#3 Don Bradley - A.K.A. Headshot Don

In this episode Shawn Ryan sits down with Don Bradley A. K. A. Head Shot Don who is a former Green Beret and a former CIA Contractor who has over 20 combat deployments with the CIA alone. Don has a severe TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and his symptoms can hit unexpectedly so we go right into the meat of this one with absolutely 0 fluff. He is an operator who has seen more combat than most can imagine but consistently displayed the upmost self restraint while under attack and extreme duress which is extremely hard to do. We go into detail into 3 separate incidences one of which actually happens right here in The United States in Monroe County, Georgia where his destiny unfortunately falls in the hands of the court system. Vigilance Elite/Shawn Ryan Links: Website - https://www.shawnryanshow.com Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/VigilanceElite TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnryanshow Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/shawnryan762 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:29Speaker 01

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• 0:46Speaker 02

  What would happen if I stopped going? You start, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 0:50Speaker 01

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 0:53Speaker 02

  I'm not the first then.

• 0:54Speaker 01

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.

• 1:14Shawn Ryan?

  You showed a hell of a lot of restraint. Again, you totally could have fucking killed everybody involved in that that was not an American. And you did. And you did save it from being an international incident.

• 1:29Speaker 04

  And then the next day, we went and paid him a visit with some very interesting Afghan intelligence people.

• 1:38Shawn Ryan?

  The car was on fire. Flames were coming through the windows. What was the conversation like in the car?

• 1:44Speaker 04

  So the first thought was, okay, how are we gonna get out of here? So I clicked the button and said, "We're hit. We're on fire. You need to get the fuck out now."

• 1:53Shawn Ryan?

  How many operators are on the ground?

• 1:55Speaker 04

  Me and my partner, who had unasked the vehicle unexpectedly, was looking everywhere for my rifle, which I could not find.

• 2:03Shawn Ryan?

  You didn't have your rifle? But this, so this dude's head? So you looked into his eyes again for a second time? You just, you know?

• 2:11Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 2:12Shawn Ryan?

  I needed backup. I called you.

• 2:15Speaker 04

  We were cleared hot, just to go in there and smoke his ass and let you out of there.

• 2:19Shawn Ryan?

  I mean, he was pissed. I mean, I kicked the shit out of him right in front of all his fucking buddies. Before he showed up.

• 2:26Speaker 04

  His whole face, just sitting on the ground. Got a gory but great picture of the dude's last moment on earth.

• 2:37Speaker 05

  He said, "Yes ma'am, but he's not here. He's at the hospital." And I screamed, "He's at the hospital?"

• 2:44Speaker 05

  He said, "Yes ma'am, he's been shot in the head."

• 2:46Shawn Ryan?

  I already know the answer to this, but you need to say it.

• 2:51Shawn Ryan?

  Are you innocent?

• 2:53Speaker 04

  Fuck yeah, I'm innocent.

• 3:05Shawn Ryan?

  Welcome back to the Sean Ryan Show. Our last episode, once again, we absolutely crushed the ratings across the boards. We were on the top charts on iTunes. Thank you, everyone, for all the support and leaving the reviews on iTunes. If you haven't done it yet, please head over there to iTunes. Leave us a review, even if it's just one word. That's all we're asking. If you're watching this on YouTube, smash that like button, leave us a comment. Stay tuned. After this episode, we're gonna have a debrief covering the whole experience.

• 3:49Shawn Ryan?

  And with that being said, let's move on to episode 003. I brought you guys a former Green Beret. He's got over 20 combat deployments with the CIA. He's also known as Headshot Don. Guys, Don has a really bad traumatic brain injury. There's no fucking time for fluffing this one. We dive right the fuck in. Everyone, this is better than entertainment. This is the real fucking thing. Please welcome to the show, my very good friend, Mr. Don Bradley.

• 4:46Shawn Ryan?

  Don, welcome to the Sean Ryan Show.

• 4:51Speaker 04

  Thanks Sean, thanks for having me back.

• 4:53Shawn Ryan?

  My pleasure. Your story is way out of my wheelhouse. Usually I go in kind of a timeline where we started childhood, move on to military career, move on to CIA or anything after that, hit transition and kind of what you're doing now. But your story is completely different and you got shot in the head. You have a very severe TBI, traumatic brain injury. We tried this yesterday. You only have so much brain power a day before things start slipping unfortunately. So, we're just gonna cut right to the chase. We're gonna wanna touch a little bit on, you know, very briefly on your military background

• 5:38Shawn Ryan?

  and your well-respected career within the CIA. And then I wanna move to stateside.

• 5:45Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 5:46Shawn Ryan?

  So, let's start off. You have four call signs. Or your name plus three call signs.

• 5:55Speaker 04

  Right.

• 5:56Shawn Ryan?

  You started off at the CIA with the call sign Vincent. Where did that come from?

• 6:03Speaker 04

  So Vincent back, way back when they first started making motorcycles for racing. The baddest motorcycle ever made at that time was made by a company called Vincent.

• 6:18Shawn Ryan?

  And you're a gearhead.

• 6:19Speaker 04

  I've been riding since I was four years old. I got on my first minibike.

• 6:23Shawn Ryan?

  Damn, that's a long time.

• 6:26Shawn Ryan?

  But, um, so you got Vincent. That didn't stick very long.

• 6:31Shawn Ryan?

  Let's talk about how you got the call sign Lucky.

• 6:34Speaker 04

  Okay, yeah, it was only Vincent for a hot minute.

• 6:39Speaker 04

  And then one day down in Kandahar, we were doing a move because we weren't on CAF, which is Kandahar Airfield where the military are. We had to move some people to the airfield and on the way, my vehicle got rammed by a suicide bomber driving a car loaded with explosives, which we know in our terminology as VBID or Vehicle Born and Provided Explosive Device.

• 7:04Shawn Ryan?

  I remember when that happened. I just showed up to Kandahar. We were actually just looking at one of my platoon plaques. My first combat deployment was SEAL Team Two. We show up, one of the first things that we get is a brief on what had happened, I believe at the time was yesterday. And they show us this nice SUV, which was nice. And then they showed us what it looked like now after you got hit with a car bomb. We didn't know each other at the time, but I think the only way to describe that vehicle, and if you're watching this on YouTube, it's on the screen right now.

• 7:46Shawn Ryan?

  It looks like an asshole that had just been turned inside out and thrown on the side of the road. And you and everybody in that car survived that.

• 7:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, we got out alive.

• 8:01Shawn Ryan?

  Why don't you walk us through a little bit about what's it like to go flying through the air in a armored SUV in one of the most dangerous provinces in Afghanistan?

• 8:16Speaker 04

  It was interesting to say the least. We did have our escorts with us, which are the locals that we basically hire and train up and turn them into professionals. And coincidentally, I had had them out on the range doing what any good SF guy would do, which is train them up. Make sure they're proficient. We were doing movement to contact drills in vehicles. So here we are driving down the road now. And this dude rams into the side of the vehicle, blows us up. We roll over, we land first on my side. Then we went to the roof. Which had a sunroof. I don't know why, because you couldn't reach it. That was armor on the roof as well.

• 8:59Speaker 04

  But that made the most horrible sound that I'll never forget as the glass shattered and drug along the metal of the roof as we were sliding on the roof. Then of course, we ended up on the passenger's side. Perched on the passenger's side, facing 180 degrees from our original direction of travel.

• 9:20Shawn Ryan?

  I can't like get over that you actually survived that because I still. I mean, when I got into country, it was right after Red Wing had happened.

• 9:29Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 9:29Shawn Ryan?

  Got some briefings up north there. Then we moved down to Kandahar, to the agency base. I saw that car. Thinking, holy shit, like this is. Shit's getting real fucking real, real fast. And I just, I can't believe anybody walked out of that car. Were you out of it for any amount of time? After that had happened, I mean, did you have? Were you conscious?

• 9:58Speaker 04

  So when the car got hit, this was actually a very new. I won't say the brand because they, you know, the agency doesn't like that. But it was an SUV, very, very new, low miles. And when we got hit, it was very well armored. So the pressure literally forced everything tight into a box. And we fell next to nothing. However. When you slam onto one side, roll onto the roof, spin around and end up on the other side. Which by the way, during that, the window did what it was designed to do, which is fall out onto the ground. Now we got flames coming in there with us as well. But until, up until that moment.

• 10:43Speaker 04

  We were sealed, you know, we were very, very well protected inside. So the real damage came from the things that we had inside, like weapons, personal belonging, equipment in the car. During that rollover, that shit was flying around in there. So people got hit by the debris that was stowed nicely and secured.

• 11:08Speaker 04

  What we thought was fine at the time, we made some changes after that. But the only real injuries was the people that got hit by things flying around in the car.

