[narrator] In Florida,
[Deputy DeMarco speaking]
He was losing control of the vehicle.
[siren wailing]
[man on police radio] High priority.
[woman on police radio] No traffic [indistinct].
[narrator] In Oregon,
officers check the welfare of a suspect's dogs.
[dogs barking]
[Officer Lau] I was a little nervous.
The size of the dogs and the fact that they were barking.
[man yelling]
[gunshots]
[gun fires]
[narrator] And in Indiana,
a couple's beef turns violent.
[man speaking]
I went to go put her handcuffs and set her on the curb,
[Officer Jones speaking]
[woman yelling]
[Officer Jones yelling]
[narrator] In Florida,
37 miles south of Gainesville,
is Marion County.
Deputies Calvin Pope and Richard DeMarco
are on patrol together.
[Deputy DeMarco] On the night of the incident,
deputies got together, for proactive detail
where, we went out and sought criminal activity,
instead of waiting for things to happen.
On that particular night,
I happened to be driving.
[Deputy Pope] Deputy DeMarco's driving is,
I don't have to think about how to answer that, um.
Deputy DeMarco's driving is aggressive.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[Deputy DeMarco] Another deputy came over the radio,
and alerted us to a stolen vehicle in the area,
and that's when we began looking for that vehicle description.
[indistinct radio chatter]
I just so happened
to see a car matching that description, up in traffic.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[Deputy DeMarco] After radioing to dispatch the license plate,
they confirmed that, that vehicle was stolen.
He knew why I was there.
He knew I was going to try to pull him over.
[Deputy DeMarco on radio]
[Deputy DeMarco] When, he did a U-turn,
I immediately realized, this guy is trying to test us
before we have lights in sirens on.
I figured that this was something that this guy has done before.
[siren blaring]
[Deputy DeMarco on radio]
[Deputy Pope] I knew at that time, that we were about to
be in a car chase.
So, I just started holding on.
[man on radio]
[Deputy DeMarco] During a pursuit,
I'm visualizing what lies ahead,
and I'm making sure that everything we're doing,
is according to policies and procedures.
There is a fine line of
staying close to the suspect and not too close.
In these pursuits, it's very unpredictable.
You don't know what this criminal is gonna do.
[man on radio]
At some points, he got up to 80 miles an hour.
Obviously, you don't wanna put the public in danger.
And so, you're monitoring how dangerous they are being,
and you compare that to the charges
that you have against them.
Is it worth putting people at risk for?
[man on radio]
[Deputy DeMarco] I had to put my foot hard on the brakes,
initiate kind of a slide.
[Deputy Pope] I knew you were not gonna be able to stop.
I knew, that we were going to hit the sign.
I was prepared for it.
I was actually talking on the radio at the time,
and you can hear, I was bracing for impact.
[Deputy DeMarco] I would say that the vehicle was under control.
Pope will definitely have a different
version of that story.
Dense, heavily populated area.
I was just thinking, "It's getting real now.
It's getting intense."
He definitely pushed it to its limits.
One thing that we're always gonna try to do,
as quickly as possible is a PIT maneuver.
That is the quickest way to end the pursuit.
[man speaking on radio]
[Deputy DeMarco] I attempted to get in position,
and the suspect slammed on his brakes,
and we both kinda went off the shoulder because,
I'm still trying to get into his back fender
and he's evading me by going off the road.
That kind of let me know that he's aware of the surroundings
and he can tell what I'm trying to do.
[siren blaring]
[crashes]
[narrator] Other deputies are right behind.
[Deputy DeMarco] I thought that was gonna end the chase,
because of the other deputies that had showed up.
I thought we had it kind of blocked in.
[siren wailing]
[crashes]
When you have a suspect driving at a deputy and then,
striking that deputy's car,
it brings it up to an aggravated battery
on law enforcement, which we take very seriously.
When I saw the determination that,
he didn't care about his life or anybody else's,
I knew that this was a different level of
criminal that we were dealing with.
There's something more than a stolen car going on here.
