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From the Jan/Feb 2008 Issue
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When Warriors Pass Bill Black The early summer of 2007 was a hard one on the small cadre teaching cops to fight both ethically and effectively. June brought news that Bill Black was on his deathbed. He had fought cancer for seven years, as valiantly as he had fought criminals all his adult life, but it had come back upon him with a vengeance. We soon learned he had passed peacefully at home, with his loving wife Guadalupe, who preferred friends and family call her “Pete.” Many of our readers met Bill at the 2003 national conference of NTOA, the National Tactical Officers’ Association, which he coordinated in Denver. Bill worked for the neighboring Littleton Police Department. More of our readers met him at Clint Smith’s Thunder Ranch, where Bill served proudly as an adjunct instructor. When two young monsters murdered a dozen kids on his turf, at Columbine High School, Bill was one of the first to enter the building to go after them. He and his colleagues drove them into their last hiding place, where they died by their own guns, undoubtedly preventing countless more innocent casualties. When I got there a few days later to study the Columbine incident, Bill was instrumental in introducing me to key responding officers and investigators. The true story of that day has never been fully, publicly told, but it suffices to say that first responders and SWAT cops got a bad rap they did not really deserve. Not long after that, I received a call from Bill’s attorney. Bill and the community of Littleton were being sued because Bill had shot and killed a man who was attempting to disembowel a brother officer with a knife. Plaintiffs had brought in two expert witnesses to testify this was wrongful death. The defense brought in me and a SWAT commander from Denver, and Bill had handled the deadly incident so well that by the time depositions were done, we had proven that one plaintiff’s expert had flat-out lied, and the other was not qualified to give his opinion. The case went down like a vampire with a stake through its heart, and Bill went on to become a lieutenant, and one of the most respected SWAT and officer survival instructors in the nation. When he died, a spokesperson for the Littleton PD called Bill the heart and soul of his department. He had served for 28 years. There's more from Massad Ayoob in the Jan/Feb issue... • Lon Anderson Order your copy of the Jan/Feb issue
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Bill loved the west. Here |
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| This column is sponsored by: | ||||||
 www.sigarms.com |
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