure
that it gets covered paid for, whatever it may be.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
And that's when Mike McGrew, co founder, CEO and executive
director of nine to one one ADDIE's International, came into
the picture.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Mike McGrew had reached out to me. I don't know
how he knew our story. Mike retired from Santa Barbara
Peade as a sergeant, and Santa Barbara Peade was amazing.
When my son was sick and Santa Barbara they would
bring us food, they would have us called him if
we needed anything, and they would come and bring stuff
over while they were on duty. So they just really
(22:20):
took care of my son and my family and my wife.
My wife would spend sometime sixty days straight at the
hospital with Noah and Santa Barbara Peedi made it a
point to come by and check on us. So I'm
assuming that that's how Mike found out about me and
our story. I was in such a dark place. I
didn't even really register how I first made contact with
(22:44):
Mike or the add Ease program. But Mike had suggested
the ad EAS program and told me a little bit
about it, and I reached out to them, went and
spoke to doctor barb Barbara. She was great. I spent
probably two maybe three months going down there and seeing
her at least once a week. She was amazing. Mike
(23:07):
would come in and we would cry together, we would
pray together. He was just a huge support. And the
at East program was just it was so easy, it
was easy to use, it was easy to access. It
was definitely a life veest or a light turned on
in a very dark spot in my life.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Nine one one, ADDIE's International was exactly what Charles needed
to return to the career he loved so much.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
My goal was to get well enough to return to
the streets and be a police officer. I didn't know
what that looked like. Remember, I was going in having
already been told by a medical profess professional that I
needed to retire. So I wasn't trying to find someone
just to say, yeah, go back to work, we'll clear you,
(23:56):
because that's not what they do. I had to be
safe enough. I had to be secure enough. I had
to be established in my heart that I could do
the job again. And that's what the ADEAS program did,
is that it allowed me to work through what I
was dealing with to be able to have the confidence
to return to the streets. It's been five years or
(24:19):
four years since my son passed away. We're coming up
on November that it'll be five years the shooting, the
first shooting, and I'm successful in my job. I'm on
the sergeant's list. I've returned to work, and this is
something that I was told I would never be able
to do again. We've since adopted another daughter, and my
(24:42):
wife and I are strong and have a strong foundation.
I have a great relationship with my kids. I don't
have an alcohol abuse problem. I don't even drink, and
those are all pitfalls when someone goes through a critical
incidence that they do some self harm stuff, And through
the at Ease program, I was given the tools to
(25:03):
avoid such activity and to not be so self destructive.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
He now has the desire to help other young officers
deal with their own mental health problems.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
The culture of law enforcement is changing so much that
there's so much stress put on officers, and it seems
like it's changing every day. I've only been doing it
for almost sixteen years, and I never thought I would
get to the point where I would say, you know,
when I was a young officer, But unfortunately we're there,
so these critical incidences are going to happen. And I
(25:38):
tell the young guys that I have a chance to
mentor with. I tell them that if you've created a
thirty year career and you've been promoted every time, you've
got all the specialties, you've got, all the awards, you've got,
all the accolades that you could ever have as a
professional law enforcement. But when you pull into the driveway
your wife or your kids say to themselves, crap, Dad's home,
(26:02):
then you have failed in this career. Because when it's
all over, the only thing that you're going to have
is your family, and you owe it to yourself and
you owe it to them to take care of your
mental health. There is such a stigma about mental health
and law enforcement. I cannot say enough good things about
(26:23):
the at Ease program. I know without a doubt if
I were to get in another critical incident, that my
first outreach would be to someone at the at Ease program.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
And a great job is always by faith on the
production of the piece and a special thanks to Officer
Charles Scott with opening up. It's hard for cops and
first responders to talk about themselves and their problems. They're
too busy taking care of others. And that there's a
place like nine to one to one ed Ees International
there to help all the first responders. And again the
confidentiality is the key, and you can learn more about
(27:02):
nine one one at He's International by going to nine
one one a EI dot Org. I love what he
said about them and allowed me to get the confidence
to go back to work, to go back to the
streets to the job. I loved Charles Scott's story here
on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on the show,
including yours. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
They're some of our favorites. Today we have this story
of police officer Charles Scott, brought to us by nine
one one Eddies International. Nine one one Eddies International provides
(00:30):
first responders and their families access to free and confidential
trauma informed counseling. Officer Charles Scott grew up in the
Central Valley of California and from a young age she
knew he wanted to be in law enforcement. Here's Charles
with his story.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So that's always a question they start with in the academy,
is why do you want to do this? And I
was always one that didn't have an answer because it
was just always something I've wanted to do. My mom
has a essay I wrote in first or second grade
what do you want to be when you grow up?