He's got probably serious felony warrants,
or there is going to be a tremendous amount of drugs,
you know, guns in the car, something like that.
This person is desperate.
[deputies on radio]
[Deputy DeMarco] We've gone a fair distance.
He turns down the service road,
with potholes and all and,
all I can see is dust and barely a hint of his tail lights,
up ahead.
So, I've gotta be able to drive in a manner that's safe for Pope and I,
but also be able to determine,
which way he goes, at the end of the street.
There is always the risk of what lies around the next corner,
and you've got to keep that in your mind.
At this point, you realize,
this is going to be the worst case scenario.
[deputies talking on radio]
[Deputy DeMarco] Throughout the pursuit, I'm trying to
get a look at the driver.
And I think at a few times, I was able to
get a fair description of what he looked like.
I could not tell his age.
[deputies on radio]
[Deputy DeMarco] When, I heard over the radio,
that spike strips were deployed,
I wanted to make sure to give that suspect enough space.
That way, I don't make the same mistake he was about to make.
And run over the same strips
that were designed to stop him.
The spike strips will deflate the tire at a slow rate.
That way, it's controlled and not an immediate flat tire.
[deputies on radio]
[Deputy Pope] We started getting debris,
coming off the vehicle, which was the tire,
starting to come up apart.
I wasn't sure at that time if it was our vehicle,
that had been hit or if it was the suspect vehicle.
[deputies on radio]
[Deputy Pope] The tires on the left side of the vehicle
started to break apart,
and he was still traveling,
at speeds of 80 miles an hour.
[Deputy DeMarco] He was losing control of the vehicle,
and I started to get closer to attempt the PIT,
but, he wasn't even able to stay straight and started swerving.
And, I backed way off of it,
because I knew he was about to wreck,
and I didn't want to get caught up in it.
At this point, I got really scared.
I thought that, that suspect vehicle is gonna
cross into oncoming traffic
and that things were gonna get bad.
[siren wailing]
[radio chatter]
[bleep]
[Deputy DeMarco speaking]
[Deputy Pope] As the chase comes to a stop,
this can be the end of everything or can be the beginning.
We didn't have any idea who was in the car,
how many people were in the car,
and if they had any weapons with them.
Who knows what they'll do.
[Deputy DeMarco speaking]
[Deputy Pope] So, as he got out of the car and walked around,
I could see that it was a teenager essentially.
I was a little surprised.
I think I was expecting an adult,
probably with a lengthy criminal history.
[Deputy DeMarco speaking]
[Deputy Pope] The first thing you wanna do,
is make sure that there's no one else in the car,
either injured or that's gonna be a threat
to the other deputies.
When I found a gun in the car, at that point I realized,
that this could've gotten very serious.
The most common types of car burglars are
either teenagers or drug addicts.
and, teenagers go around in the middle of the night checking door handles,
I figured that's probably how he got it.
In a situation like that, it's a huge relief that,
they decided not to use the firearm against us,
'cause obviously, we're gonna defend ourselves.
And you don't want that with anybody but,
definitely not with a teenager.
[Deputy DeMarco] I think, when the defendant finally was stopped,
he realized that he was caught
and there was nothing he could do at that point to get away.
And his best course of action would be to give up.
And it was.
If he made a decision
to use that firearm, that was in the car,
it would end his life,
So, he made the best decision possible.
[narrator] Police discovered
the suspect is just 16 years old.
[Deputy DeMarco speaking]
[Deputy Pope speaking]
[Deputy Pope] It did shake me up, a little bit.
It's a very different thing to be the passenger in a car chase.
Just witnessing it from the passenger seat
as opposed to being the one in control of the vehicle.
[Deputy DeMarco] I was surprised that the suspect
was as young as he was.
I had the impression that he had years of driving experience,
and when I realized he's 16, I realized
there's no way he could have had...
I think he played a lot ofGrand Theft Auto.
There's no other way around it.
And that's how he got his skills.
[narrator] Derrian Brown is charged with grand theft
of a motor vehicle and firearm,
fleeing, burglary offences,
and aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.
