Page 126 of Tito

“I hope he is, too,” I replied.

We embraced, waiting for the news to continue. When it did, we listened to the revelation in each other’s arms.

After thirty years of service to San Diego County, Detective Ted Gottschalk planned to retire. That was three years ago.

Something told him to wait.

He’d been chasing a group of thieves for much of his career. Frustrated, but not willing to give up, Gottschalk continued his quest to find these criminals for nearly one hundred and eighty exhausting months. The case became personal. Year after year, the detective got no closer to arresting the slippery thieves.

According to information gathered in an exclusive interview with Detective Gottschalk, many cases are solved on a nothing more than a hunch. This morning, Gottschalk’s instinct pointed him to an outlaw motorcycle club. Acting on a gut feeling, Gottschalk interviewed an unnamed witness. Based on the testimony of that witness, the detective had the evidence he needed to obtain a search warrant.

When San Diego County’s SWAT Team converged on the clubhouse of the notorious outlaw motorcycle club “Satan’s Savages” to serve the warrants, officers were met by gunfire.

San Diego County Detective Marc Watson, who was assisting with the arrest, was shot prior to the team entering the building. Detective Gottschalk returned fire, killing the suspect in question.

Agents of the joint task force then entered the building, and were met with more gunfire, some of which was from illegal machineguns.

With the aid of ATF, the SWAT team searched the building through a hail of gunfire. When the search was over and the shooting was done, all eleven remaining members of the nearly defunct Satan’s Savages were killed. One detective, the previously mentioned Detective Watson, was wounded.

Over thirteen pounds of methamphetamines, forty-one weapons—one of which was suspected to have been used in the killing of two Ramona police officers, and sixty-three-thousand-dollars in cash were seized in the deadly raid.

Detective Watson is expected to make a full recovery. The full story on this breaking news, our interview with Gottschalk, and much more at six o’ clock.

I squeezed Reggie’s shoulder. “Your dad’s my hero.”

She wiped the corners of her eyes with the tip of her finger. “He’s mine, too.” Staring blankly at the television, her bottom lip quivered. “He said one of these days he’d catch those guys. He did. It’s finally over.”

“Yes,” I said. “It sure is.”