And it was always a police officer. So I mean,
at this point where you get to drive fast, carry
a gun and they pay you to fight with people,
(01:14):
sign me up. So that's why I did it. It
was it seemed like it was better than working in
a bank or a corporate office, and yeah, it's been
an amazing ride. For sure. I didn't have any experience
with fire or police. Looking back, I sure wish I
had because there's so many opportunities in law enforcement. All
(01:35):
I thought, all I knew was what you saw on cops,
so that's what I wanted to do. But no, my
dad grew up, we grew up. He was construction superintendent
for construction company. My mom was a stay at home
mom with us boys, so yeah, it was more of
a just a working family. No law enforcement experience at all. Yeah,
(01:55):
I don't really know where it comes from. You know,
I'm a firm believer that you can't create eight leaders.
Leaders are born with a calling. And sure you can
do training and you can enhance your leadership skills, but
I think, you know, true leaders are someone that God
calls into leadership. And even at a young age, I
would always find myself being the class president, being the
(02:19):
captain of the sports teams. It's hard to look back
when someone says, Wow, You've done all these amazing things,
and you look back and like, I'm just living my life.
You know, you don't under you don't appreciate it as anything,
but that's just what I do.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Charles married his high school sweetheart and they have now
been married twenty five years. No, although he was offered
an athletics scholarship to college, he decided to get into
law enforcement as soon as.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
He could, seeing what's on TV with just the cops.
You put in the application and I went through the academy.
I think my first oral interview that I had, I
wore jeans and a collared shirt and thought that that
was good. So there's a lot of learning a curve
as far as that whole process. You really start being
(03:08):
evaluated from the time you submit an application, so it's
you know, the interviews, the background checks, the personal history statement,
then you have the chiefs interview. So it's just it's
a lot and being from a small country town in
the mountains, it definitely was a learning experience for someone
(03:32):
trying to figure this out. I was only twenty one
when I started this, so didn't have a whole lot
of life experience, but I figured, oh, we'll figure it
out on the way.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
After the hiring process, Charles started his career in the
Central Valley, where he got in his first officer involved shooting.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah. So I was at Chowchilla Police Department, which is
in Madera County, the Central Valley, and we got a
nine to one one transfer from CHP saying that there
was someone outside that wanted to kill themselves, so they
sent myself and another partner out to it. It was
really close. We actually walked from the police department to
(04:11):
where she was supposed to be located. We'd turn a
corner and she's laying on her back kind of I
call it in the birthing position, with their knees up,
and she's pointing a gun at us between her legs
kind of down towards us. My partner and I start
to separate. I start moving away from him because I
want to create distance between the two of us to
(04:32):
make her decide what she wants to do. As I
started moving away from my partner, I saw her kind
of tracking me with the gun and that's when I
started firing. I fired four shots. My partner fired two shots.
I actually shot the gun, which we found out afterwards.
