|
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
GLENN: Let's go
Colin Bruley. He is a -- he's a guy who works at an
apartment complex, and he lives at that apartment complex,
and Colin, I'm going to let you take the story from there.
What happened to you?
BRULEY: Well, it started last week, started actually a
little bit before that. Excuse me. My company had placed me
on Family Medical Leave Act the first week of June due to
eye infection, so I actually was -- was not working. I still
haven't been released back to work, you know, from the
ophthalmologist that I've been seeing. So I was off
basically sick, I guess you could say, just hanging out in
the apartment for my most part. It was June 11th, it was a
Monday, it was around 11, 12 o'clock, and I heard some
shouting outside, which is not necessarily uncommon. Walked
out to the patio just to see what was going on, didn't
really see anything, it died down, didn't hear anything
else, so I, you know, went back into the apartment,
continued to watch TV. Later that night, went to bed, which
would have gone into Tuesday, June 12th at early hours of
the June 12th. I was in bed, and had only been in bed for
maybe five, ten minutes, this was about two a.m. and had
heard some loud screaming coming from outside, some -- some
cries for help. At that point I jumped out of bed, grabbed a
shotgun, which I leave near my -- near my bed just in case
kind of emergency situation, if it ever were to come about
--
GLENN: You live in -- you live in Florida, right?
BRULEY: Yeah, I live in Florida. Basically grew up in
Michigan, worked for the company that I had worked for is a
Michigan-based company. Worked for them up in Michigan for
almost two years and then they took over management of a
property down here in Jacksonville, and they moved me down
here to help out with the property.
GLENN: Right. And so now you -- you say you have your
shotgun. I'm just wondering what state you were in, just to
make sure you were legal to have that shotgun sitting there
next to your bed, take it outside. You're in Florida. You
hear the screams for help. What happened?
BRULEY: Like I said, jumped out of bed, grabbed the gun, ran
to my patio door, set the gun against my chair inside the
apartment, stepped out of the patio -- stepped out onto the
patio. At the same time I stepped onto the patio I
encountered three gentleman I actually know from the
complex, three residents, also three friends of mine that I
met, you know, when I moved down here. At that same moment
is when I believe the victim, Tonnetta, cried out that she
had been shot. The three gentlemen outside weren't armed,
they were going over to the scene, but that was the point
when we had found out there was a shooter.
So I grabbed the gun from inside, then proceeded to Miss --
Miss Lee, which she was about 25 yards or so from my patio
door, up on the third floor. Just tried to find out where
she was located, where she was shot, where the shooter was,
before I reached her, which I was able to get most of that
-- all of that information, really, that she would have been
shot in the leg. She was up on the third floor, and, from
our understanding, the shooter was still in the apartment.
So we -- we proceeded rapidly but cautiously at the same
time, not knowing who the shooter was, where the shooter was
at --
GLENN: Anybody --
BRULEY: I'm sorry.
GLENN: Did anybody one for a phone, did anybody have their
cell phone, call nine one win.
BRULEY: Yeah, I believe there was a few 911 calls on the way
there. Miss Lee herself I believe called 911 when she had
been shot but I think she was disconnected, if I'm not
mistaken, and then a couple of her neighbors had called 911
as well. So 911 had been called.
But at that point, had got up to where Miss Lee was laying
at the top of the stairwell, could see, you know, a
tremendous amount of blood from her apartment, which was
about 20 feet away from where she was laying, leading up to
where she was laying. That was the point where I had -- I
crouched down next to her and -- and basically pointed my
shotgun at the open door because all of the five
eyewitnesses that were there, including myself, had thought
that the shooter was still in the apartment at the time.
That was also the point where I was pretty much scared. My
gun only had one shell in it, and I figured, you know,
whoever the shooter was, he probably had more artillery, I
guess you could say, than I did. And basically I was out in
the open not knowing where this guy was at.
But I also had to make a decision at that point as well, you
know, to, you know, help the victim. I could see that she
was losing blood pretty rapidly. So I handed the gun to my
neighbor upstairs. His name is Tony. He's been in the Navy
for 21 years. You know, told him the gun's got one shell and
it's loaded, you know, just, you know, if you gotta use it
for some reason, you gotta use it. Obviously it was a
situation where someone had been shot and the shooter around
or at least we had thought there was a shooter around.
