Innocence Lost: A Heart Wrenching Story Of A Boy And His Gun And His Drugs

In Des Moines, Iowa on Tuesday, a known drug dealer stood trial of 10 counts of attempted murder. The charges stem from a May 10th reverse drug sting operation that left three police officers and Dennis "D.J." Schofield injured. All told there was 18 area police officers at the Heartland Inn hotel where the confrontation took place.

Schofield's plea? Self defense. Well, of course it is. D.J. is just an innocent victim in all these proceedings. Had the mean-old police officers not tried to arrest him for breaking the law, poor D.J. would have never shot at the officers.

Caution the next quote is from, Ted Prine, Schofield's lawyer (this will probably sting your brain a little):

"The thing that my client saw coming out of the the room across the hallway was
not a police officer, but a gun," Prine said. "My client turned and ran for his life."

Schofield "didn't try to kill those people," Prine said. "He didn't even know they were there."

[Deep thought]

Alright I believe I have taken in the entire defense case, here is my summary:

Schofield purchases $15,000 worth crystal methamphetamine during a police sting. Then police bust in to arrest Schofield with badges, bullet shields, and wearing uniforms that say Police across the front. At this time according to Prine, Schofield is not thinking "wow, I just broke the law by engaging in drug trafficking." No instead Prine contends Schofield it thinking "wow, the way those people in riot gear just busted out of the room across the hall they must be the hotel's pissed off cleaning staff."

The rest of the story is pure conjecture on my part, but I believe the only reason Schofield shot at the cleaning crew/police was because he had just soiled himself and the room's carpet and he knew extra charges were probably going to appear on his hotel bill. So, as any normal, law abiding citizen would do, he pulled out his gun and started shooting. Of course, the militant cleaning crew returned fire. In the end it was just a big misunderstanding and with any luck D.J. will back on the streets selling drugs by 5 PM tonight.