02x06 - Training Day

[bunniefuu]

It was a white male driver.

Speeds are 94.

Everybody's in danger.

- He might be ready to bail.

- How is this pursuit going to end?

All right, I got it.

He was gonna do whatever it takes

to get away,

and we needed to put a stop to it.

Is he trying to lure us into a

situation? What is his intention?

This was a person

that was capable of doing anything.

Get out!

That morning, it was the third month

of my field training.

I was a driver.

My field training officer

was sitting in the passenger seat.

I am originally from Tanzania.

It's in Eastern Africa.

When I was growing up,

I would look at officers as heroes.

I wanted to be that guy who would

save somebody's life one day.

We receive a call for a SIGNAL 10,

and a SIGNAL 10 is a stolen vehicle.

The description was a silver Mazda.

We see what appeared to be

a similar vehicle description.

That driver drove past and kind of waved.

At that point, he took off.

It was a game on.

Eastbound on 40.

We're gonna keep going till about 40,

passing at the front of the Burger King.

He was not going to stop.

He was not going to give up.

He was not going to make this easy for us.

We're going to be turning down

Northeast 24th Street.

Still eastbound heading towards baseline.

Speed is going to be 60.

We're leading the pursuit.

And I've never worked

a stolen vehicle before.

And then the other unit

drove past our vehicle.

Delta Three, I'll be in the area

3100 blocks south of mine.

I kind of guessed

where I thought they would be going

so that I could try to get ahead of

the pursuit to use the stop sticks,

because we do not use the pit maneuver.

The sheriff's office does.

I do enjoy a good pursuit.

I do enjoy apprehending criminals.

It's very rare that you get

a stolen vehicle during the day,

so I knew that it was going to turn

into a big event.

We're not in the city environment anymore,

so I'm asking permission

to be able to join the pursuit

and conduct a pit maneuver to end it.

SO, Kilo, if you can join in

and pit them, that'd be great.

We're still southbound on baseline,

just past 7th Street,

coming up to 4th Street, speed's at 89.

They're miles ahead of me,

so I'm just trying to catch up

and trying to think,

why is he standing in this vehicle

during broad daylight?

What is he trying to get away from?

Still southbound on baseline.

Kind of going all over the road.

Speed's are about 90.

Coming up on moderate traffic.

Kilo, did you just signal

for that vehicle?

They actually end up striking

a law enforcement vehicle

with the Florida Department of Wildlife.

Still southbound on baseline,

coming up to Merricamp.

Right now we're doing 60,

he's probably doing about 70.

Get in the left lane.

Still doing southbound on baseline.

We're at Merricamp right now.

We have a red light, we're gonna

see what he's going to do.

Looks like he's anti-Merricamp.

We're going to be going westbound

on Merricamp from baseline.

Still leftbound, passing

in front of Skate Mania,

speed's are 70 right now.

He crashed, man.

That guy was dangerous.

He was willing to do anything

he could do to get away from us.

We'll be coming up to South

and 31st Street.

I was holding into that wheel so

hard, I was like a tunnel vision.

I couldn't even see

my field training officer

because I was pretty much like

asphyxiated to that vehicle.

We'll now be heading eastbound

on Merricamp

just before Southeast 31st Street.

Still eastbound on Merricamp, coming

up to Southeast 44th Avenue Road.

That road is busy.

My big fear was crashing

with another vehicle.

We're going to be going southbound

on Southeast 44th Avenue Road

to EDH Avenue.

Right now, we're doing 50

on Southeast 44th Avenue Road

just crossed over Southeast 38th Street.

Are you with Styx or are you going

to try to intercept for the pit?

I'm going to pit it.

I'm going to try to end it.

I'm closing the distance.

I know where they're at.

I'm familiar with this area.

So I have to be ready for what's next.

We're going to be eastbound

on Southeast 73rd Street from 441.

Right now, speeds are 45,

no vehicle traffic.

We're in road traffic.

Call me when you get 41st

We're going to be down on Southeast

38th Court Road on a dirt road.

Southbound.

I know this road goes

into somebody's house.

Maybe this will be the good place

to catch him

because he's going to be boxed in.

We're going to be parallel

to the road tracks.

Looks like he might be getting ready

to bail.

We can see him keep going through

into the woods

and we're like, no way.

Still going in the wood line.

Now, we're going eastbound

away from the

Road tracks and the wood line.

Again, looks like he might

be getting ready to bail.

Stuck.

All right, let him get his dog.

Police canine. You better stop.

This is my first time drawing a weapon.

Everybody's in danger.

Where is the vehicle?

We're going to be out of our vehicle

running on foot. Canines leading it.

We have no idea what this guy have.

Does he have a weapon?

Still southeast.

Looks like there's a property here.