So then I proceeded to administer the best first-aid that I
could administer to Ms. Lee at that time --
GLENN: How long did it take before the police got there?
BRULEY: From the time that I got to Miss Lee to the time
that the police actually showed up was probably about ten
minutes.
GLENN: Okay. Did anyone have to discharge the shotgun?
BRULEY: No, no, no, no. No -- no shot was fired whatsoever.
GLENN: What happened -- this is early in the morning.
BRULEY: Hm-hm.
GLENN: You don't call the -- you don't call -- I mean the
police are there and everything but you don't call your boss
who you work for, runs the apartment community, until the
next morning, right, nine o'clock in the morning?
BRULEY: Actually she -- she called me the following morning.
By the time the scene, you know, everything had wrapped up
and I had actually left the scene of the incident, it was
probably going on closer to three o'clock, 2:30, three
o'clock in the morning.
GLENN: Okay. And when she -- when your boss called you the
next day, instead of saying, good job, how are you, she
fired you?
BRULEY: Well, she didn't fire me at that particular moment.
She just said, you know, I heard about what happened last
night, and I just need you to come in when you get a chance
and, you know, give us your incident report, which is, you
know, protocol for, you know, any incident, you know, on the
property. You gotta do an incident report on it. So, you
know, that was the case at the time. Like I said I wasn't
working, so I went into the office probably around ten,
10:30 and had proceeded to explain my account of what had
happened. At the same time, the victim's sister, Erica, she
was also in there, and she was giving her incident report as
well, because she had been talking to her sister leading up
to this incident about what was going on. She also thanked
me personally at that point, said she had to have severe
surgery, was in intensive care but it looked like she was
going to be okay, hopefully.
GLENN: Okay. All right, hang on, we gotta pick up the --
I've got a hard network break here, we've gotta pick up the
story here in a second. There is an update on the story.
Wait till you hear the firing first. That's coming up. Hang
on.
(OUT 11:41.)
GLENN: All right, we're call -- we're talking to Colin, a
guy who was woken up in the middle of the night in his
apartment complex where he -- he works, and he heard some
screams for help, he grabs his shotgun, goes out, sees some
other people there, they go into a room, they believe that
the shooter is still in that room, he helps -- he helps this
woman get to the hospital, he helps bandage her up a bit,
she was in intensive care, police come, everything's fine,
goes to bed, next morning his boss, the apartment complex,
calls him in, says, file a report, and then what happens,
Colin?
BRULEY: After they filed the report, coincidentally enough
they made me sign my lease which I thought was kind of
weird, I mean I've been down here since December 2nd and was
never officially asked to sign a formal lease. So I was kind
of like, okay, whatever, you know, just do what I gotta do.
I didn't really -- I never had thought that -- that day,
later that day was going to be fired, so it didn't really
click until later why they had me sign that lease. So I
went, and they -- they let me leave, I went home like I said
I'd been up there on medical leave, I'm not really allowed
to be out in the sunlight, I can't really see in the
sunlight, I'll better now, but at that time light
sensitivity still really bothered my eyes. So just hung out
inside, got a call again around 4:30 to come back into the
office, that they wanted to talk about the incident some
more, so I went back into the office, I was put on
conference call with my senior area director, of which point
she said she was very disappointed with the way I handled
the situation, that bringing a shotgun on the property was
-- was a bad idea, and then basically said we're terminating
your employment.
GLENN: For what reason?
BRULEY: I guess, like I said, the way I handled the
situation wasn't the way they would have like the me to, I
suppose.
GLENN: What -- (Laughing.) What did you say to them?
BRULEY: I actually -- when she said they terminated my
employment, I asked if she was kidding, I think three
consecutive times. You know, are you kidding? You know, are
you kidding me? That's the words I said. And I then
proceeded to say, disappointed with the way I handled the
situation and I don't understand, you know, I mean I could
understand if I went out there and I started shooting rounds
off or running around crazy with a -- with a gun or --
GLENN: Your --
BRULEY: -- I would have shot somebody by mistake, but I
don't really understand how I hurt the property in any way.
So --
GLENN: And so what has happened since then? First of all,
what's the name of this property? It's in Tallahassee,
right?
BRULEY: Jacksonville.
GLENN: Or Jackson -- that's what I meant. Jacksonville.
BRULEY: The property here in Jacksonville is the oaks at
mill creek and the company is Village Green Companies.
