Pubdate: Tue, 17 Jul 2001
Source: Augusta Chronicle, The (GA)
Copyright: 2001 The Augusta Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.augustachronicle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/31
Note: Does not publish letters from outside of the immediate Georgia and 
South Carolina circulation area
Author: Sylvia Cooper, Staff Writer

INVESTIGATOR DESCRIBES SHOOTING

Richmond County Officer Recalls What He Saw, Thought When He Was Injured 
During Drug Raid

When a bullet from a .357-caliber Magnum slammed into Richmond County 
narcotics Investigator James Tredore's bullet-proof vest, time stood still. 
All the 31-year-old investigator saw before the blast was a hand sticking 
out of a closet as he entered a bedroom of a Fairwood Drive house during a 
drug raid Thursday.

Then he was falling back from the blast, grabbing his burning right side 
and trying to figure out what had happened.

"There was so much going through my head," he said Monday. "It was almost 
like I don't believe this is happening."

Then the blood began dripping through his fingers.

"That's when it really started getting to me because I knew I had a vest 
on," he said. "I thought it missed the vest because usually if it hits the 
vest it might break your ribs, but you're not going to have a hole. But I 
had an entry wound in my side from where the vest was actually pushed into 
me by the bullet."

He didn't see it coming, and he never expected it, he said.

"You're there, but you don't expect something like that to happen," he 
said. "I yelled to one of the officers with me that I had been shot. He 
obviously heard the shot, and he came running.

"When I'm falling down, he's running into the room, and I point toward the 
closet. I hadn't been able to shoot yet. I was falling down and grabbing my 
side. Investigator (Mike) Williamson returned fire. After he fired one 
shot, the guy just threw his hands up and said, 'I give up. I give up. 
Don't shoot."'

Investigator Williamson arrested Dennis Lee Richardson, 36, who was charged 
with aggravated assault on a police officer and misdemeanor possession of 
marijuana.

Then Investigator Tredore got up and walked to the front room of the house 
and lay down on the floor, he said.

"I put pressure on my side and tried to calm down," he said.

He lay there thinking and praying that he wouldn't die, he said.

"And I was just trying to stay awake," he said. "I view staying awake as 
staying alive. I did not want to lose consciousness out there."

At Medical College of Georgia Hospital, doctors saw what appeared to be a 
bullet entry wound but no exit wound.

Sheriff Ronnie Strength had come to the hospital with news that the bullet 
had been found lodged in the vest, but doctors were concerned the bullet 
had broken into fragments.

"They didn't know if there were pieces of it or if more than one shot had 
been fired," Investigator Tredore said. "They wanted permission to go ahead 
and open me up, and I said, 'Go ahead."'

He was released from the hospital late Saturday and is recuperating at his 
parents' home in Columbia County from his injury and exploratory surgery.

He said he doesn't think being shot will affect him when he returns to work.

"That's something, really, I'll have to judge when I get back to work," he 
said. "I don't think I will because I didn't just screw up and do something 
wrong and this happened. I was ambushed.

"I'm good at my job, and 95 percent of the people that went in would have 
got shot in that situation. If I thought I did something wrong, I'd say, 
'Damn, I'm in a job where I can get killed. I'm not good at it. I need to 
stop."'

Investigator Tredore has been in law enforcement in Augusta eight years and 
on the drug squad a little more than a year. He has a degree in accounting 
from Augusta State University.

As for last Thursday, the best thing he can say about it is, "I'm still 
here," he said.

And he can't stress enough the importance of wearing a bullet-proof vest.

"A lot of people on the road want to take them off when it gets hot, but 
you just never know," he said.

Another target of the drug investigation, Samuel Vincent Hodge, 25, was 
arrested and charged with trafficking in cocaine and marijuana possession.
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