Charlie-Porter---CopAs Charlie Porter reflects back on his life, he believes that he had the most wonderful police career any human being could ever have.  Police work, to him, was like a preacher’s calling. It was what he did, and he was so good at it.

“I just had a sense for [police work]. I just had a feeling,” said Porter.

Those “feelings” didn’t keep Porter from danger, they led him right to it. It’s hard to remember exactly, but Porter knows his broken bone count is in-between 12 and 17. Taking into count all of the little bones in his feet and hands, along with the big ones, 17 bones is a good guess on how many Porter has crushed. During the course of his duties Porter has also ruined his spine and damaged his brain stem.

In 1983 Porter retired from the Liberty Police Department as a result of a stab wound to the lung and his second broken back. Porter’s career span was from 1972 to 1983. During those years he also worked with the Easley Police Department serving as a patrol officer, training officer, crime prevention officer, and detective attaining the rank of sergeant. When Porter retired he held the rank of Captain as a second in command of his department. He believes it to be a miracle that he ever made it this far in life. Even though Porter is still haunted by the memories of his past, there isn’t anything he would change.

“If you only knew what I’ve been through in my life. It’s been wonderful … I wouldn’t change anything. Not even the worse things in my life I wouldn’t change because it’s all been part of God’s plan. He has set this all up. All we have to do is show up. That’s all we have to do, and he’ll take care of the rest of it. I’ve made some mistakes in my life. In retrospect I probably would not have. If I would have rethought it I would have done it different. I wouldn’t change any of it because it is all part of His plan. It’s just a great thing. God is wonderful,” said Porter.

Thirty-one years have passed since Porter has been involved in police work and the memories of those times can still bring tears to his eyes and make the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Porter is always able and willing to tell a humorous story and will sometimes get in trouble at his new job for talking a little too much.

Porter takes the good with the bad. When he closes his eyes at night there is the threat of being haunted by some of the horrific visions that he has seen in his travels. Those visions remind him of the evil that exists in this world, but that doesn’t stop him from carrying a smile on his face. From the time Porter gets up in the morning until the time he closes his eyes at night, Porter is in suffering from the aches and pains he has acquired from the wrecks and occupational damages of police work, but it doesn’t stop him from telling a joke to make someone else smile. Pain medication taken twice a day is enough to take the edge of the pain off and get him through the day. If it weren’t for the medication he believes he wouldn’t be able to do anything. That pain doesn’t deter Porter from getting up and working his part-time job he has to make ends meet.

To understand where Porter is today and who he is as a total person, you need to understand a little of what he has been through. Throughout this series you will learn of a few of the daring events that make up the incredible police officer that is Charlie Porter. A man who risked his life chasing bad guys and took the repercussions those actions have on a life outside of police work.

After a police shift when Porter was taking a rookie home, he stopped to help some Deputies that were chasing a couple of men all over Pickens County. When they drove up to the airport Porter felt that there wasn’t anywhere else for the men to go and they would be caught soon. Porter parked his patrol car at the entrance to the airport and waited.

While waiting he heard two gun shots while standing outside the car. Then over the radio he heard the deputy say, “They rammed my car and they are headed out.” Before Porter had time to react, the men pitched up over a hill and headed straight for his parked patrol car. Jumping back in the car, Porter desperately tried to get his seatbelt on because he knew they were going to hit him. The car rammed him head-on cracking Porter’s neck, killing a third of his brain stem.

Porter was unable to get his seatbelt hooked before the impact that turned the car around. He went up under the steering wheel and hit his face. Both cars went about a half a mile down the road. The other car went a little farther than Porter’s before it quit and rolled back towards him. By this time the rookie, scared to death, had left Porter and the scene. Things went down in a hurry from there.

Porter got out of the car at the same time as the other driver got out. The man made an offensive motion towards Porter and Porter hit him as hard as he could which knocked the man down. Extra force was needed to make the man realize that getting up wasn’t a good option.

The passenger was still sitting in the car when Porter ordered him to get out. The man informed Porter that his door was jammed, and then Porter ordered him to get out the driver’s side. Porter recalls that the man made some kind of noise and didn’t make any effort to exit the car.

“Then I really violated all my training and all these years of experience. I reached in and grabbed his shirt to pull him out. It was stupid,” said Porter.

