Nemesis Part 2

I was seething with anger as I returned to Columbus and began regular patrol of my little town hoping Alberto would return. Losing Alberto in the manner I lost him seemed to me like he won the battle and I was not going to let him win if I could help it. Being alone as a police officer takes a strong, bullheaded mindset to succeed.

When you have the fortune of having others police officers like yourself around you for support it is much easier, because you have their moral support when things became rough. I did not have this luxury, it was just me against seasoned, hardened drug smugglers who only repected force, and so I could not afford leniency or quarter in my efforts against them. I had to win every time or they would either run me off at the very least, or kill me and my family, an option I would not allow.

About an hour after returning to Columbus from the Port of Entry I received a call from Customs advising me that Alberto crossed from Mexico back into the United States and that I he was traveling north with two of his friends in a pickup. Shift change had happened for the Border Patrol unts in the area, and so I contacted the two on coming Border Patrolmen and asked them to back me up while I chased Alberto down. The two young eager Border Patrolmen were just fresh off of new hire probation and just recently graduated from the Border Patrol Academy and they were itching to become involved in a fight. It would happen in spades this night.

I spotted the vehicle carying Alberto speed into town and then stop in front of the home of Alberto's mother and two men and Alberto left the pickup and ran inside. The Border Patrolmen and I were just a few seconds behind them and so I directed them to stand guard with their shotguns and keep anyone from interfering with me arresting Alberto off of my back. We walked up to the front of Alberto's mother's house and I began knocking on the front door rather loudly. Eventually one of Alberto's surly brothers came to the door and asked me what I wanted. I told him to contact his brother and tell him that if he didn't come to the door I was going to arrest his mother, and any other adult in the house for harboring a felon.

The brother ran screaming back into the house and this seemed to cause pandemonium amoung the occupants. Alberto's mother began screaming at him to leave her house, and berating him for bringing more problems into their lives, etc.etc., and so after about fifteen minutes of intense screaming between Alberto and his mother and every other adult in the house, out came Alberto. During all of this my two loyal Border Patrolmen stayed right with me and when Alberto came to the front door I knew he was not going to be arrested without a fight.

I was standing in front of the screen door on the front porch of the house and Alberto slammed through it running at me, but seeing what he was attempting to do I backed away so the door didn't contact me and Alberto slammed into to me full force. I rolled away from him as he struck me and let his weight continue forward and then I followed him to the ground landing on his back. Before he could recover I had him in handcuffs and under control. When the fight between Alberto and I started it seemed that bad guys began arriving at the Parra home from throughout town. Several of Alberto's henchmen arrived and tried to bull their way towards me and Alberto, but the Border Patrolmen kept order and kept the additional people off of my back long enough for me to place Alberto in my car and properly restrained this time.

The Border Patrolmen and I left the house together and I asked them to patrol the area around my house and protect my family while I took Alberto to jail and booked him in the county seat, Deming, New Mexico 40 miles north of Columbus. The rest of the night went well and the fight was out of Alberto.

I booked him successfully on charges of escape from custody and battery on a peace officer and returned to Columbus. Upon my arrival back in Columbus I found the Border Patrolmen guarding my family asleep in our home, I couldn't thank them enough for their assistance that night. When I look back at the risks I took doing the things that I did in Columbus, I can't help but shudder and wonder how I made it through the experience alive, or even worse how how my family made it through it. Perhaps what I did was foolish, but when I look at my children and see how strong and how grounded they are in their lives, I realize that the adversity they have overcome has made them strong.