• 11:18Shawn Ryan?

  So it was nothing serious?

• 11:20Speaker 04

  No, yeah, just some bumps, bruises, some stitches. I think there was maybe one cracked rib. I honestly had not a scratch on me, which is why they're like, put out a worldwide communication saying this person, who of course was me, just not my actual name, was from that moment on, call sign Lucky.

• 11:43Shawn Ryan?

  Wow, that's, and that stuck with you for a very long time?

• 11:48Speaker 04

  Till they got you out in the head.

• 11:49Shawn Ryan?

  Sometimes people see these cars coming, a car bomb, motorcycle bomb, whatever. Did you, sometimes I know it's about to happen, sometimes I don't. I guess, that probably has something to do with how heads up you are on the road. Did you know what was about to happen, or did it take you completely by surprise?

• 12:15Speaker 04

  So I actually saw the dude, because he tried to pull out in between, I was the follow vehicle.

• 12:22Shawn Ryan?

  Did you guys make eye to eye contact?

• 12:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, I literally looked right at this dude and tapped my horn, because I thought he was just another Afghan trying to pull out, because he thought it was clear. And we really didn't want him in between us, because once we hit the edge of town, we're gonna be hauling ass with a nice loose follow, but we didn't want to have that other vehicle. I mean, it was just more of a convenience thing than anything else. So, he had pulled off to the side of the road, complying with our lead vehicle, which was the locals' gun truck. So everybody's, you know, everything was pretty cool, but when he started to nudge forward like he was gonna pull out, I tapped the horn twice, and he looked right at me, and he gave me one of them really standard patented Afghan bows,

• 13:07Speaker 04

  and they hand up like, "Oh, I'm sorry, you know, we've all, if you've worked in that environment, you've seen it a million times, because there's people everywhere you go." And then when we went by him, lo and behold, this dude driving this just piece of crap car, which again, you see all over there, he didn't give me any indication that he was a threat. I did see him. He looked right at me. I looked right at him and I was like, cool. He was cool. And then he friggin' rams us and blows us up. It's like, okay.

• 13:37Shawn Ryan?

  So he didn't show any, he wasn't, none of the typical signs, not, he wasn't nervous, wasn't sweating? None of that shit?

• 13:45Speaker 04

  Nope. Cause I saw him clear as day. The car wasn't like all weighted funny on one side. Um, it was masked very well. Cause I was aware of the threats and I was looking for the threats. And he got one by and bam, there we go.

• 14:03Shawn Ryan?

  Son of a bitch. Was there any, was there any type of a follow-on attack? A lot of times when, a lot of times that's an initiation to something a lot bigger.

• 14:14Speaker 04

  Right, right. There was not. Uh, we literally, the, the escorts, like I said, did their job. Nobody took a shot at us. Um,

• 14:24Shawn Ryan?

  Not one shot?

• 14:25Speaker 04

  Not one shot. There was no additional follow-on. It wasn't an initiator to a bigger ambush, which is what you're kind of referring to there. Uh, there, there was nothing. It was just one dude in a car bomb, trying to make a point.

• 14:40Shawn Ryan?

  In the vehicle, before you exited, you had mentioned that the car was on fire. Flames were coming through the windows.

• 14:50Shawn Ryan?

  How long, like what was the conversation like in the car with, with your riding partner? And any other assets or special people, we'll just call them?

• 15:04Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 15:05Shawn Ryan?

  What was that conversation like?

• 15:08Speaker 04

  So like I mentioned, we ended up on the passenger side. So we're literally, the vehicle's like this. And I'm turned sideways, looking out. Um, the first thought was, everything to my right, which was the bottom of the vehicle and the driver's side, which is now straight up in the air, had big flames coming around it. Um,

• 15:33Speaker 04

  So the first thought was, okay, how are we gonna get out of here? And then my passenger, shotgun seat, who was a staffer for the agency, he said the words really fast and loud, "The windshield!" And I looked forward, and that's when I realized the flames were starting to come in because there was no windshield. And he went, "Pew!" He was gone. So it was just me and our passengers. From that point on, I was like, "Okay, he's doing something else." Guess we're on our own here. Yeah. I did a quick self-assessment, you know, when it first happened, like, alright, my head seems fine, arms, fingers are still there, legs felt around, didn't feel anything wet.

• 16:15Speaker 04

  I saw my microphone, which was turned on to our internal channel, so I clicked the button and said, "We're hit." And then, from that point, I started talking to the passengers, making sure they're okay. "Hey, you guys alright? Everything okay?" Um, one of them was pretty dazed, the other one was shocked, but otherwise, fine. So I talked them through coming out, literally, step by step, "Come on out, you know, here, I want you to do this, do this." And, uh, the, one of my partners, the guy who was the right seat in the lead vehicle, uh, who goes by Duck, or did at the time, went by call sign Duck, former SEAL,

• 16:55Speaker 04

  he was Johnny on the spot, man, right there, at the corner of our vehicle, saying, "Come to me, come to me," while I'm talking them out. Um, one of the passengers was insistent, he needed to get something out of the back, and I had to eventually tell him, the third time, it was, I said, "We, you need to get out." I said, "Look, we're on fire, you need to get the fuck out now." Which it finally shook him, he was like, "Oh, oh, okay." And he stopped hunting around for something in the debris that was now everywhere, inside of there. He went out, and then I climbed out of my chair, or my seat, got down onto the... Window, if you will, or the passenger's door window.

• 17:35Speaker 04

  Did a quick search around, grabbed a radio, grabbed a bandolier of 203 rounds, grabbed the grenade launcher that went with it, slung it over my, my body, was looking everywhere for my rifle, which I could not find. And the flames were literally coming in, as a matter of fact, while I was sitting in the chair talking them through, I kept doing this, because I was like, damn it, stop it, because the flames were coming around and trying to burn my face. But then I had all that stuff, got out, moved away from the vehicle.

• 18:07Shawn Ryan?

  You didn't have your rifle?

• 18:09Speaker 04

  No, it wasn't in the car.

• 18:10Shawn Ryan?

  So all you have was what, a pistol?

• 18:13Speaker 04

  My pistol, a 203 and a bandolier of rounds.

• 18:17Shawn Ryan?

  Holy shit, which is what, maybe 20 rounds tops?

• 18:20Speaker 04

  Probably, yeah, I think it was 20 rounds if I'm not mistaken.

• 18:23Shawn Ryan?

  How many operators are on the ground?

• 18:25Speaker 04

  Uh, so me and my partner who had unasked the vehicle unexpectedly, and then the two guys that were driving the other vehicle, one of which stayed in the driver's position. The duck got out of the passenger's position and came and helped. Of course, like I said, the escorts, we had just trained on movement to contact two days prior. So they did exactly what we had just trained to do. Surrounded the area, controlled it, uh, while we, we got out. And later, the guy that had unasked my passenger's seat, who was now running around screaming outside, finally came up to me and smacked me in the chest, he goes, "Here's your rifle."

• 19:06Speaker 04

  And I took it and I looked at it and it was so covered in soot and ash and crap. I was like, "I don't think that's mine, but whatever, I got a rifle now, I'm good," you know?

• 19:16Shawn Ryan?

  So you're with, you're with four operators, but we'll call it three and a half, because one's a fucking loser. So, but, um, how many, or how many liabilities?

• 19:28Speaker 04

  Uh, there were two in each car, so we then had to put our two in the other car.

• 19:35Shawn Ryan?

  So you're babysitting four people?

• 19:37Speaker 04

  Four folks.

• 19:37Shawn Ryan?

  You got three operators and you got one guy that's just lost his fucking mind.

• 19:42Speaker 04

  Yep. He did get a nice award though, because he was the staffer.

• 19:48Shawn Ryan?

  That's how it works over there.

• 19:50Speaker 04

  Yup.

• 19:50Shawn Ryan?

  Did anybody fire any shots after this?

• 19:53Speaker 04

  No, man. When I came out, um, before he-

• 19:56Shawn Ryan?

  From you guys?

• 19:57Speaker 04

  Yeah, before he came up and jammed me in the chest with my rifle, I was literally scanning everywhere because at that time, they were hitting our forces and videotaping it and then selling those videotapes in the bazaar. And it was one of the ways that the Taliban and Al Qaeda were making money. So I was looking, searching for anybody around that was videotaping the whole thing. Didn't see anybody. So no, we didn't, we didn't have to fire a shot.

• 20:25Shawn Ryan?