I actually shot the gun out of her hand. I
(04:54):
shot her in the pocket, but she still wasn't responding
like you think they should when they getting shot, so
I thought I was missing, and that was the only
time I really told myself, you know, slow down, take
a deep breath, find your sites because you're missing. And
then I shot her and I saw kind of a
(05:14):
red spot on her clothes, and then it kind of
started to grow, and I knew that I had shot
her because that was the blood coming out. She called
nine to one one herself, and it was at that
time nine one ones always went to CHP and then
CHP would transform to Art Department. We didn't know this
until after they reviewed, and even the dispatcher missed it.
She actually said I'm going to kill myself and I'm
(05:38):
going to take as many cops with me as I can.
We didn't know that until later when they reviewed the audio,
and our dispatcher even missed it. So yeah, she called
for herself. It was a suicide by cop, is what
she was trying to do. The whole incident was really surreal.
I mean, we had a Smith and Wesson guns where
(06:01):
he actually had to decock them. Once they were cocked,
you had to manually do it. I don't remember doing that.
I don't remember putting my gun back in my holster,
so there's some things that you just respond so quickly
to your training you don't even realize you do it.
I remember thinking to myself as I'm watching her track
me with her gun, telling myself, you better do it
(06:22):
before she does. And that's what, really, you know, prompted
me and motivated me to fire that first round. It
was empowering once I started firing, because then I felt
like I was back in control. I was dictating the situation.
I was no longer responding to a threat. I was
now trying to eliminate the threat. And everything kind of
(06:45):
slowed down.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And you're listening to police Officer Charles Scott tell his story.
He knew in the first or second grade he wanted
to be a cup. We also learned about his first
encounter with someone who was armed and who is intent
on killing cops. Suicide by cop, it's known by the
way in the business, and this was exactly what he
was faced with as a young cop. And when we
(07:10):
come back, Police Officer Charles Scott's story continues here on
our American Stories. Here aret our American Stories, we bring
(07:32):
you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith and love.
Stories from a great and beautiful country. That need to
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we do, please go to our Americanstories dot com and
click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot,
(07:53):
help us keep the great American stories coming. That's our
American Stories dot com. And we continue with our American Stories,
and we've been listening to Officer Charles Scott shares stories
(08:15):
from his time in law enforcement. We left off after
Charles had gotten in his first officer involved shooting with
a woman was attempting suicide. By cop Let's return to.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Charles, she survived, thankfully. I actually got to talk to
her about two months later. She was doing really well.
She actually thanked us oddly as had sounds. But I
went through some counseling with the department. Really didn't affect me.
(08:47):
My wife when I came home after the investigation of
the initial investigation, she asked, you know, how are you
you just shot someone. I said, well, I've shot a
thousand people in my mind trying to prepare myself for it.
So there really wasn't a whole lot of emotion attached
to it, and really at first, that's what kind of
freaked me out, was that I wasn't freaked out about it,
(09:09):
but talking to the doctor kind of laid it out
a little bit for me. Went back to work. I
actually I got to witness with her. I actually prayed
with her on the street, and I think that played
a lot in my recovery and how I was able
to go back so quickly. I really didn't have any
lasting effects because I think I kind of got to
(09:30):
close that chapter with her. She didn't die, and she'd said,
you know, I haven't had a drink of alcohol since
that day, and she said, I don't attend to to
ever again. So she was fortunate that I wasn't a
better shot, I guess, but it all worked out, and
I think that played a big part in my healing,
(09:52):
was knowing that she didn't die and there was a
purpose for it maybe, So there wasn't really any residual
effect because of that shooting. And after that shooting is
when my wife and I decided that if we were
going to be doing this kind of line of work,
we should be doing it in an area that we're
raising our boys in a good environment. Where we enjoy it.
(10:14):
Who doesn't enjoy the central Coast. So that's what kind
of generated our desire to kind of find an agency
back over here, and landed at Lompot Police Department. I
had three boys at the time. At Noah was about
twelve when we moved over here, maybe a little younger,
and then Jordan's our middle son, so he'd be about ten,
(10:37):
maybe eleven. And then our baby in the family was
probably seven or eight, Zachary at the time. So we
come over and you know, we're living at the coast.
