[narrator] In Hobbs, New Mexico...
[caller]
[narrator] ...a desperate mother risks her life to protect her babies.
The owner of the vehicle had jumped on the hood of the car.
[narrator] In Scottsdale, Arizona,
a burglary becomes a treacherous game of hide and seek.
[officer]
We didn't know if the suspects were looking right at us or not.
Is there some door, some closet, some hiding spot
that we missed?
[dispatch continues indistinctly]
[officer] Yeah, drop it, come outside!
[narrator] In New Mexico,
just two miles west of the border with Texas,
is the city of Hobbs.
[Maxwell] I live here in Hobbs.
I live in the community that I work in.
I've been a member of this community for 30 years,
and with the Hobbs Police Department for 21.
The crime in Hobbs is pretty much theft and drug related stuff.
[McCart]
[Melody]
[McCart]
[Melody]
[McCart]
[Melody]
[McCart]
[Melody]
[narrator] Just seconds earlier,
the mom had left her children in her car
while she went into the convenience store.
[McCart]
[Melody]
[McCart]
[Melody]
[McCart]
[Melody] Huh?
[McCart]
[Melody]
[McCart]
[Melody]
[McCart]
[Melody]
[McCart]
[Melody]
She was very panicked
as there were children still in the vehicle.
[McCart]
[Melody]
With a call like this, I would immediately yell
at my appropriate law enforcement dispatcher.
And they start dispatching it
as soon as we've got enough information.
[dispatch]
I was probably about five to six blocks away,
just patrolling the area, responding to calls.
Being Fourth of July, we're pretty busy.
[dispatch]
I was like, "Oh, my gosh, this is crazy."
Like, who steals a car with babies in it?
The whole shift pretty much dropped everything we were doing
and we started looking for that car.
[siren blaring]
[narrator] Within minutes, an officer reaches Melody.
[officer]
[Melody]
[officer]
[Maxwell] The owner of the vehicle had jumped on the hood of the car.
As a mom myself, I just couldn't even imagine
what the mom was going through.
Just the sheer desperation of somebody jumping on to a moving vehicle.
[officer on radio]
[officer]
If we can get her phone number, we can track it.
But it takes a little bit of time.
[Seay]
[Teague]
I was working the eagle eye shift that night
from 5:00 PM to 3:00 AM in the morning.
The eagle eye system has a camera
pretty much at every major intersection.
[narrator] In a kidnap situation,
where every second counts,
traffic cameras provide vital surveillance.
[Teague]
[Maxwell]
[Teague] I needed to try to find the vehicle.
That way we could end this situation as fast as possible.
[Maxwell]
[Teague] I was unable to locate the vehicle,
so I replayed the footage, and that's when I got the video
of the lady riding on the hood.
I immediately went to another camera further West,
but at that time there was no vehicles in that area.
[narrator] It's only minutes since the alarm was raised,
but the SUV with the kids inside has vanished.
[phone ringing]
[operator]
[Melody's mother]
[Teague] I was in the center and we were all working on it,
and they were yelling out,
"Hey, I've got the grandmother on the phone."
[operator]
[Melody's mother]
[narrator] The kidnapped six-year-old
is calling her grandmother from the backseat of the car.
[operator]
[Melody's mother]
[narrator] Back in Eagle Eye,
Control Officer Teague then spots
something suspicious.
[Teague] I'm looking from Dal Paso and Bender,
which is just south of where the incident occurred.
And I see a vehicle coming off of a side street at a high rate of speed.
And so, once the vehicle comes off the side street,
I notice they stop at the intersection there.
[Seay]
[Teague]
I immediately relayed the information.
Officer Maxwell advised that she was in the area.
[Maxwell]
[Seay] Clear to Dal Paso and Bender.
[Maxwell]
[Seay]
[Maxwell]
[siren blaring]
[Maxwell] I made a U-turn.
I activated my emergency lights
and began to pursue the vehicle.
I had just gone through the intersection of Bender and Dal Paso
when Eagle gave us the information.
I turned my patrol car around to head back towards that intersection.
