On July 6, a well respected citizen and community role model finally became fed up with the drug dealers in his neighborhood.  After being victimized over the years and continuing to do the right thing within the community he gave up the fight and retaliated.  His vehicle was damaged by vandalism as a result of him continuously reporting criminal activity.  The victim observed the suspects return to his vehicle and in anger he displayed a handgun.  In an act of desperate hopelessness and frustration he proceeded to shoot one of the suspects in the back killing him.  This 77 year old, model citizen, with not so much as a parking ticket his entire life was now a murder suspect.  In addition to being elderly, he had poor vision and hearing and now anticipated retaliation from the neighborhood gangs. Investigators spend days attempting to get the 77 year old suspect to cooperate and confess without any quality results.  When all other methods of gaining cooperation were exhausted a warrant for the target location was obtained and entry was made by SWAT.  After a successful breach the elderly suspect came down the second floor steps with a pistol in his hand.  Any experienced SWAT officer will tell you that applying deadly force if it is clearly justified is easy, that’s what we train to do.  What requires years of experience and sound judgment is not taking that shot, just because it can be justified.  On that day team experience prevailed and this man’s life was in our hands.  After the armed deaf and near blind man greeted us with the pistol in his hand his demeanor and body language were such that his life was spared.  He was professionally taken into custody.  There is no replacement for experienced decision making.  Like our team that day Danner is no rookie boot maker, make no mistake about it!  The boots that Danner builds are based on the needs of the experienced professionals who rely on them!

Dan Rose
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