Injured deputy recalls shooting incident

By BARBARA ALLEN World Staff Writer
5/3/1998

Randy Pierce remembers everything that happened to him Friday.

The Tulsa County Sheriff's deputy closed his eyes in his hospital bed Saturday, remembering the rotten stench of the house he entered the day before, the looming piles of junk in the dark interior of the home.

He remembered a shadowy figure across the room, holding a gun.

"I said `Put-' " Pierce said. "I was going to say, `Put it down, put the gun down,' but that's all I got out."

Pierce, 36, was shot four times while trying to take a man into custody for a mental evaluation, officials said. He was hit in both arms, but a bulletproof vest shielded his chest from two other shots that doctors said would have killed him.

Arms wrapped in gauze, Pierce, who has been with the Sheriff's Office for five years, spoke to the Tulsa World from his hospital bed at Tulsa Regional Medical Center. He was listed in good condition Saturday, a hospital spokesman said.

Authorities took 71-year-old Darrow Manning Ford into custody after a 2 1/2-hour standoff with police Friday. Ford is being held in the Tulsa Jail on a complaint of shooting with intent to kill. He has no prior record,

police said.

The shooting and standoff happened at 5645 W. 25th St. about 4:15 p.m., when Pierce, two other county lawmen and authorities from the Mobile Outreach Crisis Unit tried to serve a mental-health warrant to Ford. They were there to take Ford to Parkside hospital for a mental evaluation.

Pierce was designated to enter the house first, but the man inside would not open the door, so the lawmen ended up kicking the door down, he said.

Pierce then recalled how he was overwhelmed by the terrible smell inside the house.

"The smell really knocked us out of our focus for a second," Pierce said. "The house just stunk real bad."

It was then that Pierce noticed the man standing across the room and tried to tell him to put his gun down.

Pierce said he remembers three or four shots, and that he couldn't get his arms to move -- there were bullets in both of them.

"I could see the muzzle flash," he said. "It was like we were in total control, but I couldn't move anything."

One of the shots to his chest knocked Pierce out of the house.

"It was like a mule kicked me," he said. "It was just like slow motion. I just couldn't believe he shot me."

Officials said the gun that was used to shoot Pierce was a .45-caliber handgun.

Pierce said the two other county lawmen there -- Deputy Garland Thompson and Cpl. Kyle Hess -- were quick and calm, and kept the situation from getting worse.

Thompson dragged Pierce away from the house and used his own body to block Pierce's from more shots that might have come. Thompson then dragged him to a safe area, Pierce said, putting pressure on the ruptured artery.

Deputies and Tulsa police officers evacuated about a dozen homes in the area and called in TPD's Special Operations Team to get Ford out of his house.

Ford walked out of the house unarmed about 6:45 p.m., after police negotiators talked to him over a loud speaker, officials said.

Officials and doctors agreed that the Kevlar bulletproof vest Pierce was wearing saved his life. Credit for that goes to his 5-year-old daughter, Taylor.

"I was getting dressed, and she's never done this before, but she went into another room and got it," he said. "It saved my life."

He said he wears it on occasion, depending on what his schedule entails for the day.

Pierce underwent surgery Friday to repair an artery in a fractured arm, hospital officials said. He will undergo another surgery later this week to remove a bullet lodged in his shoulder.

Family members showed off the chest bruises under Pierce's white hospital gown, pink splotches where bullets had been stopped by his vest.

Pierce is one of four brothers in Tulsa law enforcement. Chris is a retention officer at the jail, Ed is a sergeant for the Tulsa Police Department and Donnie is a canine patrol officer.

Family members said Pierce is the only brother ever to be hurt in the line of duty, and that hasn't deterred him -- Pierce said he wants to go back to work.

"You bet," he said. "I'd do it right now if my arms didn't hurt."