[Maxwell]
The vehicle didn't stop, and she accelerated through the intersection.
She made a southbound turn without stopping at the red light.
So, her driving is becoming erratic and she wasn't pulling over.
[siren blaring]
[narrator] As the pursuit begins,
officers keep the distressed mother, Melody, informed.
[officer]
[narrator] The suspect leads police into a maze of residential streets
where July Fourth celebrations are in full swing.
[Maxwell] I was seeing fireworks going off
and she's driving down a residential area.
She's blowing through intersections.
She's not stopping at stop signs.
[Seay] We just got to get it stopped
without them crashing or anything happening to the kids
or anybody else getting hurt.
You just don't know what's gonna happen.
I mean, who knows what she's thinking?
If she has a gun and starts shooting at me,
I can't shoot at the car, there's babies in there.
[Seay]
[Maxwell]
If we're in the middle of a pursuit
and their driving becomes a danger to the public,
we make the decision to stop,
so that they know that they're no longer being pursued.
And hopefully, they stop driving recklessly.
So, I slowed down.
I turned my lights off and I discontinued the pursuit at that time,
'cause it was just too dangerous for the public.
[Seay]
[Maxwell]
Having to call off a pursuit, it's a tough decision to make.
It's the right decision to make to keep the public safe,
but at the same time, it almost feels like you're defeated.
[phone ringing]
[operator]
[Sonia]
[Sonia] No mother would leave their child in the middle of the street.
It's a very isolated area.
So, for me to see that,
I kind of felt like something's not right.
[operator]
[Sonia]
[operator]
[Sonia]
I told the lady if it was okay for me to approach her,
and she said if I felt safe to do so, then I could.
[operator]
[Sonia]
I made sure the little girl falls safe with me.
So, then I walked her up
to my front porch and into my home.
[officer]
[Maxwell]
[officer]
[Melody]
[officer]
[Sonia] The police officer arrived with the mother.
And when I finally opened the door is there.
[officer]
And then, that's when I see the mother,
you know, just come out of the car.
And she ran.
[officer]
[Melody]
[Sonia] That's when I found out that there was another child,
because I thought it was only just this one child.
That broke my heart 'cause I'm a mother, you know?
And I felt her pain.
[Seay]
[Maxwell]
I'm trying to think of where she could possibly be going.
We were on the east side of town,
so the street that she was on,
that road will lead you directly to the Texas state line.
[narrator] If the suspect crosses the state line,
the pursuit will no longer be under Hobb's PD's control.
At this point, I feel helpless because all I can hear is radio traffic.
Officers are trying to relay information back and forth.
But then, the call comes in from one of our sergeants.
[sergeant]
[female officer]
[sergeant]
[Maxwell]
[sergeant]
[dog barking]
[Seay] Twenty-one-dot, I'm here.
When I got up the car,
Sergeant Hopper was standing right there,
next to the driver's side of the vehicle
with the baby in his hands.
[sergeant]
[female officer]
[Seay]
[Melody crying]
[Maxwell]
[Melody]
[Maxwell]
[Melody]
The officer informed me that they had found
the vehicle with the child in.
Thank God, you know, that this child is okay.
[Maxwell] I was just grateful that the baby was safe.
Then it turns to now we need to go find the person responsible for this.
[officer]
Someone called in saying
the driver was over at their residence,
maybe a block down the street.
We all headed that way.
[siren blaring]
[officer on radio] About two or three houses down.
[officer]
[Seay] Me and other officers began to run towards the backyard.
Together, officers go towards the alleyway.
I've decided I'm just gonna go and grab her.
As I arrived on scene, they had had her in handcuffs
and they were escorting her to a patrol unit.
Hold on. Hey...
[narrator] The carjacker is identified
as Regina Castillo.
She was calm. She had like, pretty much, like a no care in the world.
I wasn't surprised.
She's known around town committing crimes.
[Maxwell] The suspect had stolen a car that had two babies in it.
She had dropped a baby off on the side of the road
with no concern of what was gonna happen to that child.
And then, left the baby in the car
on the side of the road in an alleyway.
To know that the person responsible was in custody
was a good feeling for us.