We're homeschooling our boys. So we're going to the ocean
and the beach on Tuesday at ten o'clock in the morning,
really living our best life. I was succeeding doing really
well at the department. I was a lateral so I
(10:58):
had a lot more experience than of the newer guys,
So that immediately gave me some credibility at the department.
I had been in a shooting. No one at the
department had been in a shooting, so again that lends
to some credibility to my abilities. So yeah, we were
doing really well. We started fostering, started trying to help
(11:19):
kids in the foster care community ended up adopting. Now
we've ended up adopting three little ones through the foster care.
We were living as perfect of a life as I
ever wanted or ever hoped for.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Charles and his family were enjoying their life on the
coast until their whole world got turned upside down when
they got terrible news about one of their children.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Noah was fifth fourteen at the time. He started losing
some weight, He started getting really pale, and we could
start seeing some physical changes in him. He had recently
bought himself fitbit watch and he started trying to walk
a little bit more, run a little bit more. So
we thought maybe he was just losing some of the
baby fat because he was starting to work out a
(12:07):
little bit more. One day, he walks down the stairs
into the living room and my middle son, Jordan says, Noah,
you look like a ghost. Even your lips are white.
So my wife took him to his pediatrician and after
some tests, probably about two months in July of twenty sixteen,
we were told that Noah had all leukemia.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
That's a cute limphoblastic leukemia, a type of cancer of
the blood and bone marrow. That affects white blood cells
and is the most common childhood cancer.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
It was difficult to hear, obviously, when you spend your
life protecting people and fixing problems, to hear that your
son has cancer and that there's nothing that you can
do to fix it was difficult it. Obviously, we have
such a close family with my side of the family
as well as my wife Kristen's side of the family.
(13:04):
Were so close with all my siblings and our parents
that it really affected the entire family knowing that Noah
was having to go through this, and really that July
of twenty sixteen is when we started this sixteen month
in my life that I wouldn't wish on anyone. I
wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I went from having
(13:28):
the picture perfect life, picture perfect kids, successful in my job,
to literally in my life like a snow globe, being
turned completely upside down in the matter of eighteen months,
a matter of actually sixteen months, we went from my
son being diagnosed with leukemia. Four months after that diagnosis,
(13:49):
I'm in my first officer involved shooting at Lompo Police
Department where a guy charges at me with a knife
and I have to shoot and kill him. That's in
November of twenty sixteen. June thirtieth of twenty seventeen, my
son Noah passes away from leukemia. I go back to
(14:10):
work soon after his funeral, and three hundred and sixty
three days from my first officer involved shooting, I'm involved
in a second officer involved shooting where we had to
shoot and kill a subject who had just killed his
ex girlfriend's new boyfriend. So in literally sixteen months, I
(14:33):
went from the perfect life to my son being diagnosed,
being in an officer involved shooting, my son dying, and
then being in another officer involved shooting.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
It was a time filled with unmeasurable stress. When anyone
goes through difficult times, they need support, and thankfully Charles
community rallied around his family in amazing ways.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I can't speak highly more highly enough about the Central
Coast and specifically Longpoke when my son got diagnosed. At
one time, my chief put a ribbon on every one
of our law enforcement vehicles for the department in support
of Noah. They would do fundraisers. They did a fundraiser
(15:21):
out a pizza factory in town and there was a
five hour wait for pizzas because the community turned out
so strong in support of Noah. They literally painted and
put ribbons and balloons down the entire main street in
Lompoke for orange and black, which are the leukemia colors
(15:43):
for the kind of cancer he had. The support was
tremendous when Noah was diagnosed, and then, obviously because we
were so out there in the community, when I was
involved in the shooting, my name got released and the
community was amazing and supporting my family during that. Losing Noah,
(16:03):
the community was as devastated as we were. I'll never forget.