  Wow. Nobody, and nobody videoed? I remember when that was all happening because they actually videoed some Red Wing. And I used to get these videos from our intel department and I would use them to kind of, uh, it was almost like a pre-mission ritual to get my mind where I wanted it to be before we would go on opposite, but, um, but they didn't video it. And you got, I mean, that is, that shows a lot of discipline that not one shot was fired from you or your team after being hit with a fucking car bomb.

• 21:09Shawn Ryan?

  Your shit's on fire. You got four liabilities that you're trying to-

• 21:17Speaker 04

  Keep safe.

• 21:17Shawn Ryan?

  Keep command and control over. You got one guy who's lost his fucking mind and then the other two guys just sound like they're pretty solid.

• 21:23Speaker 04

  Yup.

• 21:24Shawn Ryan?

  Do you think you had any TBI from that or any long, long-term injuries from that blast?

• 21:30Speaker 04

  I didn't bang my head or anything and the overpressure was kept outside. Again, the, the vehicle was so new, it worked as advertised.

• 21:40Shawn Ryan?

  Wow.

• 21:40Speaker 04

  Including the windshield falling out. When we went on my side, then we rolled up to the roof and went across the A pillar and the pressure of it being pushed on, the way the windshields are made, they're angled so outwards, so that pressure coming this way just makes it even tighter. But coming the other direction, they'll just pop right out.

• 22:04Speaker 04

  And that's what it did. So I didn't really feel anything.

• 22:10Shawn Ryan?

  You were unscathed.

• 22:11Speaker 04

  Yeah, I had that on a scratch on me, which is why the chief of base was like, "I can't believe this." Cause you know, the other people had little bumps, bruises, stitches, like you said, maybe a cracked rib on one person. They were kinda sore. The only thing I had was a little bit of singed hair up here from ducking the flames repeatedly. But it grew back. All good.

• 22:34Shawn Ryan?

  Wow. When you got out of the car, and I'm sure you're getting situational awareness on the ground. Did you, was there any residue of the car that hit you?

• 22:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, there was debris everywhere. I actually have some pictures. One of them is the guy that was driving the car.

• 22:58Speaker 04

  His whole face just sitting on the ground. Got a gory but great picture of the dude's last moment on earth.

• 23:09Shawn Ryan?

  No shit. So his head is on the, I mean, I've seen that before. Usually it's from a suicide bomber, not a car bomb.

• 23:19Speaker 04

  Right, with a belt.

• 23:20Shawn Ryan?

  Yeah, because their head is, when they detonate, their head goes up in the air and everything else is just, turns into, you know, pink mist. But this, so this dude's head, so he looked into his eyes again for a second time. He just, you know.

• 23:37Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 23:38Shawn Ryan?

  Wasn't mentally present anymore.

• 23:41Speaker 04

  He was there, but he was no longer there.

• 23:45Shawn Ryan?

  Well, you know, I'm sure he was there in spirit. But, wow. And you have pictures of that?

• 23:52Speaker 04

  Yeah, I do.

• 23:53Shawn Ryan?

  I don't know if we can put those on the channel or not, but...

• 23:56Speaker 04

  It's kinda, kinda graphic.

• 23:58Shawn Ryan?

  I'd like to see them.

• 23:59Speaker 04

  I'd be happy to show you two.

• 24:01Shawn Ryan?

  So, I mean, that, well, that's a pretty damn fitting call sign. Was anybody, how the fuck did you get out of there? You're down a vehicle.

• 24:10Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 24:11Shawn Ryan?

  Was anybody coming to get you? Did you have comms with anybody higher?

• 24:14Speaker 04

  Well, we, we just let them know through the satcom that we had that we had been hit. We had recovered all passengers and we were continuing mission. So basically, we jammed all of our packs into the first vehicle. So now they're literally sardines. We had one person sitting in the very back with their luggage, you know, kind of laid out across it, and the three of them pinned in. It doesn't sound like that would be that tight, but as you and I both know, you're wearing full body armor, which they only wear it when they gotta move. So it's not stuff that fits them. It's just big bulky stuff to keep them safe. So they're jammed in there. So Duck and I,

• 24:56Speaker 04

  you know, my, my right seat guy ended up taking the right seat of the other vehicle. And then Duck and I got in the backseat of our escort's pickup truck, and we actually let it out. So the remaining vehicle followed us in the lead gun truck. So now we're literally riding in a thin skin with the locals. And then the tail gun truck came up behind us. And now three vehicles continued on to Kenahr Airfield.

• 25:26Speaker 04

  Wow. In fact, we had to calm the driver down because he was going so fucking fast. We were both afraid that he was gonna wreck and kill us after we just lived through this crazy shit. How was that? Hey dude, chill out, man. It's just a car bomb. No big deal. Slow down just a little bit. And he was like, it's like, no, no, it's good, it's good. Just slow down a little bit, a little bit, slow down. And he kind of slowed down like, good, good. Yes, good. And we, we were still going really fast, but the car was, or the truck wasn't going so bad, it felt like the front end was gonna fall off, or he was gonna lose control. So, yeah, it was, it was kind of a funny after effect.

• 26:06Speaker 04

  In fact, Duck and I looked at each other. He goes, dude, I hate to sound so crass, but I so wish I had my camera, because when that car blew up, it was spectacular. It was like something out of a movie. I mean, our car. When we were out of it, because it was pissing fuel out the tank because of the heat from all the flames, and that fuel was coming out raw. But where it ended, it was on fire. So it was like your flamethrower over here in a much grander scale. And it's like, as the fuel level went down, it worked its way back. And when it got to the vehicle, that whole thing went boom. And it was like a three-story-high fireball. Holy shit.

• 26:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, I was standing about 50 feet away from it and went, wow.

• 26:55Shawn Ryan?

  I will never forget when I, when I saw where they put the car and they let us go look at it. And I've been, still to this day, even looking at the picture, I just can't believe anybody survived that. And then, at the same time, we had no idea, agency personnel were even there.

• 27:14Speaker 04

  Right.

• 27:15Shawn Ryan?

  We had just gotten there and I was like, "Holy shit, CIA's here." And, and, uh, yeah.

• 27:22Speaker 04

  That was me!

• 27:23Shawn Ryan?

  Yep, yep. We were getting blown up. But, uh, last thing on this. Do you think there's anything you could have done to prevent that? I mean, it doesn't sound like there was much. You could have taken a different route, maybe, but, I mean, all in all, you saw the threat. You didn't think he was a threat. He blows himself up. Is there anything you would have done different, or could have done different, to avoid that entire thing?

• 27:50Speaker 04

  Unfortunately, it was one of those situations where we had little to no choice on the route, because there was only one way to get there. So you were channelized. Um, and I did see him, like I said. And I looked right at him, and he gave me no indication whatsoever that he was a threat. And, like I said, we knew there were threats. So we were looking for threats. We had really good intel. But, you know, just because you know they're there, you don't know exactly which one it is. And if the guy doesn't look like he's doing anything wrong, and he looks like he's complying with simple gestures, drive on, move.

• 28:34Shawn Ryan?

  Yeah. Well, I mean, even, even good intel, I mean, you know, what are they gonna tell you? Fucking white Toyota Corolla is a car bomb with a license plate number? That's like, over there, you're either driving a white Toyota Corolla, or a fucking Toyota Hilux?

• 28:53Speaker 04

  Hilux, yep.

• 28:55Shawn Ryan?

  Or a motorcycle, and that's about it.

• 28:57Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 28:58Shawn Ryan?

  So.

• 28:59Speaker 04

  How many intel reports did you see about a white Toyota Corolla? Possible or probable V bed being in the area and you'd be like, oh, look, another white Corolla that's gonna kill us.

• 29:11Shawn Ryan?

  Yeah, it did. It got to be a fucking joke.

• 29:14Speaker 04

  It was.

• 29:16Shawn Ryan?

  Good job, guys. Every car in Afghanistan is a fucking white Toyota Corolla.

• 29:20Speaker 04

  Potentially.

• 29:21Shawn Ryan?

  Thanks for the heads up. But, uh, so moving forward just a little bit. We finally got to work together in, in the capital in Kabul. We got into a little tiff that could have gone extremely bad. I needed backup. I called you. Unfortunately for you, you were eating an omelet and had to leave it. But, um, and I lost a red shoe.

• 29:49Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 29:50Shawn Ryan?

  But point being, you showed up and I'm gonna turn it over to you in just a second here, but it was another example of how, of you using extreme restraint and, and, and an enormous amount of discipline.

• 30:07Shawn Ryan?

  That could have gone really bad. Well, and I left because I had a couple of special people with me that, uh, we needed to get the fuck out of there. But why don't you kind of talk about what happened, um, after I left?

• 30:23Speaker 04

  Sure. Um, like you said, we obviously responded to a QRF call. There was only me and another guy, and as we were running to the car, we ran across a third guy from our program who joined us immediately. So there's only three of us. Um, and when we got there, we recognized that you guys were blocked in. They weren't letting you out.