It's the feeling that we did our job.
[narrator] Officers arrive with the mom to reunite her with her baby.
[Seay]
[Seay] I saw the mother briefly.
She was pretty banged up.
But she seemed relieved that the kids were found.
[narrator] Regina Castillo is charged
with aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer,
resisting, evading, obstructing an officer.
Two counts of abuse of a child,
and unlawful taking of a motor vehicle.
At trial, she is found guilty and sentenced to nine years
and three months in prison.
[Maxwell] After you turn those lights off
and, you know, the kids are back with their mom,
it's back to patrolling neighborhoods
to make sure that everybody else
is enjoying their Fourth of July
and go find the next crime to solve.
[narrator] 660 miles to the west in Arizona
on the eastern edge of Phoenix
is Scottsdale.
[Cheryl] Scottsdale police, this is Cheryl.
How can I help you?
[officer] Good morning, Cheryl. This is 82.
[narrator] While the city sleeps,
police receive a call.
An alarm has been triggered at a downtown pawn shop.
It's a common occurrence for us to get alarm calls such as this.
But this time they're getting multiple activations,
both on the roof and inside of the building,
which is really strange.
Now with the yellow shirt.
We get there and I see
somebody inside of the business.
They mouth a vulgarity, and then they take off running
further into the business.
Not the reaction you would get
for somebody who belonged inside of that building.
[narrator] Police take up positions to cover every possible escape route.
[officer]
[Berumen]
[officer on PA]
[officer]
Sergeant Ingram advised over the radios...
...that he's seen the person trying to climb over the fence.
But at that point, he had jumped back into the business.
[officer]
[Berumen] I didn't want our perimeter to be broken down.
There'd be gaps for the person to flee without us knowing.
[officer]
[Berumen] We know that we have somebody,
at least one person, inside of the business.
They're refusing to come out and obey our commands.
[officer]
[Berumen] If we know that there is a subject inside,
we usually treat it as a barricade,
and we call on the SWAT team.
[McGee] When I arrived on scene,
all the officers who showed up first
did a really good job of setting up a perimeter.
There were probably 12 police cars all around the structure.
[officer]
[officer on PA]
-[dog whimpering] -[officer]
[McGee] As a SWAT officer,
my job is to get information for the SWAT sergeant,
and the team leaders before they show up.
[officer]
[McGee] So, I kind of did a walk around
to see where everybody was at,
see where the entry points were.
[officer]
We want to maintain the upper hand tactically.
So, I don't wanna define the surveillance cameras.
Surveillance cameras are difficult
for SWAT officers who are moving up to a structure
because it gives the person inside the drop on you.
They see us coming up on cameras,
they can decide to start shooting at us.
[narrator] McGee deploys a non-lethal round
to take out the cameras here.
[officer]
[gunshot]
[officer]
[narrator] With the surveillance cameras now disabled,
police units are able to approach
the rear entrance of the building without being detected.
[officer]
[McGee] A pawn shop is a unique situation
where they have all types of things.
They have TVs, they have furniture, but they also carry weapons.
And they have guns.
And we don't know what type of threat we're walking into
or what type of arsenal the suspects could now have
by gaining access into this building.
[officer]
-[dog barking] -[officer] Go ahead.
[indistinct chatter]
Hold on, let Boss work just for a second.
[officer]
[Berumen] While I was on my perimeter position,
they started to use the drone.
You can take a look on top of the building
in areas that we can't really get our eyes on.
My position was on the southeastern side of the building,
and what I'm looking for is any kind of movement inside.
There's always a possibility that they may
try to take their chances and flee out the front door.
Once I arrived on scene,
I was briefed by the the patrol lieutenant.
We already know that the suspect's not willing to peacefully surrender.
That obviously kind of gets the hairs on the back of your neck up a little bit
that there is gonna be some type of confrontation.
[Patton] We got to the point of entry,
which was the back door of the business.
As the SWAT team is staged at the door,
we do send our technical assets inside,
and one being that is our track robot,
what we call the eye core.
We would rather avoid any type of lethal encounter.
That's not what we wanna do.
