Too Quick

Is it possible that you could be so quick in your reaction to a perceived attack that you counterattack before the potential attacker has even moved? It has happened.

In the 1970’s, Rock Springs, Wyoming had a national reputation as being a wide-open, Wild West town, so the town hired a former range detective, Edward Lee "Ed" Cantrell, as the new Director of Public Safety, and convened a special grand jury to look into the allegations. Cantrell hired Michael "Mike" Rosa, a Puerto Rican undercover agent from New York, to make undercover visits to the various saloons in town. How undercover Rosa was a matter of question. He was disliked by his fellow police officers and there were allegations that he had been paying off informants with drugs from the evidence room. Rosa openly bragged that he was going to "bring down" Ed Cantrell in his forthcoming testimony before the grand jury.

In 1978, Ed Cantrell decided to talk with Rosa. Cantrell and two other officers pulled up in a car outside a lounge on Elk Street and Rosa came out wearing a holstered gun and carrying a glass of wine. Rosa got into the backseat of the car; Cantrell was in the passenger front seat. At some point in their conversation, Rosa called Cantrell a “MF” and arched back as if he was going for his gun; his hands were allegedly free, the glass of wine held between his legs. A shot rang out, and Rosa laid dead in the backseat, a bullet wound from Cantrell's gun between Rosa's eyes. Rosa's gun was still holstered, his hands around the wine glass.