Busy First Night

Thursday was my first night with my new squad. I started off the day by sitting in the wrong seat during briefing (this was random with my training squad but apparently not with my new squad). I don't know anyone in this group yet so it was like being a new hire all over again.
Everyone in this squad has a nickname (like the pilots in 'Top Gun') and I was told I would have one 'given' to me by the end of the week. There are no "Mavericks" or "Icemans" but we do have a "Malibu", "Squirrel", and "Radio" to name a few.

I rode with Malibu in order to learn my new area. Our first call was a suicide by a 26 year old woman who swallowed several bottles of pills. She was on her way to the hospital when I arrived and I was quickly assigned to 'protecting the scene' to ensure no evidence was contaminated. She lived in a non-air conditioned room attached to the back of the house. I stood guard over a bloody pool of vomit on the floor where she was found by her fiance. I don't know what kind of illness/injury she had but there were dozens of empty bottles of pain killers around the room. Her driver license picture reminded me of a college sorority girl rather than a suicide victim (apparently this was not the first attempt).

Next up: 74 year-old man smashes out car windows with hammer! That's right, someone parked a Chevy blazer on his rental property without his permission. After learning it did not belong to any of his tenants, he tried to have it towed but was unable to find a company to do it without a tow contract for his property. So he decided to take matters into his own hand. Several witnesses he smashed seven windows and the windshield.

Here was our conversation after I read him his miranda rights:
me: Why did you smash the windows?
old man: I was trying to get into the vehicle to see if I could drive it off my property.

me: Where you going to crawl through the broken windshield into the car?
old man: That may have been an oversight on my part.

me: Why did you smash seven windows?
old man: I smashed the drivers window but the door lock was broken (lie) so then I smashed the passenger window. I think I only smashed two windows.

me: What about the other five windows -why did you smash them?
old man: I think those five were already broken.

me: Then why didn't you try to open a door through one of the five 'already broken' windows?
old man: I didn't think about doing that.

me: Is it possible you smashed all seven windows out of anger and that you're lying to me about the reason?
old man: How much of this am I supposed to tell you?
me: You can tell me anything you want.
old man: Maybe I better stop talking now.

He was arrested for a class 5 felony of criminal damage and booked into the county jail. He didn't understand why he didn't have the right to destroy a vehicle left on his property.

At dusk, a driver hit a pedestrian at 16th St and Indian School. The pedestrian was crossing the street to the bus stop (outside the crosswalk). He later died at the hospital.
At the same time, a driver was killed in a collision near 19th Ave and Bethany Home. Preliminary findings were that he was not wearing a seatbelt.

Towards the end of the night I discovered that there was nobody on my new squad qualified to operate a camera (for crime scene photographs). I just happened to get certified as a camera operator during my training phase when my trainer brought me along to his scheduled certification class. All of a sudden I'm the new camera man for my squad. My sergeant called me "Kodak" and it quickly caught on with some of my squadmates. It looks like I don't have to wait a week to get a nickname. It's not as good as "Goose" or "Jester" like in Top Gun but I guess it'll do.