Only in Bell County

Brian came home with a VERY interesting story and I wanted him to share! He is my first guest blogger! Enjoy! -laura

Well, it was the best of times... it was the worst of times... ha, ha... always wanted to start a strange but true story like that. In all seriousness, truth is often stranger than fiction.....

So I am headed home from Mahomet cruising down 2484... its a dark and stormy night... well actually, it had been a dark and storm night... now its just dark. I am enjoying the moon in my rear view mirror, mindless 80's music on XM, and thinking it's just a good day all around.... when out of nowhere, someone on the other side of the road on the shoulder starts flashing their headlights at me. I slow down and ask whats wrong. They reply, "there is a guy laying in the road up ahead!" I say "Okay", toss my flashers and brights on and slowly advance.

Sure enough, there is a guy laying in a pool of blood on the road. Two ladies are standing in awe, and a cowboy is checking things over. I hop out thinking this guy just shot himself in the middle of the road. Hell of a bad place for a suicide, but a surefire way to make sure you get found. Then I realize I am glad those folks flashed their lights at me, or I might have added to the disaster or wrecked my truck trying to avoid all of the fools standing in BOTH lanes of traffic. Having a moment of lucidity I suggested, "Hey you all might want to stand in just ONE lane of traffic." Realize the sanity of that idea, like a herd of wild cats, they all congregated around the body....

I guess I should tell you about the guy laying on the road with a pool of blood which by now looks like its stopped flowing from his head. He was a late middle aged man, wearing a white straw cowboy hat, well worn wranglers, and boots pulled over the legs of the jeans that had definitely seen better days. Under him his cell phone and a pair of glasses lay on the pavement. I didn't see a gun, so I decided that he must have been hit by a car, but wondered how on earth he got to the middle of nowhere. Believe it or not, I even started looking around to see if maybe he had been thrown off of a horse and landed in the road. Yes, this is Texas, and yes, people do ride horses in the right of way... anyway, no horse found I.

It was about this time that I realize this guy isn't dead. He starts moving a bit. Good sign, right? So wonderful Boy Scout first aid training kicks in juxtaposed with the realization that there is a LOT of blood on this guy's head, clothes and ground and I have no surgical gloves. We start trying to get him to lay still without getting blood all over us while another cowboy (I'll call him cowboy) is trying to explain exactly where on 2484 we are on his cell phone. The description involved things like, "you go past the high tension wires..." and things like that... I think to myself, "This is not going to be good if we all get run over by the cops or the EMT's trying to find us out here!"

Have you ever really wondered exactly how long it takes for EMS, sheriff, fire or anyone else to get to you when you have a problem??? Well if you live in the middle of nowhere off of 2484 between Youngsport and Salado, its too long in my opinion. If you have a heart attack you might be toast. It is at this point I realize why we have medivac choppers in Bell county. If you waited to be found AND carted off to the hospital, you just might not make it. Hats off to the guys who fly those choppers... anyway, back to the story.

In the meantime, the guy laying on the road has gotten up to his knees, and is then standing. This guy looks like he has been run over by a truck...LITERALLY. He is not in good shape, and the cowboy and I plead with him to sit back down. Thinking I need to build raport with this guy, and see how bad his head injury is, I decide to strike up a conversation. The cowboy standing with me is not exactly a man of many words, so it's up to me. I ask the guy from the road, what his name is. He replies and asks "and who the hell are you?" I tell him my name is Brian. He repeatedly tells us, "You didn't call the lawdogs did you??? No good comes from them... I'm sort of an outlaw you know." I try not to laugh, mainly worried that he'll take a swing at me for it and miss and I'll get covered in blood catching him before he hits the pavement a second time. I ask the cowboy if this was his place we were in front of and before he can answer the guy from the road says, "are you the law???" I tell him no. He says, "then why the hell do you want to know who's place this is." I tell him I am just trying to make conversation. Next the guy from the road informs me in as dignified of a manner as a man can have who looks like he has just been run over with a pretty severely bleeding head wound, "I break horses for a living!" I start thinking that maybe I should look again and see if there is a horse up the road a little further and that he in fact did fall off of a horse.