Two days after he passed, I had to take our
younger kids to the mall in Santa Maria to get
some clothes for the funeral. And as I'm writing, the
escalator going down, this woman looks at me and she
immediately starts crying. And I've never seen this woman in
(16:25):
my life, and she when I get down to the
bottom of the escalator, she hugs me and says, I'm
so sorry. I was really praying for Noah, And to
this day, I have no idea who she was, but
she recognized me and came up and she was heartbroken
over the loss of Noah. So the community was just
amazing and supporting Noah and my family during this difficult time.
(16:50):
Losing a child is it's undescribable. They don't even have
a word for it. And I know why, because every
part of you hurts. And to have to deal with
not only that, but going through two officer involved shootings
within a year, it was a very difficult time for
my family and I.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
And you're listening to police officer Charles Scott's story in
what a sixteen month time period that was for him,
his family and as you could hear, the community itself
which rallied to his support and helped not just for
his family but his extended family. But still, how did
he cope? How did he get on day to day?
(17:34):
How did he continue to do his job? The answers
to these questions and more, The story of Charles Scott
continues here on our American story, and we returned to
(18:09):
our American Stories into the story of Charles Scott. He's
a police officer in Lompoc, California, and that's coastal California,
north of Los Angeles. We left off after Charles had
had the most difficult year of his life. Within sixteen months,
his son got sick and passed away, and he'd experienced
two officer involved shootings. Let's return to Charles Scott.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
So, looking back at that sixteen months after the first shooting,
I went to speak with our doctor that was basically
contracted with our agency. I felt okay about that. I
didn't have a whole lot of baggage because of that.
I mean, it was difficult. I took someone's life, so
it was difficult, but slowly that it just started kind
(18:58):
of adding up and piling up. You know, my son
was diagnosed, we were dealing with my son's treatment. Then
I have my first shooting, and then my son passed away,
and nobody really knows what to say to you. You know,
if you haven't had a child die, you can say
what you can, but nobody really knows what you're going through.
(19:19):
So then the second shooting, and I'll never forget this
kind of will illustrate just how dark of a place
I was in when the second shooting, when he started
shooting at my sergeant, I remember getting out of my
car and thinking to myself, today I'm going to see Noah,
and that was my son's name that passed away, And
(19:39):
there was no fear there was no sadness. I didn't
even think about my wife or my other kids. It
was just I missed Noah so much that that's what
I was excited about. And after it was all said
and done and I wasn't hurt or wasn't killed, I
remember being so angry at that guy, not for me
(20:02):
having to kill him, but because he couldn't kill me.
Because that's how dark it was for me, as I
just missed my son so much that I was mad.
And that's when I really identified that I was in
a dark spot. I have a loving wife I have
at that time, I had four other kids that needed
(20:24):
me as a dad, but it was so dark that
all I cared about was seeing my son again. After
that shooting, they sent me they recommended that I speak
to the doctor again. He wasn't real responsive. He was
from LA and it was always changing his schedule and
(20:45):
it just didn't work really well. The last session I
had with him, he had to do it over phone,
and that's when he tells me, well, I think you
need to really think about what you're passionate about because
I don't ever see you going back into law enforcement,
which was like a dagger in my heart, because that's
all I really knew, that's all I was really good at.
(21:08):
And now this doctor's telling me, in the darkest time
of my life, that he's going to take something else
away from me. I went and I spoke to my
chief in desperation and said, this is not working. He
wants to retire me. And you know, at that time,
I wasn't even forty years old yet, and I said,
(21:28):
I don't know anything else. My chief and my captain,
who has now been promoted to my current chief, they
were good enough to say, you know, if you know
somebody or if you know a program, that you need
to reach out to do it and we'll make sure
that it gets covered paid for, whatever it may be.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
And that's when Mike McGrew, co founder, CEO and executive
director of nine to one one ADDIE's International, came into
the picture.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Mike McGrew had reached out to me. I don't know
how he knew our story. Mike retired from Santa Barbara
Peade as a sergeant, and Santa Barbara Peade was amazing.
