High Speed Chase

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,