• 30:48Speaker 04

  These were Afghan soldiers. They had guns. They had what was obviously some Afghan officer who was creating the difficulty. But what he had already done to you guys, and this was confirmed later by high-level agency people, we were cleared hot just to go in there and smoke his ass and let you out of there, based on the rules of engagement. Now, just because you're authorized to do something doesn't always mean that's the right thing to do. In that situation, which we actually talked about before, it probably would have created an international incident had we done what we were authorized to do.

• 31:30Speaker 04

  So instead, I told the guys, "Just be cool. Just act like everybody's friend. Let's make sure nobody's pointing guns at each other, but stay close to the car doors so if we need to take cover, we can use these armored doors, which bullets actually won't go through the armored doors, as cover." This guy that we found out later was a Colonel, was enraged, for whatever reason, because you guys happened to be sharing the same road space that he was that day. And he came over and approached me, and I was just like, "Hey, man, it's cool. Calm down." And he was obviously speaking in whatever language that he was speaking in, Dari, Farsi, whatever, Pashto, I'm not sure.

• 32:14Speaker 04

  But he was highly animated, so I wouldn't have been able to pick up on what language it was anyways. And I was like, "It's okay. It's okay. No problem." And I had my rifle, but I intentionally held it down because I knew I could use it if I needed. But let's keep it so that it's not threatening. Try to defuse the situation. And it worked! But the guy, as a parting gift, decided that he was... Because he was doing this a lot, and then he was standing pretty close to me, and I was starting to get a little uncomfortable with how close he was. But nobody was pulling guns. Nobody was shooting. So it was okay. And we had it covered if he went the other direction. But he did take his hand at one point in time,

• 32:56Speaker 04

  and he like reached out and did that and hit me in the throat, indicating he would cut my throat. And at that point in time... That's where the real restraint came in. Because now I'm wanting to subdue this guy. Roll him up and take him back for some extracurricular questioning with our people. But instead, I decided to get everybody just back in the car because they couldn't go anywhere. We were now blocking them. We got you out of there because that was the priority, getting the packs away from the scene.

• 33:37Speaker 04

  And we just literally wouldn't let them leave until our Afghan QRF came, surrounded all of them. And then we got all the information that we needed from them. And then the next day, we went and paid him a visit with some very interesting Afghan intelligence people who outranked him.

• 34:00Shawn Ryan?

  Some other people.

• 34:01Speaker 04

  Some other people.

• 34:02Shawn Ryan?

  I mean, he was pissed. I mean, I kicked the shit out of him right in front of all his fucking buddies before he showed up. So that son of a bitch did get my shoe. But, but point being, you showed a hell of a lot of restraint. Again, you totally could have fucking killed everybody involved in that that was not an American. And, and you didn't. And you did save it from being an international incident.

• 34:33Shawn Ryan?

  I want you to tell these stories because I want to show the level of restraint that you have leading up to what happened, December 27?

• 34:45Speaker 04

  Yep, 27, two days after Christmas.

• 34:48Shawn Ryan?

  2018.

• 34:49Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 34:49Shawn Ryan?

  I was sitting at home, I get a phone call from your employee at Syracuse Nation. You were working at your, it was your business. You were one of the owners of Syracuse Nation. And...

• 35:03Shawn Ryan?

  Your employee calls me and tells me that you hadn't been to work in, I believe, three days because I got the call on the 30th. You'd just left my house. He's like, "Ah, you know, this isn't like Don." You know, and I'm like, "Yeah, no shit, it's not like Don." You'd been gone for three days, according to him. I punch up your name, start Googling your name, and I'll be damned, all these fucking articles start coming up. And none of the articles, I think there was three or four of them, maybe.

• 35:35Shawn Ryan?

  One of the articles says you had opened fire on somebody over a road rage incident. Another article said somebody had opened fire on you. Another one said, "You're in the hospital, somebody else is in the hospital." None of this shit jived. I had not met your wife Pam at the time. Found her on Facebook and your son, who I had not met either. And luckily, they messaged me back and we hit the road and spent New Year's Eve in the hospital where

• 36:10Shawn Ryan?

  you were recovering. So why don't you, I know that there's only so much you can tell us because it's in litigation right now, correct?

• 36:19Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 36:20Shawn Ryan?

  Tell us what you can about the actual incident and where it happened.

• 36:25Speaker 04

  Sure. So it happened on the Macon County line. The shop was just inside the Macon County line and I went north into Monroe County on the way home. And I wasn't very far into Monroe County when all this went down.

• 36:38Shawn Ryan?

  This is Georgia, correct?

• 36:39Speaker 04

  Yeah, this is all Georgia. Yeah, middle Georgia. Obviously because there is an open case, criminal case with all of this, where I've been indicted. We can't get into a lot of the specifics, but I will say that a, an ice cream salesman who has a history of domestic violence, as a matter of fact, is a documented history of domestic violence.

• 37:07Shawn Ryan?

  Are those all different incidents that he's been?

• 37:10Speaker 04

  This is a court document where he was issued a restraining order to stay away from family members and was also ordered to undergo a batterer's intervention program. So, you know, I don't know the specifics of it. All I know is obviously this guy's got a background with it.

• 37:31Shawn Ryan?

  There's a history of violence.

• 37:32Speaker 04

  There's a history of violence there. And he also admitted in his statement, because we've had discovery and I've seen his statement, that he was road raging. So do the other people that were with him.

• 37:43Shawn Ryan?

  Before we get into specifics, what are you being indicted for?

• 37:48Speaker 04

  Aggravated assault. And I think it's possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, I want to say is the other one.

• 37:58Shawn Ryan?

  Okay.

• 37:58Speaker 04

  Something to do with having a firearm while it went down.

• 38:02Shawn Ryan?

  Right now.

• 38:04Shawn Ryan?

  I already know the answer to this, but you need to say it.

• 38:09Shawn Ryan?

  Are you innocent?

• 38:11Speaker 04

  Fuck yeah, I'm innocent. They literally have the situation 180 degrees. And think about it. He gives a statement, "I'm fucking bleeding out on the ground." And then go to the trauma center where I later, 24 hours later, more than 24 hours later, undergo brain surgery. I never said much of anything until over two weeks later when I was well enough to actually tell my side of what had just went down that, or what had went down that day. Uh, but by that time, a strange thing had gone really disturbingly wrong. Apparently, even though they had my driver's license, got my license plate on my pickup

• 38:55Speaker 04

  truck, got my VIN number, got everything they need to identify who I am, they pulled the background of a career felon.

• 39:02Shawn Ryan?

  Instead of you?

• 39:03Speaker 04

  Instead of me, they literally told Pam, and you know what, she's gonna do a much better job of telling that story than I can, but the guy said that I was a career felon with a rap sheet as long as your arm. Including, with felony convictions, including drug convictions, who had no legal right to be in possession of a firearm. So they threw everything.

• 39:29Speaker 04

  Out the window, it seems, and just say, "Yeah, he's guilty." "Let's wrap this shit up and go home, boys." But...

• 39:36Shawn Ryan?

  Did they think you were dead?

• 39:38Speaker 04

  I... You know, I can only speculate, but it seems like they thought I was dead or about to die. So they just blamed the shit on me and said, "Let's wrap this up and go home."

• 39:48Shawn Ryan?

  What did you get shot in the head with?

• 39:50Speaker 04

  A .38 revolver.

• 39:53Shawn Ryan?

  A .38?

• 39:53Speaker 04

  Yep. A little snub-nose pistol. I knew what it was as soon as I saw it, as soon as he was pointing it at me.

• 40:00Shawn Ryan?

  I want to put a picture up right now on YouTube showing where you got shot in the head.

• 40:06Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 40:06Shawn Ryan?

  So there it is.

• 40:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's not pretty.

• 40:10Shawn Ryan?

  Yeah.

• 40:11Speaker 04

  In fact, it's pretty gnarly.

• 40:13Shawn Ryan?

  Yeah.

• 40:13Speaker 04

  Chicks dig scars, though, right?

• 40:20Shawn Ryan?

  Yeah.

• 40:23Shawn Ryan?

  You shot in the head by a .38 revolver.

• 40:27Shawn Ryan?

  Were you... I mean, was it instant, lights out? There's not a whole hell of a lot of people in the world that lived to tell the tale of being shot in the head.

• 40:39Shawn Ryan?

  Was it lights out? Do you remember?

• 40:43Speaker 04

  I don't remember being hit.

• 40:45Shawn Ryan?

  Okay.

• 40:47Shawn Ryan?

  What's your first memory after being hit?