He asks, "Do you break horses??" I tell him, "No." Then he tells me, "Well shut the f*$& up you don't know what you are talking about!!!!!" I tried not to smile and told him, " well when it comes to breaking horses you just might be right on that one." The other cowboy tries not to laugh at that point... He then asks, "Well just what the HELL do you do???" I tell him, "I'm not the law, I'm just a guy who works a forty hour week to put food on the table for his family..." I didn't think telling him I was a construction litigator would really help the situation...

So the first law enforcement officer ("LEO") arrives on the scene. I walk over while cowboy is tending to the guy with the head wound. The sherrif's deputy ("LEO #1") hops out of his impala with every gumball light known to man spinning and maglight at the ready and asks "Where is the body?" I turn around back to where the guy was and said, "Well, that's him climbing over the gate..." LEO#1 is slightly shocked, this dead body is now a potential running fugitive wanted for who knows what. It wasn't quite like COPS make chases out to be on TV, but a foot race ensued out through the trees....

Cowboy and I stand at the gate and we have not a lot to do but wait. It's dark, cloudy and no stars out tonight. Just the lonesome moon peaking through the clouds watching all of this. By now most everyone else has left but me and cowboy. Another set of blinking lights comes hauling over the hill from the West. Two volunteer/off-duty EMT's show up. I walk over to them and they ask, "Where is the body?" I start wondering if the radio call went out..."psssssss . all units, dead body in road on 2484, its been a slow night so HURRY!" I tell them, "The body is up and running with a head wound and being chased by the sherrif on the other side of the gate." They look at me sort of as if to say, "I wonder how much YOU have had tonight."

Well either curiosity or the true desire to helps get the best of one of the EMTs and he heads off to follow the chase. I still can't see anything and cowboy is pretty torn up about the whole deal. At this point I find out that cowboy knows the guy with the head wound. I honestly thought cowboy was going to lose it then and there. The other EMT is somewhere down the fence line trying to get a better view of the chase and capture.

About this time, LEO#1 got his man and I notice his arms seem a bit constrained. I am not exactly sure what happened in those woods, only the moon and those two guys know for sure, but LEO#1 is not happy. He walks the guy into the bar ditch (another technical term we from Texas use) and instructs him something to the effect of, "Sit you ass down on the culvert or you will have a lot more problems than that headwound."

At this point, another sheriff shows up, along with the Salado police, and three DPS officers. By this time we have the makings of a great story, or at least the most interesting thing that has happened tonight. I ask another one of the LEO's (we can call him LEO #4) if tonight had been a slow night. He replies, "Yeah it had been slow until THIS!!!!"

The ambulance shows up and they mention that the chopper has left the pad. I start wondering exactly how long does it take a chopper to get from somewhere else, say Scott and White or the temple airport maybe, to the middle of nowhere between Youngsport and Salado on 2484 just past the high tension wire as cowboy said. An interesting debate ensues whether to let the helicopter come get this guy in handcuffs, or to waive off the chopper and drive him to the hospital. Either economy or reason wins out and they decide to drive the guy to the hospital. By this time they have determined that the guy with the head wound is majorly intoxicated. I could have told them that, but they never asked. The smell of beer in the road next to the pool of blood was a good hint.

So, as with all good crime stories, the investigation begins. LEO#1... I'll just call him LEO from here on out, asks me and cowboy if either of us saw what happened. We say no. Cowboy says he walked down when he saw all of the lights, and I go through the same story, "I was flashed down, slowed down to see what the deal was...they said there was a guy in the road....I turned on my flashers and brights, drove ahead and sure enough there was a guy in the road. Cowboy called the accident in and i started directing traffic. you (LEO#1) showed up and I turned around and the guy was making a run for it..."

