(NSFW) Ex Marine in Police Standoff
I want to make this very abundantly clear that this story is NSFW. There are also some extremely triggering topics. Here's a list. If any of these topics disturb you, please don't read further.
- Suicide
- Mentions of Suicide
- Cheating
- Endangering the Welfare of a Child
- Murder
- Guns
- War
- Marines or any facet of the Military
I work a corporate job. I am in charge of the credit aspect, aka making sure everyone's paying their bills. For a lot of people right now, they're going through unemployment or SSI. So, quite a few people haven't been paying their bills on time. Most of the time I'm able to get contact with them and figure out when they're going to pay. Some people we just lost along the way because they're moving, want to steal, etc. Then there's this guy. For the sake of this story, we'll call him Finch.
I've spoken to Finch over the phone before. He seemed okay. He's mentioned before that he's an ex marine, always called me by honorifics instead of my name, and was always respectful. That's why when he started not picking up that I got worried. His bill was due in the beginning of April. We had found out through the news that he was in a police standoff, arrested with a class D felony and endangering the welfare of a child, and released on his own recognizance. We did wellness checks nearly everyday to the residence with no results. I heard nothing from him until last Saturday, it now being midway through May.
I sometimes try sending out an email as a last resort, and on Saturday I was feeling kind of hopeless, so I sent them out to quite a few customers. Surprisingly it reached him and he called in.
He was eerily happy over the phone. Last time I heard his voice he sounded tired, but he seemed overjoyed. Almost manic. He told me that he'd been in a police standoff back in March, told me his charges, then went on to say where he's been since then. He told me that the reason everything happened is because he found his wife on the couch with another man. Her legs on his shoulders in front of their 10 month and 6 year old kids. He had grabbed a shotgun and shot at her as she got into the car and drove away. He eneded up trying to flee the scene, but cops got there first. Once he was let out, he wasn't allowed back on the property, so he kept trying to commit... He told me all the ways he'd try to do it. Pills, knives, and ropes. Each instance in excruciatingly painful detail. Finch described living in the motel he was in. How he's been beating people up just for the fun of it. How he's been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for weeks now.
I tried my best not to get sick to my stomach or say something triggering. But Finch didn't care in the slightest. He started going on a rant about how he would have never done this if it wasn't for her. How women are the reason men murder. That if women weren't so damn tempting that he'd be a better man. Finch tried assuring me that I was "probably one of the good ones" but I was already purely grossed out and uneasy.
Finch, of course, not being able to read the room or honestly frankly not caring, went on to talk about when he went to Iraq. He described how he was commanded to kill women, children, and families. He went into extensive detail on how he murdered them in cold blood and how he enjoyed it. How he'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Finally, he told me we could go onto the residence to retrieve what he hasn't paid for and gave me the landlords name so we could have a witness. Before Finch hung up, he told me he was going to try to commit again. My coworkers who were overhearing the whole thing told me that he was probably just crazy and saying things, but I've heard mania before. He's obviously unwell. I've been thinking about this since it's happened and I can't get it out of my head.