• 40:51Speaker 04

  There was some real foggy stuff. I was in and out of consciousness.

• 40:58Speaker 04

  The first real memory, I was actually in the emergency room of this trauma center, being wheeled around. Because I remember

• 41:11Speaker 04

  the movement was really, really difficult. Because moving at all at that point, you know, with a freaking bullet in your brain, was...

• 41:25Speaker 04

  Messing with the wound, the injury.

• 41:27Shawn Ryan?

  The bullet was...

• 41:28Speaker 04

  It was inside my skull.

• 41:30Shawn Ryan?

  It's in there?

• 41:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 41:31Shawn Ryan?

  Is it still in there?

• 41:32Speaker 04

  Well, it was... I'm guessing that it was a hollow point. And I think that's an educated guess. But it turned into a bunch of shrapnel pieces once it hit my skull. It broke my skull. I have an indentation to this day. And of course, it popped or shattered pieces in other areas where I got hairline fractures, spiral fractures, just a lot of shit. And the bullet fragments went in and they're literally sitting on the artery that feeds the right hemisphere of my brain. So they're literally surrounding it. Sharp little shards of steel, lead are sitting on top of that artery.

• 42:16Shawn Ryan?

  I'll put the x-rays on the screen right now.

• 42:19Speaker 04

  Yeah, so a big concern is obviously with the doctors. It's common to have seizures around the one-year mark. If I have a seizure, one of those shards will almost certainly poke through that artery and it'll kill me.

• 42:34Shawn Ryan?

  Well, we're right out of here.

• 42:35Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 42:37Shawn Ryan?

  Your old call sign was lucky.

• 42:40Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 42:40Shawn Ryan?

  So, let's, uh...

• 42:45Shawn Ryan?

  Pray that that continues.

• 42:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, with the help of CBD. Um, because I tried using their anti-seizure medicine for a few weeks and it just made me violently ill. So I switched to CBD. Um, now I live in Florida and I actually take medical-grade CBD in Florida.

• 43:08Speaker 04

  But that shit's magic.

• 43:10Shawn Ryan?

  Well, that's good to hear that something's helping you, man.

• 43:12Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 43:13Shawn Ryan?

  So where was Pam during all this? You're in the hospital. We talked about your first memory. You're getting wheeled around. Where's your wife?

• 43:23Speaker 04

  She's at home wondering where the hell I am.

• 43:26Shawn Ryan?

  Well, speaking of your wife, we actually have her on the line, so... Hey Pam, how are you?

• 43:33Speaker 05

  How are you guys doing?

• 43:34Shawn Ryan?

  I'm doing pretty good. So I have your husband sitting here and we just got to the part where he was shot in the head.

• 43:45Shawn Ryan?

  Now he's in the hospital. You don't know where he's at. Can you kind of walk us through a sequence of events? On what happened from your perspective and also how you were treated? After your husband's just been shot in the head?

• 44:01Speaker 05

  Sure. Um. Usually Don beats me home from work. Um, so as the hours went by and I could not reach him by phone or text. Um, every hour that ticked by, I was getting more concerned, scared. Obviously extremely worried. Um, it was raining really hard that night. Um, so I had no idea what happened. I just knew something was wrong.

• 44:36Speaker 05

  Um, I literally got to a point where I called every hospital in Georgia. And was told that he was not at any of the hospitals I called. Um. A few of them I actually called twice.

• 44:55Speaker 05

  Um, because I thought the response that I got when I called was a little off. Um.

• 45:04Speaker 05

  Anyways, finally, um, my son became as worried as I was after, you know, obviously the hours went by. And, um, we figured out Don's password finally. And my son and I tracked his phone.

• 45:22Shawn Ryan?

  You found him by tracking his phone?

• 45:25Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 45:25Shawn Ryan?

  And Don's not a bar hopper or anything like, he's not a drinker, definitely wasn't at the bar. You know a hundred percent something's going on.

• 45:35Speaker 05

  Exactly. There's no doubt in my mind. Um, I, I, I knew I could sense something was wrong. But I just had no idea what. We pinged his phone and it pinged behind a fire station.

• 45:54Speaker 05

  So I, of course, looked up the number and called the fire station right away. Told them, "My husband has been missing since three o'clock in the afternoon was the last time I spoke with him.

• 46:07Speaker 05

  And his phone is pinging behind your fire station." I said, "Can you please tell me what's behind the fire station?"

• 46:18Speaker 05

  And the fireman told me that it was a holding line.

• 46:25Speaker 05

  And we've never had any contact at all with the police at all. So I had no...I said to him, "What is a holding line? I have no idea."

• 46:36Shawn Ryan?

  How long had he been missing at this point?

• 46:39Speaker 05

  This was about one o'clock in the morning that we finally pinged his phone.

• 46:46Shawn Ryan?

  Okay. And...

• 46:48Speaker 05

  And...

• 46:49Shawn Ryan?

  Dom, were you conscious at all at this time? Completely out?

• 46:54Speaker 04

  I don't remember any of that. They had me on morphine drip.

• 46:57Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 47:00Speaker 05

  The fireman actually put me on hold and got me the number to the police department. And then I called the police department. And I never called the police department before this because Dom's never been in any type of trouble. So I knew he wasn't going to be at the police department, you know?

• 47:21Shawn Ryan?

  Whoop.

• 47:22Speaker 05

  It was just totally out of line. My thing was with the weather situation that, you know, something might have happened.

• 47:31Shawn Ryan?

  What police department did you contact?

• 47:34Speaker 05

  It was the Monroe County Sheriff's Department.

• 47:38Shawn Ryan?

  Okay.

• 47:40Speaker 05

  And so I called there and actually spoke to our Corporal [BLEEP] son.

• 47:48Speaker 05

  And my son, of course, was with me the whole time. We had this guy on speakerphone.

• 47:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, um, Corporal **** told me that they had my husband and, um, they were processing him, but he was injured, but they're processing him. And so me never dealing with, like I said to the police before, I assumed Don was at the police department and, I mean, he had a cut on his hand or something. I mean, I had no clue. And, um, I said, "Is there a reason that he hasn't been able to, is there a reason he hasn't called me yet?"

• 48:27Shawn Ryan?

  They mean processing as in processing like you're going to jail?

• 48:31Speaker 05

  Exactly, exactly.

• 48:33Shawn Ryan?

  And you don't know he's been shot in the head at this point?

• 48:35Speaker 05

  Oh, no. Oh, no, I have no idea. I'm literally thinking that he's at the jail and he's, I'm assuming he's got a cut on his hand or something, you know? I, I have no clue. And, um, anyways, I had asked, you know, "Is there a reason he hasn't been able to call me yet? Cause here I am, scared to death, what's happened." And, um, he said, "Oh, ma'am, these, sometimes this takes some time." So I was like, "Okay," and I hung up the phone with this guy, not knowing what else to ask or, you know. Anyways, I called back about ten minutes later and said, "Hey, when is visitation hours tomorrow? Cause I'm thinking I will be at the police department ten minutes

• 49:19Speaker 05

  before I can go see him and find out what in the hell is going on." And, um, then I'm informed by this Corporal **** that Don is not there and I cannot go see him. And I'm like, "Sir, I just hung up the phone with you. You know, you told me you're processing my husband and he's injured." He said, "Yes, ma'am, but, um, he's not here. He's at the hospital." And I screamed, "He's at the hospital?" He said, "Yes, ma'am, he's been shot in the head."

• 49:50Shawn Ryan?

  Holy shit.

• 49:52Speaker 05

  And, um, I literally hit the floor. Um, started screaming, "Is he alive?" And I don't know why I said this, but I said, "Can he talk?" I, weird things go through your mind in these situations and, anyways, um...

• 50:15Speaker 05

  Cor- and put me on hold for about, it seemed like five minutes or so, and he came back and he said, "Your husband is alive." And I said, "Well, I'm going," I said to my son, and he could hear, "I'm going to put jeans on." And Cor- said, "You need to stop. You will be arrested if you go anywhere near the hospital."

• 50:38Shawn Ryan?

  They were going to arrest you?

• 50:40Speaker 05

  Arrest me.

• 50:41Shawn Ryan?

  To go-

• 50:41Speaker 05

  Or my son, if we went anywhere near the hospital.

• 50:44Shawn Ryan?

  To visit your husband who was just shot in the head?

• 50:47Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 50:48Shawn Ryan?

  So what did they tell you to do, anything?

• 50:51Speaker 05

  Um, he told me that I had to wait until eight o'clock the next morning, when Investigator **** and our Lieutenant **** would be able to answer some questions for us.

