Police Story

Mike was a young police rookie. He had recently gone to work for the Ada County Sheriff’s Dept. in Boise, Idaho about eight months before. He had just turned 23 on his last birthday. He worked in the county jail for a few months and then about three months before, he had been transferred out of the jail and into a patrol car. His on-the-job training consisted of riding with a training officer until he was ready to work on his own.

It was a hot, summer day in 1965 in Boise and Mike was patrolling around the county on his area assignment. Suddenly, the radio came on with the desk officer calling his patrol number. “2213, Sheriff’s office.” Mike responded with, “2213, go ahead.” Sgt. Dicus instructed Mike to go immediately to a phone and call in to the office. Mike was close to the Seven Mile Tavern and so he pulled in and called the office on the phone there.

Sgt. Dicus informed him that he was to meet Chief Deputy Dave Rowe at the intersection of Five Mile Road and Overland Road. Dicus told him that there was a man in a house at an address on Five Mile Road that had beaten up his wife and threw her out of the house. She was currently at a neighbor’s calling the Sheriff’s Office. It seems the woman and her husband were getting a divorce and he was pretty violent and she had a restraining order to keep him away. He was in violation of the restraining order.

Mike immediately went to the intersection and found the Chief waiting for him. They went to the residence. Mike drove in front and the Chief behind. Upon arriving, Mike pulled his car past the house and parked in the neighbor’s driveway. Chief Rowe parked in front of the house. Immediately, before either of them could even get out of their cars, a man came out on the front porch of the house. He had a rifle in his hands and he pulled it to his shoulder and took aim at Chief Rowe. Rowe was trapped in his car and obviously felt it best to stay there for the moment as the door afforded some protection. Mike realized that the man, who they later learned was named L. Bertasso, had not seen him yet. To see Mike, all Bertasso had to do was turn his head to the left but he was too engrossed in making threats and swearing at Chief Rowe. Mike quickly got his shotgun from its mount on the dash of the car. He quietly got out of his car and silently let the door go closed. The shotgun was a 12 gauge police gun. It was loaded with five shells of double OO buckshot. This is like having nine .22 shells go off at the same time.

At this point, Bertasso whirled and went back inside the house. While he was in the house Mike worked the shotgun action and put a shell into the chamber. Also, Chief Rowe got out of his car with the 30-30 Winchester Carbine that he favored. Rowe got on the far side of his car.

Bertasso came back out onto the porch and again began to holler threats and swear at Rowe. Mike began to silently walk toward Bertasso. When he was about ten feet away he spoke up and said, “Ok, drop your rifle.” Bertasso looked over and for the first time saw Mike. Instead of obeying the command he pulled his rifle up and aimed it right at Mike. At this point the young officer pulled his shotgun to his shoulder and took aim at the center of Bertasso’s chest. He began to pull on the trigger and he took up the slack that all triggers have and was just putting the final pressure on to fire the gun. All this took place in a split second. Chief Rowe could see that someone was going to get shot and he yelled out as loud as he could at Bertasso while moving from behind his car to a spot on the sidewalk which was closer to the action. When Rowe screamed at him Bertasso whirled and went back into the house. There is no doubt that this action by Bertasso saved his life as Mike’s shotgun would have fired at any millisecond.

Bertasso came right back out and again lifted his rifle and aimed it at Mike. Again Mike took aim at Bertasso’s chest and began to squeeze the trigger. In less than a second Mike’s gun would have fired and Bertasso would have received nine .22 sized shots in the chest backed up by a huge load of gunpowder. He would have been killed for sure.

Rowe yelled once again and this caused Bertasso to lower his rifle and turn his attention back toward Rowe. Mike took this opportunity to quickly pull out his can of aerosol mace spray from its holster on his belt. He stepped up and sprayed this tear gas agent into Bertasso’s face. The effects of being sprayed in the face with this powerful chemical usually took anyone right off their feet. Bertasso went down but it did not blind him. He took his rifle by the barrel and began to swing it like a ball bat in Mike’s direction. Bertasso was up on a three step, concrete porch and Mike was able to step up under his wild swings and give him a very stiff, horizontal butt stroke along the left side of his head with the shotgun. When this happened, Bertasso staggered backwards and threw both arms in the air. Mike grabbed his rifle as Bertasso went off the porch and landed on his back in the flower beds. He was dazed and the fight was gone from him. Chief Rowe quickly jumped on Bertasso and had him hand-cuffed before he could do anything else.

The situation was over. Rowe loaded Bertasso in his car and Mike took the rifle and they both drove in to the Sheriff’s Office.

In his years as a policeman this was the closest to shooting anyone that Mike ever experienced. There were other pretty exciting events during those years but those are stories for another time. Mike went on to become a nominee for Policeman of Year in 1967 in the Boise area. He had dinner with the governor of the state along with a few fellow officers.

Mike quit law enforcement a few years after to become a school teacher – a decision he has never regretted. Over the years, Mike has often thought about how close he came to killing another human being during this incident. He has always been grateful that his gun did not fire. He credits the Lord with this and knows he was spared that day many years ago from taking another person’s life.

Written by Mike Hicks