StoryInsightful

This Was His First Call as a Cop 😔

Shawn Ryan Show

A police officer recounts his traumatic first day on the job, where his initial call involved discovering a missing child who had died by suicide in the basement. His field training officer ordered him, despite being a trainee, to inform the devastated mother of her son's death—an experience that left a lasting psychological impact.

Summary

The officer describes receiving a missing persons call at 7:30 AM on his first day as a police officer. He notes that missing children calls are common and often resolve with children simply hiding to avoid school. Upon arriving at the house, he finds the mother in severe distress. After searching the main floors, he opens the basement door and discovers a child who has hanged himself using an extension cord tied to a water pipe. Despite being in training and supposed to only observe, his field training officer instructs him to deliver the news of the child's death to the mother. The officer goes upstairs and informs the mother that her son is deceased and located in the basement. He describes the mother's reaction as an anguished scream that he continues to hear every night, and reflects on witnessing what he perceives as her soul leaving her body in that moment of devastating grief.

Key Insights

  • The officer notes that missing children calls are routine and often result in children simply hiding in closets or running away to avoid school rather than being genuinely missing
  • The field training officer assigned the task of informing the mother to the trainee officer despite him being on day one and explicitly not supposed to be doing anything but observing
  • The officer discovered the child had used an extension cord tied to a water pipe as a method of suicide while the child was suspended approximately one and a half feet off the ground
  • The mother's scream upon learning of her son's death was so impactful that the officer states he still hears it every night years later
  • The officer describes witnessing the mother's emotional collapse as watching her soul leave her body—a metaphorical expression of the severity of her trauma

Topics

First day as a police officerMissing child caseChild suicide discoveryTrauma and psychological impactField training officer negligenceDelivering death notification to family

Transcript

[0:00] 7:30 in the morning, my first call. Missing kids, [music] they come up all the time. A lot of them are just hiding in closets, don't want to go to school, they're not actually missing, they're just running away. We get there, and the mother is just really like distressed. I don't know what she's supposed to look like, it's my first call ever. She's like, "I can't find my son, I don't know where he's at." Searched the whole house, I just haven't looked in the basement. I'm like, "All right, ma'am, we'll we'll search the house again." Searched the whole house, nothing. Open up the basement door, sort of walking down the steps, I see [music] two…

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