We still haven't found the vehicle.

I don't know if he can continue driving.

There was like an abandoned house.

We thought, he might have abandoned

the vehicle and run into that house.

But there's no vehicle.

Are you east or west of railroad tracks?

Southeast of the railroad tracks.

I'm trying to figure out what's the

next step. What are we going to do?

I don't know if he got

all the way out or not.

I don't even see any tire tracks.

Coyote Police Department.

How did this guy get away?

How did he make it through this woods?

Now, we don't have anything.

We don't have a vehicle,

we don't have a suspect.

He was definitely lucky entering

that wood line and not getting stuck

and evading the officers of Ocala.

But I know that sooner or later,

his luck is going to run out.

I got it. Eastbound 30th court.

Everybody 10-9. SOQ has it.

Get off the radio.

I absolutely did not expect that

vehicle to make it out of the woods.

I was slightly impressed.

He's down 30 and four foot, 56.

There's going to be an area.

I was preparing to get out

to potentially put stop sticks.

I heard Sergeant Young and I can see

his unmarked patrol vehicle.

The vehicle was coming at such

a high rate of speed,

I stayed in my vehicle.

5196 Lane.

I got behind Deputy Esquivel.

I took over communications.

Having somebody else show up when I

needed him the most, it felt great.

Now, I have a backup deputy.

Now, I can pit this vehicle.

He's down 30.

He was increasing speed,

I believe to make a larger dust cloud

to try to cause us to lose sight.

I did need to back off.

Because my concern

was striking Deputy Esquivel.

I'll take into account

everything that he's doing

and I know it's either now or never.

I knew that it was probably

not his first time

he was in a vehicle pursuit.

He knew what my next move was coming.

Multiple times he blocked me

from conducting a pit maneuver.

He's over there in the yard, 3000 blocks.

All right, he's at signal four.

He was getting desperate

and he was going to do whatever it

takes to get away.

And we needed to put a stop to it.

He is turning south.

He is gunning it.

I've never seen anything like that before.

Heads-up, if you've got the ability

to switch channel, switch channel.

He's familiar with that neighborhood.

And I was anticipating him running.

I'm not going to pursue him

into this backyard.

It's a very narrow backyard.

I can't see the other side of it.

So I'm going to stop and wait to see

what he does next.

As I looked over to my left,

it was like something out of a movie

as I watched the suspect now coming

right at my driver's door.

The first thought was, "Please

don't hit me, please don't hit me."

As soon as he passed,

there was a moment of relief.

- And then the pursuit was on.

- We could stop him there.

We're gonna circle.

Eastbound.

It was boggling my mind that

we were still continuing.

I would have assumed that

through all that damage,

it would have immobilized it.

However, it was the little engine

that could that just kept going.

Being with K-9 Jet, that's a blessing.

I can hear him start getting vocal.

He starts getting excited.

He's spinning in the backseat,

ready to come out of the car.

He made the right turn.

He almost struck two vehicles.

I saw the opportunity to pit him.

I spun him out.

I gave him one final touch to make sure

that his vehicle wasn't going anywhere.

And while it may not have been the

prettiest by the book pit maneuver,

it was successful.

Jet hop in the back!

K9, come on!

Send those K9, go!

Jet was definitely amped up.

Now the bad guy is in his world.

He's really fast,

and that's why he's named Jet.

Down, down, down! Get on the ground!

On the ground! On the ground!

Put your hands behind your back!

Let go of the dog! Let go of the dog!

Once I was able to finally put

the handcuffs on the suspect,

I knew that it was over.

That he couldn't hurt nobody.

We won. We got him.

And I was also happy that

my partner was able to work.

He was able to come out of the car

and do his job.

He's a working dog.

He's meant to do this.

Good job, man.

So when he gets to come out of the

car and gets to apprehend somebody,

I know for him there's no greater

satisfaction.

Good job. Good job. Good job.

He definitely went home

and got a steak that night.

I think Office Uronu did a

fantastic job for his first pursuit.

That's the type of pursuit that some

officers will never see in a career.

And for that early on in his career,

I think he did a phenomenal job

and he's a great officer.

I will never forget that pursuit.

I am very proud.

I'm so happy to work with the

members of Ocala Police Department.

I'll go over and beyond

forever until I retire.

It was a sigh of relief.

It was a job well done by everybody.

If you commit a crime in our county,

you're gonna go to jail.

Hey, sir, get on the ground.

Get on the ground. Get on the ground.

We're gonna chase you down

and we're gonna arrest you.

That morning, we're approaching

the end of my shift duty.

But at the end of each shift,

each officer is required

to gas up their squad car.

Just as I was finishing up

with the fuel depot,

dispatch advised of a suspicious

vehicle in a nearby neighborhood.