That's why we use all these other options first,
the dogs, the robots.
[Galbraith] Once the robot got so far,
we didn't see anything,
we decided it was time to go ahead
and physically clear that with boots on the ground.
[officer] He's probably in the attic somewhere.
[McGee] What I'm thinking about at that moment is staying calm.
Kind of the best way I could describe it is, you know, adrenaline fuel.
[officer]
[McGee]
[officer]
[Galbraith]
[dog barking]
[McGee]
[Patton] One of our K-9 officers sent his dog in.
The dog immediately went to the right
And he was kind of smelling on a wall
and he was on his back hind legs,
kind of jumping up and down on the wall right there,
and I thought that was super weird.
And in my experience on the team,
I've never seen that happen before.
[officer]
[officer 2]
[officer]
[McGee] Me and the canine operator didn't know what it was doing
'cause I could clearly see that area
and there was no one over there.
So, we thought the dog had gotten thrown off by something.
[officer 2]
[officer]
[officer 2]
[officer]
The team comes in and we kind of do what we call
a big room domination, an access pool.
[officer]
[Galbraith] There was a large storage facility with multiple rooms off of it
that were stacked with just miscellaneous items from floor to ceiling.
They could be hiding anywhere.
The only place we knew he wasn't was
under the floor 'cause it was all concrete.
[officer]
So, we kinda just push in.
Slowly and methodically picking this thing apart
as we move through the building.
[dog barking]
[Galbraith] I got multiple. Here, Boss got the back.
[dramatic music swells]
[dog barking]
[officer]
Now we come to a juncture where it's a natural choke point
where an ambush could be set up.
This is not a crisis situation
where we have to rush in there and save someone.
Now, we can use our time and deploy more technical assets.
I told Detective Patton to go ahead and throw in a smaller robot
which we refer to as the dog bone.
[Patton] It's called a scout robot,
but actually we call it a dog bone
'cause it looks like a dog bone.
It's very effective to be thrown at really any distance.
Once it lands, it gets on its wheels.
It's got night vision on it, and it's got infrared.
It just gives us a little bit more confidence
in what we're going into,
rather than going into it completely blind.
We did not see any signs of the suspect,
so we knew we were gonna have to continue with the clear.
[Patton]
[Galbraith] There was kind of an office in the middle,
but it had mirrored glass all the way around it.
We didn't know if the suspects were looking right at us or not.
[officer]
There was a lot of confidence that they could be hiding in there.
[officer]
So, I made the decision to deploy one of our 37 millimeter gas rounds
that would deliver a payload of CS chemical munitions.
It doesn't have any detrimental physical effects on you,
but it makes you think you're having a hard time breathing.
If anyone's in there, it would force them to come out to us.
[officer]
[munition explodes]
[officer]
An Arwen is a weapon system that can deliver
different types of rounds,
and this one comes with a round
that has an OC on it that's made to penetrate through walls.
[officer] Yeah, right there.
We're not getting any response,
so we do have to physically go in there and clear it.
Wearing a gas mask,
it does limit your field of view,
and it does make your breathing a little bit more restrictive.
It does put you at a little bit of a disadvantage.
Can you hear me out of this?
[officer]
Right down the left.
I got the one.
[Galbraith] I'm really trying to listen.
If I can hear anybody inside move,
knock something over, start coughing.
[McGee]
We don't know if the suspects are being affected by the gas,
have covered their faces
or are still laying in wait to ambush us.
[Patton]
[indistinct conversation]
[McGee]
It's completely defeating at that point
because you're like, "Oh, there's nobody in here."
We didn't solve the problem.
At that moment, I felt like we had missed something.
The subject had gotten away before we got there.
[Berumen] But we're getting updates from the SWAT team,
and they advised that they had cleared
the entire building and they didn't find anybody.
I'm thinking that the guy found somewhere to hide in there
because there was no way that they got outside of our perimeter.
[Patton] We were kind of getting frustrated at this point.
And so, everybody kind of breaks off
and just starts looking in the weirdest spots, right?
[McGee] Is there some door, some closet,
some hiding spot that we missed
'cause that is something that can happen.
