I had just finished a run and exercise with my three dogs and drove a block over to the local Sonic for a drink. While waiting at the window and chatting with the clerk, with whom I am acquainted, I heard sirens approaching from the East. I looked over to see a red Bronco coming westbound at a high rate of speed on Orange Grove, a major thoroughfare. Close behind him was a Pima County Sheriff’s Deputy in a marked unit, the source of the sound of sirens. As I watched, the Bronco left the road surface, crossed a dirt divider and continued rather erratically down a side street before side swiping a house, striking several parked cars, striking and uprooting a large tree, and then literally completing a full forward roll before landing on its wheels. I saw the deputy affect a power stop and told the clerk I would be right back as the deputy might need back up.
As I pulled up to the street, I noted two male subjects run from the vehicle heading East along the side street. The deputy was in foot pursuit and Tazer’d one of the individuals, causing him to make an immediate and unscheduled stop on his face, followed by the deputy trying to place handcuffs on him. I began crossing the street, seeing that the second individual had continued running. After avoiding an oncoming cement truck, I crossed Orange Grove, went through the divider and over the curb to the side street then headed East after the individual. I pulled my vehicle up along side the individual and ordered him to stop in both English and Spanish. He continued running, so I reached out the driver’s window and grabbed him at the back of the neck by his sweatshirt, again telling him to stop, which he ignored. I pulled him against the side of my Expedition, tightened my grip on him and noted he was slowing and finally stopping. I pulled my vehicle across his path, switched hands and exited the vehicle, ordering him to the ground. He resisted, so I placed him on the ground by pushing down on his neck and sweatshirt. A passerby came up and asked what was happening, and I told him to go back down the street and see if the deputy needed any help. I put one of the individual’s arms behind his back, patted him down and found a knife and an Altoids tin filled with what appeared to be either cocaine or meth.
As I was standing him on his feet, I could hear a number of sirens approaching from different directions and I began walking him back to the deputy. We arrived where the deputy had secured the first individual just as a number of back up units were arriving, and they took custody of the two individuals. I spoke with the deputy, who thanked me and asked why I had gotten involved. I told him it was rather obvious he was in need of back up, and my law enforcement background kicked in when I saw one of the individuals running from the scene. I also told him that I lived and worked less than a block away and didn’t need that type of individual running around loose in my neighborhood. I gave my contact information to the responding officers who took control of the scene and went to retrieve my vehicle. One of the funny aspects of the story was that my wife and office manager had been in our home office, had heard the sirens, the vehicle colliding with the house, and when I didn’t immediately return with the drinks, she went looking for me. When she walked around the corner and saw the scene, she said “I might have known you were in the middle of something!” I only shrugged and said he apparently needed a little help!
I went back to the scene with the design of taking a photograph of the vehicle and scene for the scrapbook and was approached by the Sheriff’s Public Information Officer, a woman I knew through professional affiliations, and she coordinated a television interview with a local station. The reporter turned out to be someone with whom I have been friends for more than thirty years, who also asked why got involved. The comments I made are just what everyone else should be in a position to say, that if we don’t get involved and support law enforcement, we’re going to pay for that lack of support in having more of these types of individuals running around loose on our streets. The two had stolen the vehicle just a couple hours earlier, were both noticeably high on meth, were in the US illegally, and had prior records for much the same offenses.
My oldest daughter is a police officer on the Denver Police Department and I served for almost eleven years as both a military policeman, K-9 handler and security specialist in Viet Nam before becoming a Special Agent in the OSI, like my father before me. I entered into the PI profession some 29 years ago and have pursued cases all over the United States and several foreign countries. I am the current President of the Arizona Association of Licensed Private Investigators (AALPI) for 2008!
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This story comes to us from John MacIntire of MacIntire & Associates.
www.macintireandassociates.com
Loved it! Great story!
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