When my son was sick and Santa Barbara they would
bring us food, they would have us called him if
we needed anything, and they would come and bring stuff
over while they were on duty. So they just really
(22:20):
took care of my son and my family and my wife.
My wife would spend sometime sixty days straight at the
hospital with Noah and Santa Barbara Peedi made it a
point to come by and check on us. So I'm
assuming that that's how Mike found out about me and
our story. I was in such a dark place. I
didn't even really register how I first made contact with
(22:44):
Mike or the add Ease program. But Mike had suggested
the ad EAS program and told me a little bit
about it, and I reached out to them, went and
spoke to doctor barb Barbara. She was great. I spent
probably two maybe three months going down there and seeing
her at least once a week. She was amazing. Mike
(23:07):
would come in and we would cry together, we would
pray together. He was just a huge support. And the
at East program was just it was so easy, it
was easy to use, it was easy to access. It
was definitely a life veest or a light turned on
in a very dark spot in my life.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Nine one one, ADDIE's International was exactly what Charles needed
to return to the career he loved so much.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
My goal was to get well enough to return to
the streets and be a police officer. I didn't know
what that looked like. Remember, I was going in having
already been told by a medical profess professional that I
needed to retire. So I wasn't trying to find someone
just to say, yeah, go back to work, we'll clear you,
(23:56):
because that's not what they do. I had to be
safe enough. I had to be secure enough. I had
to be established in my heart that I could do
the job again. And that's what the ADEAS program did,
is that it allowed me to work through what I
was dealing with to be able to have the confidence
to return to the streets. It's been five years or
(24:19):
four years since my son passed away. We're coming up
on November that it'll be five years the shooting, the
first shooting, and I'm successful in my job. I'm on
the sergeant's list. I've returned to work, and this is
something that I was told I would never be able
to do again. We've since adopted another daughter, and my
(24:42):
wife and I are strong and have a strong foundation.
I have a great relationship with my kids. I don't
have an alcohol abuse problem. I don't even drink, and
those are all pitfalls when someone goes through a critical
incidence that they do some self harm stuff, And through
the at Ease program, I was given the tools to
(25:03):
avoid such activity and to not be so self destructive.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
He now has the desire to help other young officers
deal with their own mental health problems.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
The culture of law enforcement is changing so much that
there's so much stress put on officers, and it seems
like it's changing every day. I've only been doing it
for almost sixteen years, and I never thought I would
get to the point where I would say, you know,
when I was a young officer, But unfortunately we're there,
so these critical incidences are going to happen. And I
(25:38):
tell the young guys that I have a chance to
mentor with. I tell them that if you've created a
thirty year career and you've been promoted every time, you've
got all the specialties, you've got, all the awards, you've got,
all the accolades that you could ever have as a
professional law enforcement. But when you pull into the driveway
your wife or your kids say to themselves, crap, Dad's home,
(26:02):
then you have failed in this career. Because when it's
all over, the only thing that you're going to have
is your family, and you owe it to yourself and
you owe it to them to take care of your
mental health. There is such a stigma about mental health
and law enforcement. I cannot say enough good things about
(26:23):
the at Ease program. I know without a doubt if
I were to get in another critical incident, that my
first outreach would be to someone at the at Ease program.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
And a great job is always by faith on the
production of the piece and a special thanks to Officer
Charles Scott with opening up. It's hard for cops and
first responders to talk about themselves and their problems. They're
too busy taking care of others. And that there's a
place like nine to one to one ed Ees International
there to help all the first responders. And again the
confidentiality is the key, and you can learn more about
(27:02):
nine one one at He's International by going to nine
one one a EI dot Org. I love what he
said about them and allowed me to get the confidence
to go back to work, to go back to the
streets to the job. I loved Charles Scott's story here
on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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