DALLAS — When you are convicted of stealing more than $1 million in property and sentenced to 65 years in prison, you are not allowed to contact or apologize to your victims.
But the former Uptown Burglar was able to offer a recent thank you to perhaps an unlikely group of men: the Dallas Police Department SWAT Team that ended his criminal career.
Damon West's road to redemption has been much publicized. He served seven years of that 65-year sentence and was released on parole from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. And, based on the advice of a fellow Dallas County Jail inmate, has built a successful career as an author and motivational speaker.
He even holds a master’s degree in criminal justice and teaches a class called "Prisons in America" at the University of Houston Downtown. At TDCJ's request, he has even developed an in-prison classroom course where inmates can emulate his success.
Earlier this year he announced a $10,000 annual student scholarship at Dallas' Lincoln High School in honor of James Lynn Baker II, the former Lincoln student who was the jail inmate who gave him the "coffee bean" advice that turned his life around and launched his successful post-prison career.
When Damon West first returned to the Dallas area in 2020, after he was released from prison, he wanted to go back to the Oak Lawn neighborhood and the exact house where his crime spree ended.
"This is the spot where I was rescued," he told me of the day a flash bang grenade shattered the living room window and exploded on the floor. "The Dallas SWAT Team saved my life that day. Without this location I don't think I'm even here to talk to you today. I don't think I would be alive."
And earlier this month, at his request, the Dallas Police Department SWAT Team agreed to listen to his story too.
"Yeah. It's a crazy story," he told a group of undercover officers at Dallas Police Department Headquarters.
A few in the crowd of three dozen had been involved in his arrest in that SWAT team raid in 2008.
"And listen, I had to get permission from parole just to walk into police headquarters today," he joked.
"I was a cocky arrogant criminal. Yeah, I was man," he told the officers. "I don't expect everybody to be receptive to me today. That's not part of the equation."
The equation he did want to share is that their work makes a difference. It made a difference for him. The shock of his arrest led to in-prison drug and alcohol counseling and a chance to turn his life around.
"I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for y'all," he said. "And I've been wanting this opportunity to thank y'all for a long time. I think y'all saved my life for a reason and I get to be an example of someone that got it right."
So, as he's done now to hundreds of college, corporate and prison audiences, he shared the advice from that fellow inmate about becoming a coffee bean: someone who changes the water, changes the world around them, not the other way around.
And then he promised $10,000 to the DPD SWAT Fund to help them buy the gear they need to help change and re-direct other lives too.
A healthy round of applause from the men responsible for his arrest ended his presentation.
"You don't ever hear about if you changed anyone's life," said DPD Maj. Jason Scoggins. "When you have someone who is willing to come in and tell you his story about how he was doing this, and he's changed for the better, and now he's doing this, that gives you the feeling on the inside that you do matter, you do make a difference."
A difference that had formerly skeptical police officers willing to accept his signed books and offer him a slot in a DPD podcast. One of the officers even removed his SWAT Team patch and gave it to West as a gift.
"Oh wow man," West responded.
"So you can remember us," the officer said.
"Dude," West replied. "You get a hug. That's incredible man. Thank you so much man."
Police officers say they rarely find out if arresting criminals really makes a difference -- if the people they arrest ever turn their lives around. The former Uptown Burglar, turned upstanding citizen, gave them proof.
"Thank y'all for what you do. Y'all saved my life. There's no other way to put it," West said. "You don't see yourself as a hero but y'all are heroes man."