Unknown to Porter, the man had a knife under his leg. When Porter took hold of the man the man reacted with a hit to the right side of Porter’s chest. At first Porter thought that he had only been hit, he didn’t know that he had been stabbed. Porter had a marksmanship pin, a breathalyzer pin, and a name tag attached to his shirt and his first thought was that he had hit a pin and the pin had stuck in him. Opening up his shirt, Porter revealed blood pouring out of him. When he began coughing up blood Porter knew that his situation wasn’t good.

Looking back in the car is when Porter noticed that the man was holding a knife. Anger built up inside Porter along with the pain and he took his gun out.

“I was going to kill him,” said Porter.

That was when the man curled up into a ball while letting out a whimper. In that moment Porter couldn’t pull the trigger.

“I would have to tell God why I killed him,” said Porter. “He wasn’t a threat to me.”

Porter then got on the radio and informed dispatch to call the doctor. He knew he had a stab wound in the lung, but he didn’t know if it had hit his heart or not. He knew he was bleeding a lot, and that he needed some help.

Porter waited for the ambulance along with about 10 other police officers when a deputy friend of his came sliding into the scene. The Deputy came in sideways, jumped out of his car and whipped his gun out.

Porter said, “Take me to the hospital. I can’t wait for that ambulance, he’s clear over in six mile. I’ll bleed to death.”

By the time Porter had left Liberty and got to Easley he couldn’t walk. He was drained of blood, and was like a rag doll. The hospital took him in and Porter laid there about a week. While in the hospital Porter kept a pistol under his pillow, and a police friend of his was staying bedside because there was a fear of family retaliation. One day the boy’s Dad came into the room and introduced himself. Before he finished his sentence the man had two pistols in his face.

The man said, “No, no, no, no, no, no. Don’t do it.”

The Dad was coming to thank Porter for not killing his son. After the boy spent several years in prison his Dad contacted Porter again. The man’s son was up for parole and he wanted to talk to Porter and see if he’ll not object to his being paroled. Porter went down to the prison and met with the man, his Dad and a couple of guards.

The prisoner told Porter that he was on medicine and also some illegal narcotics the night of the incident. He informed Porter that he would never have hurt him if he had been in his right mind. He continued to say that he had no idea of what he was doing and that his Dad said if he can be paroled his son can live with him. There was a job waiting for him on the outside and If Porter wouldn’t object to him being paroled the man could be released and start a decent life.

Porter told him to let him think about it before making a decision. He went home and for about a week he mulled that topic over. He thought that the man had been in prison long enough. He believed that the man wouldn’t be any more rehabilitated ten years from now than he was at that point in time. Porter thought the man was as good as he’s going to be. He felt that the man deserved a shot if his Dad was going to watch him, take care of him and supervise him along with a parole officer. The man was paroled and less than a year later he murdered two teenage girls in a Wal-Mart parking lot, shooting them both to death.

“I almost had a nervous breakdown. Not only did I pass up killing the low-life piece of scum, but I did not object to his parole and it was a lie. He even had his daddy’s pistol. They weren’t even supposed to have a pistol in the house. It was all a lie,” said Porter.

Porter attended the funeral of the two girls and waited in line. When he got up to those caskets he lost it completely. The mother ran over and grabbed Porter.

He asked her, “What can I say? I killed your daughters. If I had killed that piece of garbage, or left him in prison, they’d be alive.”

She said, “That’s a God thing Charlie. God knew what he was doing and you did what you thought was right both times. That’s all you can do. You’re an excellent cop, and you knew what you were doing and you’re a Christian man.”

Porter is still not over it yet as his eyes water up thinking back on the funeral. To this day he still has problems with it. While in a graveyard recently he saw the graves for the girls and lost it again.

“You do what you are trained to do and what your decency tells you to do and you’re morally obligated to do what God tells you to do. It is all a plan. He’s got a plan for this whole universe and we’re just part of that,” said Porter.

In the next issue we will look at the humorous side of Charlie Porter, his military service and devotion to veterans, what he is doing today and how he broke and crushed some of those 17 bones. We will reflect on his ghost, his physical and mental pain as well as the great things he has done for the community. We will explore his humbling experiences and how he has touched so many lives in the community. By the time we finish, we will know where this fantastic life of police work has taken a man who has been a blessing in the Upstate community.

 

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