• 51:05Speaker 05

  Um, I asked if there was a reason why Investigator **** and our Lieutenant **** hadn't called me

• 51:15Speaker 05

  at that point, you know, before this time, and um, I was told that, "Well ma'am, it was shift change."

• 51:24Shawn Ryan?

  Oh shit.

• 51:25Speaker 05

  And I was just floored.

• 51:29Speaker 05

  Um, needless to say, I was up all night, worried to death about my husband who had just been told to be shot in the head.

• 51:38Shawn Ryan?

  Wow.

• 51:39Speaker 05

  At eight o'clock the next morning, I was on the phone with

• 51:44Speaker 05

  Investigator **** and he told me,

• 51:49Speaker 05

  he won't believe that. He said, "Um, your husband's a career criminal

• 51:56Speaker 05

  with a rap sheet as long as your arm."

• 52:00Speaker 05

  He said, "Um, he has several felony charges, including drug convictions, so he's not even legally allowed to possess a gun."

• 52:09Shawn Ryan?

  Holy shit.

• 52:10Speaker 05

  And the whole time he's telling me this, I'm crying,

• 52:17Speaker 05

  of course, and, um, **** then proceeds to tell me,

• 52:23Speaker 05

  um, what he thought happened to Don, which turned out to be as inaccurate as the background check that they pulled on my husband.

• 52:35Shawn Ryan?

  So they pulled the wrong rap sheet

• 52:40Shawn Ryan?

  on your husband and told you that he was a career criminal after he'd been shot in the head? And nobody's seen him yet, other than the doctor and the officer who's guarding his hospital room? That you're not allowed to go see?

• 52:57Speaker 05

  Exactly.

• 53:01Speaker 05

  And then [BLEEP] then told me that Donald was in a local trauma center. And he again repeated that if my son or I went anywhere near the hospital, we would be arrested.

• 53:17Shawn Ryan?

  Holy shit.

• 53:18Speaker 05

  I was telling [BLEEP] nonstop through this, that that is not my husband. You've got the wrong man.

• 53:28Speaker 05

  I told him, you know, we've been married over thirty years. You've got the wrong guy here. Something's not right.

• 53:36Speaker 05

  And this [BLEEP] proceeded to tell me that if I'd been married to this career criminal, as long as I told him I had been. And he found it hard to believe that I wasn't aware of his criminal record.

• 53:56Shawn Ryan?

  Wow.

• 53:59Speaker 05

  Then [BLEEP] proceeded to tell me that my husband had been shot in the head. He will be having surgery. And they will be putting a metal plate in his head. And if, again, if we go anywhere near the hospital, we'll be arrested.

• 54:15Shawn Ryan?

  So what?

• 54:16Speaker 05

  I literally stood up and hit the floor. When I could finally talk, I was literally screaming. Sorry. They're gonna put a plate in his head. They're gonna put a plate in his head. And I stood up again and hit the floor again.

• 54:38Speaker 05

  Um, by the way, he does not have a plate in his head.

• 54:48Speaker 05

  At ten AM, approximately ten AM the next morning, so this is now about eighteen hours after my husband had been shot.

• 54:58Speaker 05

  I was told, got a phone call from [BLEEP]. It said something that came to light, and I could go to ICU and see my husband.

• 55:10Shawn Ryan?

  So, what was it like when you got to the hospital and you saw your husband for the first time?

• 55:19Speaker 05

  My son literally had to help me to the car. And, um, put me in the car and put a bucket in my lap and drove me to the hospital. Um, we walked into the ICU, ICU approximately twenty hours after my husband had been shot in the head.

• 55:40Shawn Ryan?

  Wow.

• 55:42Speaker 05

  In that time, of course, he could have died.

• 55:46Shawn Ryan?

  Yeah, very easily.

• 55:50Speaker 05

  This [BLEEP] you know, he changed our lives forever. He reached in and literally ripped out part of my heart.

• 56:02Speaker 05

  Um, I thought I used to be a strong person.

• 56:07Speaker 05

  And, uh, now, of course, I've been diagnosed with severe panic attacks and PTSD from the way we were treated.

• 56:21Shawn Ryan?

  Wow, so...

• 56:24Speaker 05

  Walking in, no, I apologize, walking in to see Don. Um, once I got there...

• 56:35Speaker 05

  Um, the total shock of seeing it all was just overwhelming. Um, I stayed extremely calm once I was with him, which was really surprising. Um, but I ran right to him and grabbed his hand and said, "Baby, I'm here."

• 56:51Shawn Ryan?

  Was Don responsive? Do you remember this, Don?

• 56:56Speaker 05

  He...

• 56:57Speaker 04

  Kinda.

• 56:58Shawn Ryan?

  So you were like in and out?

• 56:59Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, I was fucked up, bro.

• 57:01Shawn Ryan?

  Okay. I mean, I don't know why.

• 57:04Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 57:07Shawn Ryan?

  You've been blown up.

• 57:08Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 57:08Shawn Ryan?

  But, uh, I'm just kidding, but...

• 57:14Shawn Ryan?

  Did the relationship with Monroe County Sheriff's Department improve after they had realized that they had given you the wrong fucking rap sheet? And allowed you to go to the hospital and, and see your husband? Did they, did they get any better? Did they improve?

• 57:31Speaker 05

  Oh, my God.

• 57:32Shawn Ryan?

  Did they apologize?

• 57:33Speaker 05

  I was, I was actu- oh, God, no. I was actually told by [BLEEP] and I told him on the phone at one point that, um, I had to have Don's cellphone. Um, I said, you know, "I've gotta get in touch with his shop. I've gotta let somebody know what's going on." Um, and [BLEEP] told me that he would be, he would bring his cellphone to Don's hospital. So needless to say, um, he did not do that. Um, and I did not speak with him again at that point, um.

• 58:14Speaker 05

  It got to a point where I couldn't even communicate with people. Um, I had the words, but I couldn't get the words out. Um,

• 58:27Speaker 05

  and the only time I was calmed down a little bit was when I was actually with Don.

• 58:38Speaker 05

  It was just crazy.

• 58:42Speaker 05

  And a lot of things happened during this process too. The way they treated my son, myself, and my husband.

• 58:53Speaker 05

  It's just totally unacceptable.

• 58:55Shawn Ryan?

  Yeah, I remember I showed up, me and Katie showed up shortly after this part. And I don't want to make you go into it any farther, but I just want to say

• 59:08Shawn Ryan?

  thank you for reliving that with us. And I appreciate you taking our call. And, um...

• 59:18Shawn Ryan?

  Don, you have anything?

• 59:20Speaker 04

  Love you, baby.

• 59:22Speaker 05

  I love you too.

• 59:24Shawn Ryan?

  All right, Pam.

• 59:25Speaker 05

  Can I just say one quick thing, Sean?

• 59:27Shawn Ryan?

  Of course.

• 59:29Speaker 05

  Um, I don't care if you're purple or green or red or blue. Nobody should be treated the way Monroe County Sheriff's Department treated my family. Nobody.

• 59:46Shawn Ryan?

  Yeah, that's for damn sure.

• 59:49Speaker 05

  And I still struggle with, I have no idea how to thank the people

• 59:58Speaker 05

  that helped us. I thank God for not taking Don from me that night. I thank the nurses and the doctors for keeping my husband alive. I thank, you know, my son, who, wow, we raised such a strong young man, who helped me so much through all of this. My boss, my coworkers, my mother who financially stepped up and helped us. Clock Tower, Ninja, Keith, and you and Katie.

• 1:00:34Speaker 05

  Kurt and Kirk and James Neehan. And all the people that were in route to my house that I stopped. Um, I, I just, how do you thank these people?

• 1:00:48Shawn Ryan?

  Well, you just did. And it just shows you guys got a lot of love coming towards you. And, uh, you know, we're all praying for you.

• 1:00:57Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:00:59Shawn Ryan?

  So...

• 1:01:01Shawn Ryan?

  Alright Pam, we're gonna let you go for now.

• 1:01:05Speaker 04

  Alright, love you guys.

• 1:01:07Shawn Ryan?

  Love you too.

• 1:01:07Speaker 04

  Love you too, thank you. Alright, bye.

• 1:01:10Shawn Ryan?

  Bye bye.

• 1:01:14Shawn Ryan?

  Well that was pretty emotional. What's it like to hear your wife tell that story?

• 1:01:20Speaker 04

  It rips my fucking heart out dude. That's... We've been married for thirty-five years. She has... We dated for two years before we were married. We know each other, that's my best friend. And that guy talked to her like she was white trash that was beneath him. And I'll never forgive him for that.

• 1:01:43Shawn Ryan?

  That's tough to listen to man.

• 1:01:44Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:01:46Shawn Ryan?

