Dave Hinners — The Arrests, the Trial, and What It Cost | Part 2

Dave Hinners was a Wichita patrol officer, not quite three years on the job, when he became the first officer to speak with the lone survivor of the December 2000 Wichita Massacre. Today he is the executive director of the United States Deputy Sheriff's Association. In this second of two parts, he picks up with hosts Dennis Collins and Craig Floyd the morning after.

By nine o'clock that morning, a 911 caller had spotted a man matching the description dragging a big-screen TV across an apartment parking lot, and the first brother was in custody. Hinners explains that the killers had gone back to the house after the shootings to take what was left, and he still wonders what might have happened if the survivor had seen an unlit farmhouse 200 yards away. The second brother was arrested after his own girlfriend recognized him and made a phone call. Both were in custody within 24 hours.

At trial, the survivor testified the way she had spoken to Hinners in the emergency room: strong, credible and unafraid. He explains why he deliberately never spoke with her again before he testified, and why he still thinks about her. Without her, he says, the case would have depended on another witness or DNA, and it would not have moved as fast. He also describes the crime scene work: a lead investigator trained in archaeology who had the scene gridded and every section collected in its own drum.

Craig Floyd then asks what the case cost him. Hinners calls it one of his demons. He went back on shift the next night after about an hour and a half of sleep. He credits his department's stress debriefings, a close-knit shift and his wife, and argues that officers have to talk about what they carry rather than lock it away.

The episode closes on his work with the United States Deputy Sheriff's Association, which provides free training and safety equipment to underfunded agencies and a $1,000 benefit to the family of every officer who dies in the line of duty. Craig Floyd, who serves on its board, explains how the conversation led to this episode.

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