When seconds count

You won’t see the name of John Paul Devilier beside those of the custodial dead, whose final moments are the subject of debate and rancor, now that the nation has recognized that police-related shootings need to be thoroughly investigated and that procedures sometimes need to be reviewed.

Because in this case the bad guy won, because the good guy brought ethics and principle and the rules of the road to a gunfight.

The 58-year-old Devilier, originally a resident of Paradis but of late calling a Gulfport, Miss., hotel home, that’s because he got the drop on the cop first, through guile and cunning, if the official report is to be believed. So Devilier lives and the deputy he is accused of shooting, Cpl. Burt Hazeltine of the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office, also lives, with great scars and trauma likely and much adjustment to come.

You may have seen Hazeltine, a guy the other cops call “Teddy Bear,” with his roof lights flashing on U.S. Highway 90 in Paradis, making sure the school busses can get across the quasi-Interstate’s lanes safely. It’s something he did most afternoons.

But Hazeltine won’t be working for a while. He is laid up at University Hospital in New Orleans, where the doctors and nurses and everybody else have been hard at work doing what they can.

St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne said Hazeltine was shot three times, once in the left eye, once in the right arm near the elbow and once in the chest. A father of four kids, nobody knows if he will ever be able to throw a softball straight enough to teach the little ones how to play. Police work in a modified capacity is possible, perhaps, but his days on the road are likely done, which is a shame because a lot of people say he was a good cop and a good guy, and those of us who pass through the St. Charles corridor coming to or from New Orleans and similar points north and east are diminished by his departure.

Particularly galling is the method in which Devilier is alleged to have done the deed, in full daylight, with such stealth and guile that demons were no doubt afoot.

The angels were not all asleep, however, and Cpl. Hazeltine, who unexplainably did not wear his body armor that morning, lives to tell the tale because his own guardian angel had to have been doing a good job.

The official story as related by Champagne is that Devilier, in town for a funeral, complained, loudly to Hazeltine for not stopping traffic on the busy highway so that he could make a left turn.

For his part, Hazeltine explained department regulations, which require deputies to direct school busses only. Hazeltine apologetically explained he could not offer assistance.

Devilier went on his way – but did call the Sheriff’s Office about his problem. He went to his father’s home and grabbed two guns and, a short time later, drove back to a convenience store near the intersection and called the deputy over.

Hazeltine saw a weapon on Devilier’s dash, a pistol, and drew his own. Devilier allegedly dangled his pistol out the car window, feigning surrender.

As the deputy continued his approach, Devilier allegedly grabbed another firearm stashed in the car and blasted through the windshield at Hazeltine, who returned fire.

Devilier is in custody.

Hazeltine, St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne said, stood up this week.

But the whole incident gives pause for thought. Here a law enforcement officer followed the rules to each maddening letter. And the law enforcement officer is paying for that with incapacitation.

The restraint and respect for the law Cpl. Hazeltine displayed are in themselves indicative of courage. But there is more..

When the bloodied, wounded officer called for help on his radio, one of the first things he did was tell the dispatcher to to alert the school board immediately, so that busses could be diverted fro m the area.

His first thoughts, even at that crucial moment were for others.

Cpl. Hazeltine’s actions should shame those who wear the badge but have acted inappropriately, and brought question upon his fellows.

They should also shame those who would criticize law enforcement no matter the circumstances, as proof that the brush they have used to paint officers nationwide as mad-dog killers is way too broad.

The attack on Cpl. Hazeltine tells another story as well, however. The attack that the Sheriff referred to as an “ambush” and the facts presented so far indicate that’s not far from the truth.

Theisbepisode serves as a stark reminder of how the actions we often take weeks and years to second-guess and analyze are decided, out there in the streets and on the highways, in a mere seconds. And while we should scrutinize, we should not either be quick to condemn.