Officer Hears Woman Quietly Whisper 'Help Me,' Finds Rape Suspect Hiding in Closet
Crime novels and movies don’t fairly represent what happens in law enforcement. We all know that.
Most police officers find their jobs filled with routine drudgery just like the rest of us. It’s only occasionally that their professions erupt into chaos.
Those moments may not happen often, but when they do, they can rival the most thrilling scenes that any novelist could pen.
Just consider what happened to one Gastonia, North Carolina, policeman. According to WYFF, Cpl. Brandon Putnam was in the process of delivering a subpoena to a home.
It was basic work, a task that Putnam did all the time. This case dealt with a domestic-violence victim.
WBTV reported that the paperwork was intended for a woman who lived at the property. Yet something strange happened when he rapped on the door.
“Like any other day, go to the door, knock on the door,” Putnam said. “I knocked several times — no answer.”
Gaston Sheriff’s Corporal Putnam went to a home for a routine call yesterday. A woman slowly came to the door, then whispered “help me.”
A man she had a restraining order against had broken into her home, sexually assaulted & strangled her. Deputies found him hiding in a closet. pic.twitter.com/OKRfrPbb2l
— Anne Marie Hagerty WBTV (@AnneMarieWBTV) January 20, 2019
Deciding that no one was home, Putnam started to walk back to his vehicle. That was when he heard the sound of the door opening a mere crack.
It was the woman, and she stepped out as Putnam handed her the paperwork. It involved a case against Omar Adams, a violent man the court had ordered to keep well enough away from her.
Only Adams hadn’t done that at all. As Putnam prepared to leave a second time, the woman leaned in and whispered, “Help me.”
According to Putnam, nothing like this had ever happened to him before in his almost 20 years on the force. Staring at the woman, he recognized signs of strangulation.
“Was this from Adams?” he asked. The woman jerked her head back toward the house, and Putnam immediately went and called for backup.
Sgt. Mickey Sanford soon arrived and later said, “We knew someone was in there and we needed to get him out. There were also three children inside at the time.”
The policemen conducted a thorough search of the home and found Adams hiding in a closet. “In my 19 years, that’s never happened,” Putnam said.
“When you are in a position where a victim needs help — and luckily she told me that she needed help — because anything could have happened. She was brave enough to at least whisper, ‘Help.’
“So, it’s a good feeling to get him away from her. At least her and her children are safe.”
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