LEO asks, "Well do you know why he was running?" I wanted to be a smart-ass for a second, but law school kicked in and I answered with a resounding, "I have no idea, he didn't seem too pleased that the cops were coming as he seems a bit afraid of you guys." LEO asks for my drivers license. I open my wallet and show him my Concealed Handgun License because it is on top and has all the same info. He asks me to take my license out of my wallet.... because he has bad eyes. Did he really just tell me he has bad eyesight??? Yes, he did. I quickly accommodate his request. He asks all the usual stuff, then tells me he isn't going to run MY information - like I did anything wrong- and I am sure not the source of the beer we all smell. He asks where do work and what do I do... I tell him, "I work for myself, I am an attorney but I don't do criminal law." He raises his eyebrows like he is trying to decide whether I am a snake about to bite, or maybe he's relieved that I am not a criminal defense lawyer who will start yelling the evidence from the scene have been compromised. All the time the EMT's, now there are like four or five of them, are working away on the guy with the head wound. Head wounds on the side of the road are not nearly as spectacular as the show ER makes them out to be. Never really liked that show anyway...

So investigation completed, I ask LEO if I can be released from the scene once I can get my truck out from between the gurney, the plethora of cop cars, and the ambulance and get a resounding "NO, DPS may want to talk with you as well." Cowboy is still there off to my left as I lean against the tailgate of my truck and start thinking, "This may take awhile...wish the chopper was coming to get this guy on his way...I sort of think it would be cool to see a helicopter get this guy out of here in a hurry..."

All of the DPS officers and and LEO are out surveying the pool of blood, the alcohol smell in the road and a new found set of skid marks. DPS makes a quick assessment, "Either somebody hit him, somebody swerved to miss him, or he fell out of a vehicle." One of the DPS officers said he saw some trucks up the road and asks the lead officer if he should go see if they are still there. I think to myself, "What moron shoves his buddy, or his not-so-buddy, out into the road then hangs out up the road AFTER seeing DPS hauling butt by just to let DPS catch you 20 minutes later????" I think that is a losing idea, and I guess so does the lead DPS officer because he just says, "No, no need to chase down the trucks up the road." It's about this point where LEO asks cowboy how many he has had to drink, and he answers (and I quote) "i refused to answer..." All the officers just shake their heads. Now I realize that may be why cowboy didn't talk much, he really couldn't talk.

The army of EMT's now wants the handcuffs off the guy with the head wound. They get him to sit on a backboard they have laid on the gurney. The guy says, "I don't want on that #*#$!" and "I don't need #*$&^!" They get him to lay down and begin strapping him to the back board. I realize that's a pretty smart idea, as they don't want him getting up and trying to get out of the ambulance. Being strapped to that is a lot worse than being in handcuffs in my estimation. So they wheel him off to the ambulance.

Now I get to chat with DPS. The lead officer, and I have no idea what his name is, asks me what I saw. I tell him, "I was flashed down, slowed down to see what the deal was. They said there was a guy in the road. I turned on my flashers and brights, drove ahead and sure enough there was a guy in the road. Cowboy called the accident in and I started directing traffic. LEO#1 showed up and I turned around and the guy was making a run for it." DPS asks, "Well, do you know why he was running?" I roll my eyes in my mind and say, "No... I am just glad I didn't run over him, or kill myself trying to miss him." We talk a bit more and the younger DPS officer comes back. He tells the senior officer and me "The guy in the ambulance just said his buddies and him got into a fight and someone pushed him out of a green Chevrolet truck as it was going down the road." Looks like the senior DPS officer called this one. I wonder to myself just how many times has he seen this before. The young DPS officer turns to cowboy, and asks if he knows anyone who drives a green Chevrolet truck. Cowboy says, "Yeah I do........ there is one parked in my driveway." The senior DPS officer looks at me and says, "Son you are free to go."

I leave wondering if Cowboy spent the night in jail. Only the moon knows for sure, well and all the officers I guess.