The Door: My twenty-six years working inside Canada’s prisons was written by Vern Thibedeau in an attempt to alleviate some of the mystery surrounding Canada’s prisons. For more information about the book or to order a copy of your own, check out his website.
As soon as he fired, he spun around and pointed the pistol at me. That’s when I realized it had ejected an empty casing. I knew starting pistols don’t eject casings. Within the same split second, I remembered seeing a small hole in the windshield that hadn’t been there earlier. I looked into that barrel and suddenly it looked ominously huge. My mind screamed, Christ almighty, I’m going to be dead -- that’s no f***ing starter’s pistol!
I was just letting my leg relax when he screamed, “Sit the f*** down or you’re a dead man!” Believe me, I sat. I still didn’t know if he had shot Arnie or not; thankfully, he hadn’t. But he had fired close enough to cause him to have powder burns on his cheek.
So there we were: a driver, three correctional officers, six or seven convicts, one of which had a handgun, and we didn’t know what else or who else might have been involved. And none of the inmates even had restraint equipment on - not that it would have helped. It didn’t take a lot of brain work to figure out we were in a hell of a lot of trouble.
For the next few seconds, which seemed like several minutes, I watched the inmates. I wasn’t sure if something else was going to happen or if any of the other cons were involved. At the same time, I tried to watch the traffic. I still expected a car to pull up and one or more inmates to leap out of the van and jump into it. You could say I was a little concerned; actually, I was scared witless.
He ordered the driver to keep going and for Arnie to stay in the seat beside the driver. He ordered Ron to stay behind the driver and for me to get my ass up beside Ron. He also advised me to be very, very careful, and not do anything stupid. Hein stated in no uncertain terms that he had a lot of time left to do and there was no way he was going back in. I can assure you, I was very careful moving up front! But I was also starting to get very pissed off, and I really wanted to make a grab for that handgun and wrap it around his head.
As soon as I sat down, the inmate put the gun up to my head and in a very quiet but deadly voice, “Don’t do any screwing around, Thibedeau, or somebody will be f***ed and it sure as hell won’t be me!”
Once I cooled down a little, I thought, Jesus Christ, less than two years in the service and I’m f***ed again! I tried to recall how much life insurance I had and desperately wished I had boosted it up. I knew there was a very good chance I wouldn’t be seeing my family again.
Eventually, we parked in a mall parking lot and Pasquea hustled around taping our hands. Believe it or not, the idiots used electrical tape. Some thinking that was. I was the last one taped up and naturally couldn’t do anything, because Hein was standing there with that damned pistol. As soon as Pasqua finished with me, Hein sent him to the back and told him to sit.
Hein glanced at the cons sitting in the back and with a little bit of hesitation informed them that once he was gone he didn’t give a crap what they did; they could stay or go. But he stressed that if anyone got out of the van before he was gone, he would shoot. I for one tended to believe him. He was just a tad tense, to say the least, and he was getting tenser all the time. But by then I was beginning to think this just might work out all right -- at least for us!
As soon as he finished his little speech, he started looking around outside and I started working on that stupid tape. He slide the side door of the van open, and with a glance at us, he stepped outside. He was just standing there with his back to the door and his hands in his parka pockets, but I knew the pistol was in his right pocket. I assumed his hand was clutching it.
Within a minute or so, my hands were free, and I thought I just might be able to jump him while he was standing there looking around. It was also in my mind that if I had my hands free, at least one of the other guys likely did too. While I was processing this bit of information and trying to think of the best course of action, I noticed several civilians coming and going, and in addition, there were several kids running around.
I was positive I could tackle him, but if he did manage to get a shot off and someone was hit, especially a child, I knew I would have to live with that. I didn’t realize it at the time, but three people were going to get shot anyway, so maybe I should have jumped him! This is just one of those things you never know. But even to this day, it’s on my mind, and I can’t help but wonder if I should have taken the chance and tackled him.
In short order, Hein was gone, and we were alive. Arnie and I tore into a store, borrowed a phone, and contacted the police. Believe me, they were swarming the area in very short order.
Within five or six hours, we were informed they had captured Hein alive. I was a little surprised by this, because we had made sure the police were aware of his statement about not being taken alive.
Apparently, when they caught up to him, he did what most of these heroes do -- he threw his gun down and put his hands up.