  I mean, to be treated like that. Fourteen years in the military, a Green Beret, a SERA instructor in the Air Force. Then, how many years did you do at the agency?

• 1:01:57Speaker 04

  Eight years, twenty-one trips.

• 1:01:59Shawn Ryan?

  Eight years at the agency, twenty-one trips.

• 1:02:03Speaker 04

  Twenty-one trips.

• 1:02:04Shawn Ryan?

  Fuck, I think you had me beat. But twenty-one trips with the agency. They mistake your record for a fucking criminal's record. They don't correct it. And the next thing you know, and if I'm mistaken, correct me.

• 1:02:20Shawn Ryan?

  But this goes to the news.

• 1:02:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, the... That's really one of the disturbing things that happened, was first of all, they misidentified who I was and who... what my background is. I mean, because when you pull in, whatever their computer system is that they look at it, it should have had nothing next to me. Maybe a speeding ticket, you know?

• 1:02:46Speaker 04

  But the sheriff, who coincidentally, had just been sworn in one week to the day before this went down,

• 1:02:55Speaker 04

  within moments of this happening, he went on TV...

• 1:03:02Speaker 04

  And he's basically talking all this interpretation of what he thought happened, even though, one, obviously, he wasn't there, two, he didn't have any statement or information from me, and, three, he thought I was a career criminal.

• 1:03:17Shawn Ryan?

  So the sheriff went on public television?

• 1:03:22Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:03:22Shawn Ryan?

  And mistakenly ruined your name by giving somebody a criminal's rap sheet, saying that it's your rap sheet?

• 1:03:32Speaker 04

  No, he did not, okay, that's incorrect. He did not say that I was a criminal. He believed I was a criminal, went on TV and exonerated the person who had attacked me, and then didn't say I was guilty, but left the only thing, you know, the...

• 1:03:55Speaker 04

  So, he went on TV, he didn't say I was a criminal, he went on believing I was a criminal, and then he said things that, in his mind and in the viewing audience's mind, exonerated the person who had attacked me, which left the only conclusion in their minds to be that I was the attacker. And it's literally 180 degrees off.

• 1:04:20Shawn Ryan?

  So, are they going, did they apologize for doing that?

• 1:04:26Speaker 04

  Well, the sheriff, whose name is ****, literally just decided to keep moving forward.

• 1:04:34Shawn Ryan?

  Holy shit.

• 1:04:35Speaker 04

  Because I didn't even come in until over two weeks after it happened, where I was healthy enough to give a statement. And when I got there, all they wanted to do was throw handcuffs on me and put me under the jail somewhere.

• 1:04:48Speaker 04

  They didn't listen to anything we said. They, I mean, they heard it, but they weren't listening. In fact, the guy even said to me at one point in time, because I had an attorney with me, I'm not an idiot... He said to me at one time, "You ready to change your story yet?" And I said, "If I changed my story, I'd have to lie. I'm telling you the truth." So anyways.

• 1:05:11Shawn Ryan?

  Holy shit.

• 1:05:12Speaker 04

  They're an interesting group. And coincidentally, you know, obviously in the aftermath of that, we started doing a little research about what's going on here. You know, how could they be so off in their conclusions when they hadn't even conducted an investigation, but yet they ran with it as though everything was clear cut? Well, then we find the previous New Year's Eve, the same sheriff's department had pulled over a couple for allegedly having too dark of tint on their car windows. Turned out it wasn't too dark. So since they're there, they decided to search the car. There's nothing in the car, but there's a bag of cotton candy, which they identified as methamphetamine,

• 1:05:55Speaker 04

  and arrested the woman for some reason. I guess she probably said it was my, I don't know. I don't know all the ins and outs of it. But they arrested her for a bag of cotton candy and then held her in jail for three months until the Georgia Bureau of Investigation did a test on it and said, "Yeah, it's cotton candy, guys." Then they held her for three more days before they let her go.

• 1:06:18Shawn Ryan?

  This is the exact same?

• 1:06:19Speaker 04

  Exact same sheriff's department. And as a matter of fact-

• 1:06:22Shawn Ryan?

  So there's a history of this shit.

• 1:06:23Speaker 04

  Yeah. When you Google it, the same investigator's name comes up on the news reports. So I don't know what the connection is between them, but you know, it's starting to look like maybe there's something going on there. And then-

• 1:06:37Shawn Ryan?

  Is it, are these, are these articles online? Can I link these?

• 1:06:42Speaker 04

  Yeah, please do. Link them all. All you gotta do is Google "Georgia woman arrested for cotton candy." You'll see the dash cam, you'll read the whole story, and you'll see the name of the investigator, who also was the investigator on my case, when mysteriously my background check comes back as a career criminal instead of somebody who's never been in trouble and had a top secret security clearance.

• 1:07:06Shawn Ryan?

  Are there any more examples of?

• 1:07:08Speaker 04

  There's some disturbing things that continue to come out of that department. So, four months before I was shot, in August, one of their deputies gets busted because a Fox 5 I-Team investigator gets a recording from a woman where a Monroe County Sheriff's Deputy had arrested her for DUI and drug charges and then called her a couple of days later, apparently or allegedly, whatever, and picked her up in his personal pickup truck, drove her into the woods and told her, because this is on the recording and you can hear this, that he would go to the DA and work something out on her charges if he'd just,

• 1:07:51Speaker 04

  you know, "Give me a little blowjob, we'll take care of it right now."

• 1:07:54Shawn Ryan?

  You gotta be shitting me, and this is a, this is a recording that you can pull up and listen to?

• 1:07:59Speaker 04

  Yep, yep.

• 1:08:00Shawn Ryan?

  Holy shit.

• 1:08:01Speaker 04

  Yep. And then after that, um, after my incident, which was four months later, the next thing that happens, which just happened, uh, in December, at the end of December, another one of their deputies, while wearing insignia, and this is on the Monroe County Sheriff's Department Facebook page, you can read it right there, "While wearing Monroe County Sheriff's Department insignia, identifying himself as a deputy, gets busted in a neighboring county's drug sting."

• 1:08:32Shawn Ryan?

  Wow.

• 1:08:33Speaker 04

  So, he's been arrested, charged, fired, just like the previous guy.

• 1:08:37Shawn Ryan?

  Well, then, me and you, you came here a couple of days ago, we actually tried the podcast, your TBI, traumatic brain injury, got the best of you, we had to take break, and, um...

• 1:08:50Speaker 04

  We find the article.

• 1:08:51Shawn Ryan?

  I Googled him.

• 1:08:52Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 1:08:53Shawn Ryan?

  What's the first thing that came up?

• 1:08:55Speaker 04

  That they had just killed the guy while they were booking him into the jail.

• 1:08:59Shawn Ryan?

  So, there's a lot of history.

• 1:09:00Speaker 04

  That, well, cotton candy, blowjob cop, this frickin' military and CIA professional is a career criminal.

• 1:09:15Speaker 04

  The, uh, buying drugs while wearing insignia identifying him as a cop. And now they just killed the guy while they were booking him into jail. Over an altercation is what it says. I don't know the specifics.

• 1:09:32Shawn Ryan?

  And nobody's looking into your stuff yet, other than your attorney and a couple of friends like me and some other people that we know. I'm so sorry that you're having to go through this.

• 1:09:47Shawn Ryan?

  I mean, I know that you, you had to sell your house. You sold your motorcycle. You sold your truck. You sold just about everything just to be able to pay for an attorney to prove that you're innocent. I mean, and you moved out of Georgia to Florida, your home state. How long have you lived in Georgia?

• 1:10:10Speaker 04

  Almost 25 years.

• 1:10:11Shawn Ryan?

  25 fucking years you lived there, called it home. And now you have to leave because you feel threatened by a fucking sheriff's department?

• 1:10:19Speaker 04

  Yep, very true.

• 1:10:20Shawn Ryan?

  That's fucking disgusting. Just to put things in perspective here, you asked me to write a letter.

• 1:10:30Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:10:30Shawn Ryan?

  How many letters from agency personnel, military personnel, special operations? I mean, people who hold integrity to them in the highest regards. How many letters did you get?

• 1:10:46Speaker 04

  I got them from everybody I asked. Not only did they write them, but they were like, I'll expose my cover and testify for you. Because there's no way they got this right. I've seen you in action. I've seen you show tremendous restraint. There's no fucking way what they're saying happened, happened. What do you need me to do? I'm there for you.

• 1:11:11Shawn Ryan?

  Did that have any effect at all?

• 1:11:14Speaker 04

  Um, you know, it'll probably hold some sway over the jury if it gets to that point, which it looks like it will, quite frankly. But the sheriff's department doesn't give a shit. They made up their mind early on.

• 1:11:28Speaker 04

  And ran with it.

