By Bruce Carlisle, chief of police, Lavonia, Georgia.
During their childhood years, Michael Schulman and Thomas Bacigalupi spent their idle time playing sandlot baseball, football and riding their bicycles in River Vale. Both attended Pascack Valley High School and after graduation, went their separate ways. Schulman ended up in Lavonia, Ga. as a police officer and worked his way through the ranks to captain of uniform patrol. Bacigalupi followed along a similar path, becoming a police officer for the George Mason University Police Department in Fairfax, Va. He oversees criminal investigations and the Office of Professional Standards.
Schulman and Bacigalupi had not seen each other after graduation until Aug. 1, 2017 at the annual College and University Police and Investigators Conference (CUPIC) in Fairfax, Va. You see, Bacigalupi is the coordinator of the conference and Schulman had been invited to be a guest speaker. Schulman’s topic of discussion was “A Case Study in a Small-Town Police Shooting: Can It Happen Here or to Me?”
Schulman has a great deal of knowledge on the subject since he himself was a survivor of an ambush on a police officer. On the evening of Dec. 12, 2016, Schulman was the backup for fellow Officer Jeffery Martin on a “routine” traffic stop. As Schulman exited his vehicle, he could tell that something was amiss. The suspect/shooter had his hands in his pockets and after several commands to remove them, he produced a 40-caliber pistol and shot Schulman and Martin.
Martin was shot in the hand. Schulman suffered life-threatening injuries from the bullet that entered his right bicep and upon exiting, entered his right chest cavity through the arm opening of his ballistic vest. The bullet broke a rib and punctured his lung before coming to rest next to his spinal cord. Martin was transported to a local trauma center, where he was treated and released. The projectile was later surgically removed. Schulman’s fate was much different. He spent four days in a medically induced coma, nine days total in the Intensive Care Unit.
The suspect was captured the night of the shooting and is currently awaiting trial. Martin has recovered and returned to full duty. Schulman has returned to duty in an administrative capacity, where he now oversees the Department of Community Policing. Physically there are scars, but the psychological scars can only be realized by the wounded officers that were merely doing their jobs on that fateful winter evening.
After Bacigalupi heard about Schulman’s shooting incident, he invited him to the annual conference to share his story with the attendees. Lavonia Police Chief Bruce Carlisle and Assistant Chief Matthew London created a PowerPoint presentation and accompanied Schulman as he reunited with his childhood friend and shared his harrowing night on a “routine” traffic stop.
The main objective of the presentation was to instill in the minds of those in attendance that there are people out there with bad intentions and that it can happen to any law enforcement officer, anywhere and by the response of those in attendance, the message was well-received.
Photo courtesy Bruce Carlisle