A black in color pickup truck

driving down into a ditch

and back through side streets.

I got him.

Just stop.

Just stop. Just stop.

Just stop.

Stop the car.

He was extremely agitated.

He was sweating profusely.

They're pointing at a neighbor

in a house saying that,

"They're behind there. They're trying

to get me. They're trying to get me."

Stop the car! Stop your car!

His speech pattern clearly indicated that

he was most likely very high of

some kind of a toxicant.

Put the car in park now!

Put the car in park!

Put it in park!

When someone's in that kind of state,

you don't know how they're going to react

when they actually have contact

with law enforcement.

And then he took off.

The situation was rapidly

unfolding in front of me

and I needed more units to get,

get to me to see if we can end this

as quick as possible.

When I heard the call dispatch,

I decided to stop what I was doing

and head out to where he was at.

I was listening to the radio.

It appeared as I was on my way that

the situation was escalating.

It's concerning and it heightens

awareness.

The main concern we had was

the amount of people that are out

and about in that neighborhood.

I was seriously concerned that

he was gonna k*ll somebody.

All of a sudden, he would slow down.

Put your car in park!

And then he would take off again.

Everything he did was completely

unpredictable

and nothing that you've seen before.

I arrived second to Sergeant Burke.

It was at that time that I knew

that this situation

was not going to end quickly.

When I caught up with the pursuit,

the driver was not being cooperative.

During the fact that he was armed

and dangerous,

ratchets up everything to a

extremely high level of alertness.

And the fact that he was the same driver

that led the next town over on a pursuit,

he definitely does not wanna

get caught by the police.

And now we're concerned does he have

weapons in the car?

The risk factor of this pursuit

was extremely high.

We were under the impression that

he was armed and dangerous.

Is he trying to lure us into a situation?

We weren't really sure

what was going through his head,

what is his intention.

At that time, I could see squad cars

coming from all over.

The need to stop this person became great.

Dispatch was calling Lake County,

the only unit I believe that had stop

sticks in their car

was 40 minutes away.

And we are not trained

to do PIT maneuvers.

Our best bet was trying to box him in

to a specific area

and hope he gets stuck in a ditch.

The gap between James Webb's truck

and the squad cars was increasing.

It definitely makes you concerned

about the lengths

this person is willing to go to.

I'm like,

"Keep driving, keep driving."

But all it did was enheighten his speed.

He's turning around.

The suspect vehicle was driving right

at the front end of my squad car.

It could've been deadly in the moment.

The situation was clearly escalating.

His vehicle was considered

a deadly weapon,

especially the way he was driving.

What's he gonna do next?

The vehicle is off the roadway

towards preserved property.

His state was so erratic that we

felt that if we didn't do something,

he actually would hurt

or possibly k*ll somebody.

Southbound. Approaching Suffolk.

8192, 1028. Information.

The vehicle got off the

road at Spanner road.

What's the next move of James Webb

going to be

when he's completely unpredictable?

- Vehicle got off the road

- We need to put an end to it.

He was reported as armed and dangerous.

We don't want anyone to be injured,

especially civilians.

We closed up at Spanner road.

Trust me, he's gonna find that complex.

This was a game to him.

My hope was with the amount of time

he was going off the road

that he would've either rolled his

truck or got it stuck somewhere.

A192, Westbound Bonner.

He decides to go back west

towards Wauconda.

His speed was picking up.

Now, we're concerned that

he's approaching other communities

and putting them in danger.

I'll be honest,

I'm not a huge fan of pursuits,

because I've seen the effects of

how these things turn out.

Pull over! Pull over!

He just ignored all commands

and kept his erratic driving through

the neighborhood.

8192, moving southbound

and approaching route 176

I was glad because we were going

to be out of a residential area.

Now we have a better chance of boxing

him in and maybe ending this pursuit.

The information provided was Mr. Webb

had been in prison

for second degree m*rder.

When you hear that come over the radio,

you start to run through scenarios

in your head.

Dispatch was giving more information

in real time,

and that he was also considered armed

and dangerous

from a prior incident in the

neighboring town of Fox Lake.

So the information provided to me

from the neighboring chief was that

he was visiting where

his ex-girlfriend had lived,

and he found a person that she was dating

and beat him with a baseball bat.

That really made us start to become

more concerned

about where the situation was headed.

When he comes face to face

with a Lincoln that was literally

stopped in the roadway,

the driver of the black Lincoln panicked

and started to drive backwards.

This guy ran somebody.

That was pivotal point of

the entire pursuit.

James Webb had a homicide conviction,

this person is capable of doing

anything at this point.

We had 100 percent right to use

deadly force in that circumstance.

But I don't believe any police officer

wants to be put in that situation.