As a juvenile, his convictions are not disclosed.
[Deputy DeMarco] This pursuit turned out to be an absolute success.
There was nobody injured,
and we got someone that was
committing a spree of crimes, off the street.
I was especially glad I was the driver,
because I would definitely have got sick,
sitting in the passenger seat that night.
If we do another proactive operation,
I'm definitely driving next time.
[narrator] In Oregon, 12 miles south of Portland,
is the city of Gladstone.
November 22, I was working a swing shift,
which is primarily 4 p.m. to 2 a.m.
[woman talking on radio]
[Office Lau] I do prefer to work that shift, just because it's busy.
I was driving around on patrol.
I had noticed a black SUV,
run the stop sign.
[siren wailing]
So, I made a U-turn, I got behind the vehicle,
and I conducted a traffic stop on it.
[Officer Lau speaking]
I went up to the passenger side to speak with the driver.
The driver was a Hispanic female in her 30s.
She told me that she was headed to the gym,
which made sense, she was in athleticwear at the time.
I went back to my patrol car,
and I ran her driver's license.
[woman speaking on radio]
[Officer Lau speaking]
[woman speaking on radio]
[Office Lau] The warrant that Ms. Garcia had,
was an extraditable warrant for theft.
Somewhat serious charge just due to the fact that
Texas was willing to transport Ms. Garcia
from Oregon all the way back to Texas...
which meant that it was a mandatory arrest.
[Officer Lau] Anytime an officer is out with a wanted person,
they automatically dispatch another officer.
I knew that my cover officer was going to be Sergeant Hill.
Sergeant Hill arrived on scene.
[Officer Lau speaking]
[Ms. Garcia speaking]
[Officer Lau speaking]
[Ms. Garcia speaking]
[Officer Lau speaking]
Sergeant Hill and I decided to transport Ms. Garcia
back to our police department,
so we could further figure out a plan on,
how to, not only transport Ms. Garcia to jail safely,
but also to look into the welfare of her dogs.
Sergeant Hill worked on the animal impound report,
asking Ms. Garcia questions about her dogs.
She was compliant and cooperative.
Sergeant Hill decided that we would transport her,
back to her residence to assist in placing her dogs,
in an impound.
[Officer Lau speaking]
[Ms. Garcia speaking]
[Officer Lau speaking]
The area in which Ms. Garcia was living in, Happy Valley,
is a relatively quiet and affluent area of Oregon.
[Ms. Garcia speaking]
[Officer Lau speaking]
[Ms. Garcia speaking]
[Officer Lau speaking]
She had told us that her dogs were gonna be
outside of their kennels and inside the residence.
[Officer Lau speaking]
[dog barking]
[Officer Lau speaking]
[dogs continue barking]
[Officer Lau speaking]
Once I opened the garage door and I noticed
the size of the dogs and the fact that they were barking,
and almost attempting to nip at us,
I was a little nervous.
[dog barking]
[Lau] Sergeant Hill was able to get a leash on one of the dogs.
No.
[Lau] He handed the dog to me
and informed me that I would take the dog to the garage, while
he and Miss Garcia were going to attempt to leash the second dog.
[dog whimpering]
[Lau] Hello.
[dog barking]
[Lau] Once Miss Garcia and Sergeant Hill went upstairs to leash the second dog,
I knew that she was still handcuffed behind her back.
However, it did go quiet.
[Hill screaming]
[gunshots and yelling]
[multiple gunshots]
[gunshots]
[gunshots and yelling]
[multiple gunshots]
[gunshot]
[multiple gunshots]
I was expecting Sergeant Hill and Miss Garcia to come back with a dog.
[Hill yelling]
[multiple gunshots]
[gunshots]
[Lau] I heard gunshots and screaming upstairs.
At that point, I notice Sergeant Hill coming down the stairs at a quick pace.
Bleeding, shot in the leg.
He told me that she had a gun.
I was extremely worried about Sergeant Hill.
When someone is hit in the leg, there's a chance
that they'd get hit in a major blood vessel.
