Monthly Archives: April 2017

Detroit-PD-letter-of-life-saving-from-Ed-Pawlowski

 

To : Whom it may concern

From: Police Officer Edward A. Pawlowski III

Detroit Police Department

 

While attending the Detroit Police Academy in 2016, I received a knife defense class designed by NLB Tactical / No Lie Blades. Little did I know that within a year of this class, I would use what I learned to save not only my life, but the life of one of my fellow officers…

The class itself was very easy to pick up. It taught various ways a knife can be used against you, and several easy movements to defend each attack. The class also had a realistic set of scenarios of surprise knife attacks by academy staff, headed by Corporal Hunt of the Detroit Police Department, that helped the class apply the techniques to real life situations. Now on to where it helped me…

Shortly after the New Year in 2017, I was dispatched to a run on the south end of the 10th precinct in Detroit. The only details we had on the run was that we had a suicidal female who kicked her roommate out and she was threatening to blow up her house. Once we arrived on scene, I made contact with the female from the porch of her residence, because she had barricaded herself inside of her house. I advised her multiple times that we just wanted to get her some help and we were not there to hurt her. She began screaming that the only way we’d get her to a hospital was to”shoot her in the head and drag her out of the house dead”. Multiple back-up units arrived.

Once more officers were on the porch, the door began to open slightly and officers slowly approached the open door. The woman then lunged out the door, stopped only by her own barricade and swung a pair of open scissors at another officer, just missing his face. At that point another officer tried getting into a window behind her, and she came running to that window, swinging the scissors at the other officer, just missing his midsection. Pepper spray was used multiple times, with no effect on her.

Finally, officers were able to distract her long enough at the door, that my partner was able to enter the house and grab onto the woman. I entered next, just in time to see the woman attempting to stab my partner in his back with the scissors. The training from my class just kicked in without thought. I was able to approach the two struggling, deflect the arm of the female away without getting cut and without my partner getting stabbed. We were then able to get the female to the ground, pin her arm down, get her to drop the knife, and get her into handcuffs with no injuries to her or the officers involved.

During that situation, I was able to just act without thinking and defuse the situation, without having to resort to deadly force and without anyone getting hurt. And I have the training I received to thank for that. With just the short, one day of training I received designed by NLB Tactical / No Lie Blades, defending that knife attack was almost like an instinct for me. I wish I was able to get more training designed by them, because I can only imagine how many other situations they can better prepare me for.

So, I would like to say thank you to NLB Tactical / No Lie Blades for the training course they designed. For not only preparing me for the altercation, but for saving my life and the life of my partner that day. And I look forward to the day another round of their training makes it to my area, because I will be first in line to receive it.

 

Sincerely,

Police Officer Edward A. Pawlowski III

Detroit Police Department