HF's first complaint

After reading Sandra's post, Today's Would-Be Hostage, I was reminded of a recent incident involving HF. A few weeks ago, HF and his partner heard gun shots in the area they were in. They moved towards them and HF deployed his AR-15. It was 0030 hrs (I asked HF what the military time for 12:30 am was. I didn't actually know it. I just wanted to sound cool). Anyway, the shots came from an apartment complex and HF and his partner began searching for the gunman. HF was wearing his rifle across his body ("on sling") with his finger off the trigger. As they were clearing the area, they would tell people to go back inside if they came wandering out. It was relatively quiet because of the time of night. Everyone complied and no one seemed to know where the shots had come from exactly, but it was nearby.

A girl came out and HF identified himself and told her what they were doing and to go back inside. She said, "who are you?" He identified himself again. She said, "Are you supposed to be a police officer?" Are you kidding me?!

This is where it got ridiculous. She was demanding to see identification, arguing with him and asking over and over why she needed to go back inside, etc. HF didn't have time for this, but more forcefully made her go back inside to which she yelled, "Fine!"

After HF left, she called 911 to see if he was really a cop. She ended up filing a complaint and wanted to meet with the chief. At first we didn't know what on earth she had to complain about. Turns out she didn't think he was a cop because she had never seen a cop with a rifle before and it threw her off. She didn't think that cops should have rifles. I think it's fine if you want to call 911 and verify a situation, but go back inside! Even if he was a fake cop, wouldn't it be wise to go back inside? I always knew that there were "special" people milling about the city, but ever since HF became a cop, I now know there really are lots of "special" people milling about. More than I could have imagined. The chief backs HF up 100%. He said it was appropriate that he pull out the rifle and that he would've done the same thing in that situation. Oh, and she didn't like that he was mean to her (after repeated attempts to have her go inside and her not complying).

HF has already qualified with his AR-15, but yesterday, he had an unexpected test. He thought he was just going to shoot at the range, but when he got there, they had him do various obstacles while shooting his rifle. One officer attacked him, punching and kicking, to see if he could still shoot at a target. He said that he didn't miss one target. He at least hit the blue area.

HF also has his first court appearance this week to testify for a criminal case. He's a little nervous about that since he hasn't done it yet. Only practice scenarios in the academy.

In other "firsts" news, our 1 year old took his first official steps this week.