• 1:11:30Shawn Ryan?

  Why the fuck do you think they're doing this to you?

• 1:11:33Speaker 04

  Dude, I don't know. I can't, I can only speculate. But it is interesting to know that the incidences that we just mentioned, they didn't unearth any of those. Every one of them was brought to their attention by an outside agency, or by a news crew, or outside individuals. So they don't seem to be real big on looking deeply into things concerning them, but they're all over anything that they can really just hammer the shit out of people for if they feel justified in doing so. They're not public servants. They are more, it feels like

• 1:12:15Speaker 04

  they're even at war with the people that they should be protecting.

• 1:12:19Shawn Ryan?

  Well, let's talk a little bit about

• 1:12:24Shawn Ryan?

  how you're dealing, how's your health? And I know being shot in the head has changed.

• 1:12:33Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:12:33Shawn Ryan?

  It's changed a lot of, pretty much everything about your life. And, I mean, we can't even get through, we tried, how many, two or three different times to make this podcast, and the brain injury just gets in the way every time you get dizzy. Can you tell us a little bit about how this has changed your daily life? And your wife, and your son, and your daughter?

• 1:12:57Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, first off, it's very, very traumatic, and has been damaging to Pam. Pam is the strongest person. She's been with me through the entire military career, all the deployments, all the CIA time. She found out later that I'd been blown up, and obviously she was very concerned about that. But she handled everything like a trooper. Strong woman. This has destroyed her. I mean, she has panic attacks, she's on medication to keep calm, because when she starts thinking about it, well, you heard her on the phone, her voice just shakes uncontrollably. She has a hard time even saying the words, because it's just so overwhelming to her. As far as me...

• 1:13:43Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'm fucked up, bro. I mean, I got shot in the head.

• 1:13:48Speaker 04

  So I've got residual issues. I have permanent balance issues, as you've seen. And sometimes the dizziness overwhelms me. It can even sweep me off my feet if I'm standing up, so I have to be careful. Helps a lot if I'm, I got my elbows on things because it's like my internal gyro scope's no longer working correctly. It does for short bursts, but then in the long term, it just starts going crazy. And I get really dizzy really fast, start stumbling. A lot of times I just have to lay down. So, you know, like you mentioned, we tried to do this a couple of times and I just start falling out because I fade.

• 1:14:27Speaker 04

  And when I fade, I can't get the words that are in my mind to come out of my mouth so that I can make comprehensive sentences and statements. So. It's interesting. It's difficult, but...

• 1:14:45Shawn Ryan?

  What are the doctors saying? I mean, is there gonna be improvement? Do they know?

• 1:14:49Speaker 04

  So they don't really know. They told Pam from the beginning, "Expect a new norm." You know, he's not gonna be the same, possibly ever. He may get a little bit better, he may not get any better. I have gotten a little bit better, thank God. But it could take the rest of my life to get any better than I am right now. Or I may not get any better at all. Or who knows, it could get, could get better a little bit every year. Nobody knows. Like I mentioned before, I got bullet shrapnel, sharp shards of metal sitting on the artery that feeds the entire right hemisphere of my brain. So if I do have a seizure, I'm done.

• 1:15:29Shawn Ryan?

  Or if you

• 1:15:30Speaker 04

  Get hit in the head.

• 1:15:31Shawn Ryan?

  Fall the wrong way.

• 1:15:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, if I fall because I get dizzy,

• 1:15:34Shawn Ryan?

  It's over.

• 1:15:34Speaker 04

  Bump my head, it's probably over, you know? So.

• 1:15:38Shawn Ryan?

  Then you have all the stress from the lawsuit, so...

• 1:15:42Speaker 04

  It's not a lawsuit, it's a criminal prosecution that they're running against me.

• 1:15:48Shawn Ryan?

  So they're prosecuting you? You just got done with the discovery phase, correct?

• 1:15:53Speaker 04

  Correct.

• 1:15:54Shawn Ryan?

  If you're found guilty, which I'm...

• 1:15:59Shawn Ryan?

  Praying that I know you won't because you're lucky.

• 1:16:02Speaker 04

  And I've got the truth on my side.

• 1:16:04Shawn Ryan?

  But, um, what do you, what, say you're found guilty, what are you looking at?

• 1:16:10Speaker 04

  Up to 22 years in prison. I will die in prison if it came to that. Because I ain't gonna live to be in my 80s, not with this road hard and put away body that I'm walking around in.

• 1:16:22Shawn Ryan?

  Fuck dude.

• 1:16:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's pretty serious, you know? It's, uh,

• 1:16:28Speaker 04

  another near-death experience in my life and, uh, this one unfortunately has an after effect that I have to contend with in the form of some very aggressive, uh, militant people

• 1:16:44Speaker 04

  that apparently would rather be out killing terrorists than being sheriffs, but they're sheriffs, so they seem to be acting kind of the same way.

• 1:16:56Speaker 04

  Actually, no, we wouldn't put up with the way that they're acting where we came from. They wouldn't last.

• 1:17:02Shawn Ryan?

  I just fucking hate that this is happening to you. I don't want to keep going on because I don't want, I don't want you to have an episode with your TBI. Is there anything you want people to know before we wrap this up?

• 1:17:21Speaker 04

  Well, the first thing I want them to know without a shadow of a doubt, I didn't do what they said I did. And I am more stunned than anybody that they came to the conclusions that they came to, especially after we went in and clearly showed them that that's not the case. But they just literally wouldn't hear it. So, there's something amiss in the Monroe County Sheriff's Department. The people that are representing Georgia in the middle of Georgia are...

• 1:17:52Speaker 04

  Having some issues. And somebody, preferably somebody with some state or federal authority needs to kinda look at what's going on there because this is a real trend. It's not just some guy that's under threat of prosecution saying, "Oh, they suck. They should all go to hell." This is real. This is legit. There is something going on there that's not right. There's some very disturbing facts that keep being brought to their attention because they're obviously not addressing it, which leads to the belief that it is a a command atmosphere.

• 1:18:37Shawn Ryan?

  So you just wanna get the story out? You want everybody to know what happened?

• 1:18:44Shawn Ryan?

  And maybe something will come of it.

• 1:18:46Speaker 04

  Well, I mean, the sheriff was very, very, very quick to go on TV and tell everybody that the other guy was surely innocent in this case. Which again, implies that I'm surely guilty in this case. So how is that innocent until proven guilty? You didn't even have a statement from me. Hell, they didn't even know my background. They thought I was a career criminal. So, you know, part of it is they need to do a better damn job and they need to know that. And nothing makes people do their job correctly more than public scrutiny.

• 1:19:23Speaker 04

  So thank you for having me here because this will definitely take another big step towards bringing that light into a very dark place.

• 1:19:34Shawn Ryan?

  I'm just sorry you're going through this, man. I mean, I love you. I fucking hate seeing you go through this.

• 1:19:42Shawn Ryan?

  I know, well, I don't know, but I see the physical

• 1:19:49Shawn Ryan?

  hurdles that it's caused. And I see the emotional stress that you have from, I mean, from this happening and what potentially could happen and...

• 1:20:05Shawn Ryan?

  I'm sorry, man. Is there anything anybody can do to help?

• 1:20:10Speaker 04

  Well, first of all, thank you again, dude. It's fucking, love you guys both. Thank you so much for letting me tell this story. Because, obviously, this is a lot to contend with and deal with and process. And, uh, it's kinda fucked up our whole life.

• 1:20:32Speaker 04

  But, as far as what can people do? I don't know, man. I don't know who's watching. Maybe there's somebody with federal authority that can do something.

• 1:20:45Speaker 04

  Pam and I are starting over. Because, like you said, we fucking sold everything so we could afford a good attorney. A real private investigator who's good at what they do. We're gonna have to hire an expert witness, you know, to prove that they fucked some shit up pretty badly when they did this so-called investigation. So, you know, anybody that can help us get real justice based on the truth and the real facts? Fuck, man, please contact me. Please contact you, you know, get to me through whatever. If there's something that you have that can legally be added to this?

• 1:21:26Speaker 04

  I'm all ears.

• 1:21:27Shawn Ryan?

  Proud of you.

• 1:21:30Shawn Ryan?

  Well done.

• 1:21:32Shawn Ryan?

  Love you, dude.

• 1:21:33Speaker 04

  Love you too, man.

• 1:21:34Shawn Ryan?

  I'm praying for you.

• 1:21:34Speaker 04

  Thanks, man.

• 1:21:36Shawn Ryan?

  My wife's praying for you. I know everybody watching this will be praying for you and, um, we'll be following you.

• 1:21:45Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 1:21:47Shawn Ryan?

  My pleasure.

• 1:22:09Speaker 06

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