Thursday, February 09, 2006
My birthday and his death day.
While taking criminology classes in college, I had to prepare a research paper for a Police Evidence class I was taking. I chose to write the paper on the subject of finger printing. For my assignment I interviewed a detective named James Schabenland. Mr. Schabenland was the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department finger print specialist and worked in the crime lab, which was located in the basement of the jail. He was a nice man, who spoke few words, which made my task of interviewing him a little more difficult. He was short, and round, kind of like an over grown hobbit of the sort. He most definitely had his share of extra doughnuts over the years. He was semi bald and had a red complection in his face. He didn’t look much like a cop. Maybe he did in his younger days, when he was working patrol, and wasn’t cooped up in a dungeon analyzing crime scene photos and finger prints.
I met with Mr. Schabenland on two occasions; he gave me all of the information I needed for my research paper. He showed me how the Cal-ID system worked and gave me a tour of the office. That was my extent of contact with Mr. Schabenland.
Living in a small town, I would sometimes see him driving around town and I knew where he lived. Spotting him was easy, because he drove an old Chevy station wagon, that had the Sheriff’s star on the door and had Crime Lab Unit written on both sides.
On this date, February 9, 1999, I got up and went to work at the Tulare County Youth Facility at 5 am in the morning. Pretty much a normal thing for me. I was working as a T.A.C. Officer on the morning shift. It was my 23rd birthday and it was storming that day. There was no march and drill this morning because of the rain. The thunderstorm had some of the darkest clouds I had ever seen. Just like typical thunderstorms that we get here in California, it would rain hard for about 20 minutes, then lighten up, then it would stop raining for a couple of hours and without warning, the sky would open up the flood gates for another 20 minutes worth of down pour.
It was about 9:30 in the morning, the Cadets were in school and I was in the break room with a couple of other officers. While watching the rain through the break room window, word had come that there was a shooting at the main jail. This was pretty big news. We didn’t know the details, but suspected that it was a jail break of some sort.
The morning carried on with the normal tasks and duties being fulfilled. Around noon, we received word that the shooting at the jail was the suicide of detective Schabenland. Mr. Schabenland had shot himself in the head with his department issued firearm out behind the jail, near the parking lot. I remember feeling deeply sad for this man, that I had once met while working on a research paper. The weather seemed to fit the news of his death; it was cold, dark, and uncharacteristic.
Its been seven years now since that day and I still think of Mr. Schabenland every year on my birthday. His death day is bound to my birthday forever.
RIP Mr Schabenland
While taking criminology classes in college, I had to prepare a research paper for a Police Evidence class I was taking. I chose to write the paper on the subject of finger printing. For my assignment I interviewed a detective named James Schabenland. Mr. Schabenland was the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department finger print specialist and worked in the crime lab, which was located in the basement of the jail. He was a nice man, who spoke few words, which made my task of interviewing him a little more difficult. He was short, and round, kind of like an over grown hobbit of the sort. He most definitely had his share of extra doughnuts over the years. He was semi bald and had a red complection in his face. He didn’t look much like a cop. Maybe he did in his younger days, when he was working patrol, and wasn’t cooped up in a dungeon analyzing crime scene photos and finger prints.
I met with Mr. Schabenland on two occasions; he gave me all of the information I needed for my research paper. He showed me how the Cal-ID system worked and gave me a tour of the office. That was my extent of contact with Mr. Schabenland.
Living in a small town, I would sometimes see him driving around town and I knew where he lived. Spotting him was easy, because he drove an old Chevy station wagon, that had the Sheriff’s star on the door and had Crime Lab Unit written on both sides.
On this date, February 9, 1999, I got up and went to work at the Tulare County Youth Facility at 5 am in the morning. Pretty much a normal thing for me. I was working as a T.A.C. Officer on the morning shift. It was my 23rd birthday and it was storming that day. There was no march and drill this morning because of the rain. The thunderstorm had some of the darkest clouds I had ever seen. Just like typical thunderstorms that we get here in California, it would rain hard for about 20 minutes, then lighten up, then it would stop raining for a couple of hours and without warning, the sky would open up the flood gates for another 20 minutes worth of down pour.
It was about 9:30 in the morning, the Cadets were in school and I was in the break room with a couple of other officers. While watching the rain through the break room window, word had come that there was a shooting at the main jail. This was pretty big news. We didn’t know the details, but suspected that it was a jail break of some sort.
The morning carried on with the normal tasks and duties being fulfilled. Around noon, we received word that the shooting at the jail was the suicide of detective Schabenland. Mr. Schabenland had shot himself in the head with his department issued firearm out behind the jail, near the parking lot. I remember feeling deeply sad for this man, that I had once met while working on a research paper. The weather seemed to fit the news of his death; it was cold, dark, and uncharacteristic.
Its been seven years now since that day and I still think of Mr. Schabenland every year on my birthday. His death day is bound to my birthday forever.
RIP Mr Schabenland