He was shouting vulgarities.

What is he saying?

It appeared that he was not all there.

It's safe to say that the risk

was increasing.

Pull over, pull over!

We wanna try to avoid a confrontation

as much as possible.

Your best bet at that point in time

was to try to talk him out of the vehicle.

Pull over! Pull over!

Stop! Stop!

I'm asking you to pull over.

James was reacting to me,

but not in the way that I wanted to.

We're gonna dialogue with him.

Turn off your siren.

Get out! We can help you!

We can help you!

We can help you! We can help you!

Hey, hey, hey.

Right here! Right here!

Stop! Let's talk.

8192, we're back northbound, Fueller.

Standby for a cross street

from Fremont Center Road.

At this point, in my mind, I'm thinking,

if he does this,

am I going to be ready to do this?

It's just this constant mental

conversation as you're trying to

watch what he's doing,

maintain safety of the community.

But also trying to play

this almost chess game of like,

what is this person?

What's his next move going to be?

What's my next move going to be?

We had officers going backwards,

forwards, down towards ditches,

backing up, doubling back,

three-point turns.

He was driving almost in circles

around squad cars.

And you couldn't tell, just when you

think that he was going to go

one direction, he would flip and go

another direction.

8192, moving back southbound.

You get really nervous when you see him

approach and slow down with other drivers.

He's trying to interact with them,

but you're not quite sure what his

interactions or his intentions are.

Does he have a weapon in his car

he's going to use on that motorist?

Is he looking to try to hurt them?

Does he want to get out of his vehicle

and try to do a carjack on somebody else?

His behavior was everything unpredictable.

So how do you really react to

something that is so unpredictable?

Wauconda 8192, eastbound 176 from Gilmer.

When Mr. Webb started heading back

into Wauconda,

we need to do something right away.

8192.

Will be entering Del Webb boulevard

at 176.

The Del Webb subdivision

is a retirement community.

That just made everything ten times worse.

- Which way is it from Del Webb?

- Right turn.

I felt that we needed stop sticks

because

his driving had elevated

to the next level.

I'm not a huge supporter on having

officers throw the stop sticks.

There are way too many

law enforcement

officers that get k*lled or injured

when they're deploying stop sticks.

Get back inside! Get back inside!

But I was feeling we had to do something

because it was out of control.

The inherent danger comes with

the officers leaving the

safety of his squad car.

He's out of his vehicle.

He has got the potential now to

either be hit by that fleeing vehicle

if he's not in a safe location.

Deep breaths, deep breaths.

His behavior of not wanting to be

stopped was increasing dramatically.

There are some significantly older people

that live in this neighborhood.

If they're outside, if they're walking,

it was just a whole host of new problems.

8192, a funding vehicle back

on the roadway,

Canton Circle at Ogden.

Go back to the circle.

I'm doing backyard.

Now he's in the very southwest

quarter of subdivision.

We considered him running on foot,

which is why we wanted to make sure that

there was a canine involved

in the pursuit.

Honda 8192, vehicle traveling in reverse.

Off the roadway at 3819.

His vehicle finally stopped.

There was some mud and he just wasn't

able to go any further.

We didn't know if James Webb

was armed with a weapon.

5070 there. Car is stashed.

Yeah. We're gonna get him out.

- Get out!

- Get your hands out. Get out!

Get out!

I'm going to give you a g*dd*mn

cigarette. Get your hands out.

Get out of the car!

Get out of the truck!

- Get out of the truck! Get out!

- I am! I am!

I am! I can't move that now!

I can't move that way!

- Get out of the truck!

- I can't move like that!

- Get out of the truck!

- I can't move like that!

- Get off me!

- Get off of the truck! Get off!

Get out of the truck!

Okay! Okay! I'm getting out!

I'm getting out!

- Come on! Come on!

- Okay! Help me get off!

Get off! Get off!

Get down!

The moment I felt that we finally had

the situation under control

was when we were walking him up

the embankment.

That's when I think everybody

kind of took a sigh of relief.

James, look at me.

We're going to walk over here.

So once the ambulance came,

they ascertained that his dog bite

needed some attention at the hospital.

The doctor found after doing

a blood test from Mr. Webb

that there were cannabinoids

and amphetamines in his system.

It's not a regular occurrence

for patrol officers in Wauconda

to be involved in pursuits.

But there are times

that warrant police pursuits,

and this was one of them.

James Webb was capable of

extreme violence.

The fact that no officers were injured,

no other citizens were injured,

is nothing short of a miracle

in my opinion.

I was extremely proud of the members

of the Wakanda Police Department.

because I believe in my heart that

if Mr. Webb got away,

somebody else would have been

injured or k*lled.

And it really was teamwork

that helped this entire situation

come to a good resolve.