Chapter 29
“Then I yelled at him to drop his weapon,” I said. I was at the Seattle Criminal Justice building, almost two hours into explaining to a group of three police captains plus Harold Ohlmer and Denise Free from the King County DA’s office exactly what had happened, starting with our initial efforts to locate Isabel and culminating with the shooting.
“And you had your gun out at the time?” Police Captain Scott Cristello asked.
“I did,” I answered. “I was at low ready.”
“Safety?”
“Safety was on,” I said.
He nodded.
“Then?” Harold asked.
“He didn’t do it-he didn’t drop his weapon. He did turn and look at me. But then, while he was still looking at me, he started to raise his pistol in the direction of Lieutenant Stewart and Detective Allison. He was already in the street-only twenty feet or so from their car. He’d already fired at them at least twice in addition to the shots he’d fired at me. I thought there was a very high probability that he was going to turn back to them, take aim, and open fire. I’m certain he would have hit them this time since their car was stopped and so close. So after he refused to drop his weapon and instead, started raising it to fire at the officers, I fired a single round at him.”
“Before you fired, were you able to see Lieutenant Stewart and Detective Allison?” Ohlmer asked.
I thought for a second, and then I nodded and gestured with my hand. “Yes. They were in front of me, a little off to my right.”
“Did you wonder why they weren’t returning fire?”
I tried to remember back. “I wondered if Lieutenant Stewart had been hit. I didn’t know if that’s why she drove into the tree. I saw them sitting in the vehicle, and I saw that they weren’t moving or firing back. But it happened fast. It was all over in a matter of just a few seconds.”
He nodded.
“And you believed Martin could hit them from his distance?”
I nodded. “Absolutely. Like I said, he was twenty-maybe twenty-five feet away. That’s a pretty easy shot. He’d just fired a shot at me from more than one hundred feet, and he blew out the mirror on my Jeep, two feet from where I was standing. That was a hard shot, and he damn near hit me, so I figured the man had good gun control. From twenty feet, he’d have most probably been deadly.”
It was quiet for several seconds as they flipped through their notes, trying to tie off any loose ends. Finally, David said, “We’ve been at this for nearly two hours now, and the questions are starting to get a little repetitive. Do you folks have any further questions of Mr. Logan?”
“Yeah,” Captain Cristello said. “Where the hell’d you learn to shoot like that?”
I smiled. “U.S. Army.”
He nodded. “Good.”
“Alright, then,” Ohlmer said. He turned and looked at his associate.
“Denise? Do you have anything else?”
She shook her head. “I don’t. I think we’ve got everything covered.”
“Okay then,” Ohlmer said. “Let me wrap things up. Based on what I’ve heard, there seems to be little question that the shooting was justifiable. There seem to be about nine witnesses-police officers-who corroborate your testimony. Accordingly, based on what we know now, I can say that, pending the results of our final report, the district attorney’s office will neither be referring this matter to a grand jury, nor will we be filing charges on our own. When the complete investigation is wrapped up, we’ll make our decision formal. Until then, do us all a favor and please keep this conversation confidential.”
I nodded. I never expected to be charged for anything, but it was still a relief to hear it from Harold.
“Thank you, Harold,” David said. “Are we free to go, then?”
“You are,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Thank you,” he said. “And Danny,” he said, turning to look at me. “Thank you.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely, thank you,” Cristello said. “I’m pretty certain it’s safe to say that if you hadn’t been where you were, we’d probably have two dead officers on our hands. The department owes you for this.”
I smiled. “No problem,” I said. I shook hands with each of them, and David and I left.
As we began to walk down the hallway to the lobby, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned and saw that it was Cristello.
“You okay, Danny?” he asked. “Is it alright if I call you Danny?”
I nodded. “Yeah,” I said. “And, yeah, I’m okay. Thanks for asking, though.”
He nodded. “Just checking. I know it can be rough when you have to shoot someone.”
I looked at him carefully. “You?” I asked.
“Yeah, 2004. Kid with a gun. Messed me up for a couple of months. But we’ve got some good people you can talk to if you need it. I sure as hell did.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I appreciate it. Give me a card, Captain. If it gets to a point where I think I need to, I’ll give you a call and get a number.”
“Good deal,” he said. He handed me a business card.
“You take care of yourself,” he said. Then he turned around and walked the other way.
“I’m proud of you, son,” David said as we watched Cristello leave. “You did a good thing today. You’re a fine young man.” He thought for a second, and then he chuckled and added. “If all my clients were like you, I’d probably be out of a job.”
We reached the fifth floor lobby and found several police officers, including Dwayne and Gus, waiting to meet me. Dwayne shook my hand.
“Well done, Danny,” he said. “Good job.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
“I know you, and I know you’re going to go all humble on us here, but you made a damn tough shot under very difficult circumstances and in so doing, you almost certainly saved the lives of two friends of mine. So thank you.”
“That goes for me, too,” Gus said.
“Me, too.” Said another officer. The other officers present all agreed.
I smiled and nodded. “Thanks,” I said.
“We talked it over,” Gus continued. “We decided that in a show of appreciation, we’re going to go ahead and waive one of the lunches you owe us.”
I smiled. “Gee, really?” I said. “That’s touching.”
“Well, hold on,” he added, “before you get all blubbery on us, the lunch we’re waiving-it’s got to be one of the ones where it was your turn to pick. Not one of those where we get to pick,” he looked at Dwayne. “Isn’t that right.”
Dwayne nodded. “That’s it.”