GLENN: Village Green Companies? Where are they located?
BRULEY: They're -- their main headquarters is out of
Michigan, but they're nationwide company. They manage
properties. It's a real estate property management company.
GLENN: Where in Michigan are they?
BRULEY: Farmington Hills.
GLENN: Farmington Hills. What's the name of the company,
again?
BRULEY: Village Green Companies.
GLENN: And what -- what has happened since?
BRULEY: Well, right after that I proceeded to contact
people, you know, up the chain of command. I believe I'd
spoke with regional director in the Cincinnati region
because down here even though it's Florida, the region that
we're considered is the Cincinnati region. I spoke with her.
She said I needed to speak with someone in human resources,
which I spoke with them. The -- the director of human
resources basically said they made the decision there was
going to be no reversal. I then proceeded to contact the
president of the company, George Quay and asked him, you
know, just tried to talk with him about what was going on,
and why -- he said, you know, the way I acted was -- I think
he -- he said he was brandishing or running around the
property with a shotgun and --
GLENN: Hang on just a second. Hey, Dan.
BRULEY: Sure, sure.
GLENN: Dan?
DAN: Yes.
GLENN: Why don't we seen Monday if we can get this president
of this company on the phone.
DAN: Yeah, sure. I'll give him a call.
GLENN: Yeah, let's see, we're running out of time now. Let's
see if we can get the president of this company on the phone
to talk about Colin brandishing a firearm, running around
the property with a firearm. Hey, Colin, is he going to tell
me that you sucked as an employee?
BRULEY: He probably will pull out all the stops I think now,
but I don't know. I mean if he -- if he says I sucked as an
employee, that would be a hard case to prove. I have all
kinds of awards and accommodation for top sales in the
company nationwide. Actually the 2007, I'd been a top ten
closer I think 20 weeks out of 22 weeks of employment. I'd
made the company --
GLENN: Okay, all right, I got it. So, Colin, we'll try to
get this guy on the phone. Have you talked to an attorney
about this?
BRULEY: As a matter of fact I just -- it's something I need
-- if anybody knows out there a good lawyer, an employment
lawyer, I'm definitely looking to speak with one. That's
definitely something I'm -- I'm looking for right now or I
need to do right now.
GLENN: How do they get in touch with you?
BRULEY: They can call my phone if they want --
GLENN: I just -- I want to warn you, you're on a national
radio program. You give out a phone number, there are
ramifications on that one.
STU: Glenn, why don't we give him my e-mail address. That's
probably better.
GLENN: No, let's give -- I don't want to be in the middle of
that. Colin, do you have an e-mail address?
BRULEY: Yes, I do.
GLENN: Do you prefer to give that out, or the phone?
BRULEY: I'll give out the phone. It doesn't bother me.
GLENN: Okay. All right.
BRULEY: It's 734 area code.
GLENN: 734.
BRULEY: Yep. 771 --
GLENN: 771.
BRULEY: 9921.
GLENN: 9921.
BRULEY: Yes, sir.
GLENN: You have call waiting?
BRULEY: Do I have call waiting?
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah, okay. We're on a 42nd delay so I'm going
to will you tell go here in just a couple of seconds. Best
of luck, Colin, I'm going to call you on Monday, we'll put
you on, we'll see if you can make any progress in getting a
spokesperson or the president of this -- of this
organization. I know I would -- I'd like to live in a -- in
an apartment complex, especially in a right to own gun and
protect yourself state like Florida is, I'd like to live in
someplace if I know there's a shooter on premise that it
doesn't turn into Virginia Tech, there's somebody there that
has a shotgun and is willing to extend there and not be a
jerk about it but actually -- actually give it to a Navy
guy, as you're bandaging up a tenant, give it to a Navy guy,
guy that's been in the Navy for 20 years, and just say watch
that door, God bless you Colin. I think you did the right
thing.
BRULEY: Well, thank you, sir. I appreciate it.
GLENN: You bet. We'll -- we'll talk to you again on Monday.
Give your number out one more time.
BRULEY: 734-771-9921.
GLENN: There you go. That is the number if you are an
employment attorney, somebody that can help him out, get his
job back. Thanks a lot, Colin, we'll talk to you on Monday.
BRULEY: Thanks again.
GLENN: You bet. Bye-bye.END TRANSCRIPT |
|
Related Audio
|
|
