Randy Cassingham's Blog

Posted by Lauren in Chicago on July 27, 2009:

My thoughts are with the Kinterknecht family in their time of grief, and with the Witte and Ragsdale families as they cope with the long road back to health.

Posted by William, Syracuse, NY on July 27, 2009:

a good man trying to do his job and return to his family. . . God bless him and may he rest in peace.

Posted by JoLee ~ Portland, OR on July 27, 2009:

I am very sorry for the Kinterknecht family.... and I am sorry for you. You have presented yourself as someone who takes this of incident to heart.

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I do feel it. Even though I didn't know any of the people involved, I feel a kinship with others who reach out to help others during times of extreme need -- and frankly a bit indignant when the person being helped hurts a responder who was there to help them. It could just as easily been on this side of the county line, and I could have been there. -rc

Posted by Aliza, California on July 27, 2009:

Not to diminish this tragic event, but I just now noticed that the blog header is "[...] This is True -- Weird News Online Since the Internet's Dark Ages" -- yet True is so much more than just another humorous weird news feed. (Compare True with Chuck Shepard's News of the Weird and you'll see what I mean. Both valuable in their own way, but very very different.)

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I know nothing of Chuck's mission, so I can't speak to it, but mine has always been much more than simple entertainment. I want to be entertaining so people read my work, but I mean for them to have something to think about when they're done. -rc

Posted by Deby Boon, Co on July 27, 2009:

Having been with a volunteer fire department years ago, and my daughter with a sheriffs mounted posse at one time and kids in the military, I totally understand your kinship with these men and their situation. I hurt every time I hear of any of our people who serve the public even tho I don't know them, because I know they are human like the citizens they serve and they have families like them too. God bless Sgt. Kinterknecht and his family and the whole department as well as the family of the domestic violence call. Something like that leaves everyone scarred and hurting. May they and you all find peace with this tragedy.

Posted by Doug, Northridge, CA on July 27, 2009:

In my first book on behavioral clues to alcoholism, Domestic Violence was near the top of the list. I wrote that a number of police officers confided they rarely if ever responded to a DV call in which alcoholism was not the main factor. I also cited a study of 150 abused women that found 85% of violent husbands had an alcohol or other-drug "problem" (code word for "alcoholism" or "drug addiction").

For every tragedy that occurs in the life of an addict, there are dozens if not hundreds of incidents for which close people or the law could have intervened, but didn't.

The perpetrator of this tragedy probably had the disease of alcohol or other-drug addiction. Some would respond of course, he'd been disfigured in a fire and would surely have been on pain meds. However, the National Council on Alcoholism found that "alcoholics are ten times more likely to die from fires than nonalcoholics." We might extrapolate that 90% of injuries and deaths from fires are a result of alcoholic misbehaviors (smoking in bed, blowing up an Andy Gump, etc.). Therefore, the odds are he was an alcohol or other-drug addict long before his accident (particularly in view of the fact that alcoholics usually trigger their addiction during the first drinking episode, average age 13).

Millions of non-addicts take addictive pain medications. Non-addicts don't act badly as a result of use, while addicts do, sometimes horribly, some of the time. The odds are very high that Sgt. Kinterknecht and the officers who survived were victims of an addict, for whom there were plenty of opportunities for intervention.

Posted by Ernest Junee Australia on July 27, 2009:

It takes a special sort of person to do the duties of those jobs day in and day for a living, yet they rarely get thanked for their work. Please pass along my condolences to Sgt. David Kinterknecht's family and my best wishes for a speedy recovery to the other officers wounded in the incident.

Posted by Ann, Illinois on July 27, 2009:

It is such a shame that the violence rose to that level. I admire those men and women that put themselves in danger to protect us... sometimes from our own stupidity or that of others.

Posted by Richard, Oakland, CA on July 28, 2009:

My condolences to Sgt Kinderknecht family. Like him, many serve providing security for us, our families and communities. For Montrose, the community is fortunate because the town people knew him and, hopefully, will honor his memory by behaving in less harmful ways... But, here in Oakland and many big cities, police officers are seldom on first name basis with people on the streets, many officers do not live in the communities they serve, and, last, many citizens see them as pariahs. This is a lesson the citizens of Montrose can teach us. Thank you Randy and your ilk for your service.

Posted by Judy, Mississippi on July 28, 2009:

I was a deputy sheriff in Mississippi County, Arkansas, an investigator with the US Air Force, and now am a 911 Operator for a military fire department. I have experienced domestic violence on all three departments. On the law enforcement side, we always sent a female officer with the responding units. It usually had a somewhat calming effect on both or all parties involved (many times the families live close together and others show up. They only way to calm that situation was to convince the injured party (man cut all the way to the bone on his lower arm, that he needed immediate attention and we would drive him to the hospital faster than waiting for an ambulance. It worked, the doctor sewed eight inches (32 stitches) and we took him directly to jail. He was so drunk he didn't even know he was cut until the doc started stitching him up. With him out of the picture everybody else went home. He had been cut by a cousin who showed up just before we did. We took his knife and told him to go home. Had we taken him to jail too, it would have started again in the cells. We left up whether to press charges to the injured party, who started the whole thing in the first place. No one was kiiled but having been there I know it could have gone very wrong very fast. My condolences to the slain officer's family, and get well soon to the other officers. There are indeed people who understand and will help if need be.

Is there a fund for the family?

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Yes. The Colorado Fraternal Order of Police has established a memorial fund on behalf of Kinterknecht's family, which includes his wife and two daughters. Donations may be made to the Colorado State Lodge FOP, Public Safety Awareness Foundation, Reference Montrose Sgt. David Kinterknecht, 2701 W. 84th Ave., Suite 211, Westminster, CO 80031. For further information call (303) 591-3842. -rc