And then at that time, they only have maybe a couple minutes
before they bleed out and die.
At that time, I believed Miss Garcia was coming down
to execute Sergeant Hill and to kill me.
[gunshot]
I fired upon her with my handgun.
[gunshot]
I heard her scream in pain.
And I told her to drop the weapon and she actually yelled back at me, "No."
I couldn't tell if I was either scared or just in disbelief.
A code zero is an all hands on deck request
for anyone available in the entire area.
[gun fires]
I was trying to find any type of cover in the garage
but the only thing that was in there was a Stairmaster made of plastic.
So I didn't feel like that was a feasible piece of cover.
I had called out to Sergeant Hill to see if he was okay.
I knew if I didn't get in there quickly,
he might bleed to death.
[multiple gunshots]
[gunshot]
[sirens blaring]
Sergeant Hill was going to bleed to death
just because it'd been several minutes since he was shot.
I remember thinking in my head I couldn't live with myself
if I didn't do anything.
So I went in.
[officer] You all right?
[Lau] I directed the deputies, you know, to go to the right.
They were able to hold her at gunpoint while I put the torniquet on Sergeant Hill.
I noticed there was a pool of blood below his legs.
The other deputies had the suspect at gunpoint.
Dogs just fine.
I knew that I was hurt and I didn't know how bad.
I was concerned at the amount of blood loss.
I went to the local trauma hospital
where I underwent emergency surgery.
Fortunately I'm here today to talk about it.
She seemed friendly all along. It was about her dogs.
And she was trying to be helpful in securing the dogs.
Because the dogs were acting so aggressively, I let go of Miss Garcia
because it seemed like the dogs were trying to be protective of their owner.
-[Garcia] Come on, Dusty. -[Hill] Oh.
I was able to get the leash around one dog.
And then I handed that leash to officer Lau.
[dog barking]
All right. Got it.
We went upstairs, where she was going to grab this other leash that she said she had.
And she said that she was gonna be able to secure the dog.
[dog barking]
The dog is barking, growling as I try to use my own leash
to get it around this dog's neck.
It's not letting me get close enough to get the leash on.
[dog barking]
As I looked back to her, she had a black handgun in her hands
that were behind her back
and made some comment that she's not going back to jail.
And then she started shooting.
[gunshots and yelling]
[bleep]
[yelling]
I was struck once in the right forearm and then once in the back of the right knee.
It hurt, it burned.
[indistinct shouting]
So this is a torniquet and this is designed to stop bloodflow to an extremity.
It helped save my life.
When I saw a couple of faces come through that door,
and they were people that I knew and I'd worked with before,
it was a huge relief for me.
During the surgery, they told me that there was a bullet that had been lodged
in the back of my right knee.
There was a nerve that was impacted that runs down the entire length of the leg.
And that was gonna take the longest to heal.
[narrator] The shooter, Ivette Garcia, is shot multiple times.
She survives.
I remember seeing the Clackamas County District Attorney release a statement
regarding Miss Garcia's warrant
in which she had embezzled over a million dollars from a company in Texas.
[narrator] Garcia is convicted of attempted aggravated murder,
assault in the first degree,
and attempted assault in the first degree.
She is sentenced to ten years in prison.
She will be extradited to Texas where she will face prosecution for theft.
[Lau] After the incident occurred, I received a medal of valor
from the Gladstone Police Department.
[Hill] After 20 years serving in Law Enforcement,
I felt I had to retire.
And definitely been a tough adjustment.
I forgive Miss Garcia.
And I'm thankful to be here to be able to be around for my wife and kids
and all of my family and friends.
[narrator] On Indiana's southern border
is the city of Evansville.
For officer Nathan Jones, law enforcement is a family tradition.
[Jones] My father is on the Evansville Police Department.
And he always motivated me to want to be a police officer.
What some general public may feel is a bad day at the office,
is what we're trained and built for.
I was going to what would be considered a check welfare call.
And as I'm stopped at a stop light, I notice a individual crossing the street
from my left hand side.
It was odd, because he was walking into oncoming traffic.
And it looked like he had a question.
He seemed a bit agitated.
And he said that he had just gotten into it with his girlfriend.
I just happened to look in my rearview mirror at the time,
and I noticed a car was coming off a side street at a high rate of speed
and about took out another car.
And then was driving towards us.
The guy that I was talking to actually said, "That's her."
And so that immediately raised my level of concern.
I wanted her to stay in the car so I could separate the two as much as possible.
I was by myself.
We were up on the curb but she was still in traffic,
which was a safety concern in and of itself.
She's much safer in her car than standing outside of it.
My assumption was that she thought he was saying
something that she did, which he was not.
I think that caused a little bit of angst on her part. She gets back in her car,
and I turn around to continue my conversation with him.
Which does not last very long before she gets out, starts hollering and screaming again.
Police officers really rely on their backup.
None of my backup had gotten there at this point.
She continued to be the aggressor in this situation.
When somebody is so heightened to the point that they can't
understand or hear anything that you're saying,
as a police officer, sometimes in those situations,
you just have to meet them where they're at with their level.
I thought the safest bet was to pull her out of the car at that point in time.
Put her in handcuffs so she's not a danger to me, him, or
anybody else at that point in time and sit her on the curb in traffic.
They're talking so loud, they're screaming, they're unconsolable to a degree that
I was concerned with her safety.
She tried to shut the door on me and I had to pull the door open.
Which put myself in a bad position.
And especially since the car was running, which, at the time,
I was not paying attention to.
I specifically remember watching her foot go from the brake to the gas.
And she had punched the gas so hard that I didn't have much of a time to react.
And I remember just starting to run backwards.
The tire sucks my foot underneath the car,
which caused the rest of me to go underneath the car.
I knew that I was in a terrible situation and I was
just hoping to make it out of it.
I lost consciousness for a minute, I believe.
And when i came back to the realization of what was going on,
I was face down on the ground.
I wasn't quite sure how I got there, at that point.
The only thing I was concerned about was getting her into custody.
[woman crying]
After I was able to put her into custody, and was able to call for backup and wait,
I realized that something was wrong when my right arm and my right floor forearm
felt like it was swelling to the point that it was gonna explode.
It was quite a relief for backup to show up and be able to take over custody with her.
I think mostly because the pain was really starting to set in.
And I was probably becoming a bit angry that I had just been run over
and my arm was starting to hurt to a degree that was incomprehensible.
So I needed to get away, kinda collect myself.
[narrator] More officers arrive.
[Jones] The driver side tire ended up rolling over my right leg
all the way up to my hip.
And then over my back.
And I did a backflip underneath the car.
Not really sure how, but I ended up face down on the ground
after going underneath the car face up.
My wrist was the last thing to get run over.
[narrator] As officer Jones is driven to the hospital, other officers take over.
[Jones] When I found out that there was a child in the car,
that probably made me the angriest about the entirety of the situation.
Being a father, you can relate to those situations.
Her choices that day immediately affected that child.
If it got to the point where she would've made me act,
using deadly force in some capacity with a child in the car,
that would not have been good at all.
I know.
Oh, like?
[Jones] I got to the hospital
and had multiple scans, had x-rays, MRIs, head scans,
every scan you can think of, really.
After a couple hours,
I remember them coming in the room and saying, yep, your arm is broken.
Which I kinda already knew at that point in time.
My body didn't heal correctly.
I'm not quite sure what my police's career is gonna be at this point still.
I'm over a year and a half out from the accident.
I just had my fourth surgery about a month ago.
And I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to be a cop again.
That's the hope.
[narrator] Maeling Smith pleads guilty to resisting law enforcement,
causing serious bodily injury, and criminal recklessness.
Her sentence is suspended on condition that
she is evaluated for anger management.
She is also ordered to pay Officer Jones $1,344.
[Jones] Everybody has bad days.
I think she made the wrong decisions.
Being a police officer, you're gonna deal with people that
make a lot of bad decisions around you.
And the last thing you can do is hold a grudge against those things.
You have to accept it and move on, which I have.