[Berumen] I have my rifle pointed towards
the southeast side of the building
when I start to see a subject inside banging on the window.
[officer]
[Berumen]
[officer]
I realized that this was a different person
than the one I had originally seen at the front door.
So, now I knew that we were dealing with two suspects.
[Patton] What was weird was patrol was on the outside
and they were telling us they could see movement on the inside,
but it wasn't us.
That was a very odd feeling
because they could be looking at us and we can't see them.
[McGee] We're looking at every single window that we could possibly see.
What window are we talking about?
Patrol officers were still telling us that they could see someone inside a window
that was a little bit further south
than where we had cleared to.
So, we started matching the windows up from the inside.
[officer]
[Patton] I looked over and I saw my boss,
he was pulling boxes out.
And you know, that's weird, because if somebody's back there,
how are they gonna get the boxes,
you know, back in position?
As he's pulling all these boxes out,
he comes across a little crawl space.
[officer]
[McGee] Looks like a little cubbyhole.
You can see, it's a little plywood door.
[Patton] As he kicks it, it comes right back.
So, at that point, we knew somebody was on the other side.
[Patton]
There's no doubt they knew the police were there.
They were not gonna come out of that room
without some type of confrontation.
At that point, he was able to push that little door open.
[indistinct shouting]
[Patton] There's a male suspect on the ground.
There's another male suspect deeper in the back
that's just laying down.
Kind of looked very lifeless at the time.
[indistinct shouting]
[officer]
[Patton] He had now grabbed one of our detective's ankles
and wasn't letting him push forward.
I don't know if he had a substance on board.
I still don't know those answers.
But at that time,
he pretty much just kinda goes in, like, a rage mode, I guess.
[indistinct shouting]
[officer]
[Patton] It's a tiny room. It's like fighting in a hallway.
We have all our gear on.
We're in gas masks.
It's like breathing through a straw,
especially when you're, you know, exerting that much energy.
[alarm beeping]
[Galbraith] The longer it goes to,
the more likelihood is more people getting injured.
So, we're trying to end this as quickly as possible.
[indistinct shouting]
[officer]
The biggest concern is I couldn't get resources in there to help my operators.
So, a couple of the breachers, they start just manually
breaching the wall 'cause it's just drywall.
[McGee] I need to get through that wall.
My family is in there and they're in a fight,
so I want to get in there. I want to help.
We're just pretty much trading punches with this guy
'cause we could not contain him.
[officer]
[McGee] We called up an Arwen.
It's just a rubber bullet.
He fires one shot...
[indistinct shouting]
[McGee] ...the suspect then falls over.
[bleep]
[officer]
[Galbraith] And then, just basically drag him out at that point.
But as I start pulling him out, his shirt rips off.
We were able to control him, get his hands behind his back,
and then, handcuffed at that point.
[officer]
[officer 2]
[officer 3]
[officer]
[Galbraith] And then, he actually started showing signs
of heavy drug use
to the point that we were also concerned about his welfare,
since the other suspect was unconscious.
[officer]
[McGee] You go from we're take out a bad guy to now that bad guy is in trouble.
So, we go immediately into a lifesaving role.
[officer]
[Patton] We get a lot of medical training, especially in our unit.
And we kind of knew probably what we were seeing,
it was an overdose of some sort.
At least, that's what it looked like.
[officer]
[McGee] The faster we get Narcan on board,
the more likely they are to have less damage done.
You can use that to help revitalize the individual while they're dying.
[officer]
[bleep]
[Patton] They did two or three doses of Narcan on him.
[officer]
[officer 2]
That was able to bring him back.
-[officer] -[officer 2]
[officer]
[Ryan]
[Patton] I'm able to go inside and get the subject
to where there's more air,
and there's fire department personnel
who are waiting to provide some care to the subject.
He definitely was breathing and he was alive at that point.
And he's only alive because of the actions of those detectives
that got on the Narcan real quick.
[officer]
[Berumen] As a police officer,
once you arrest somebody,
their health and wellbeing is in your hands now.
Even though they've committed a crime,
you are still responsible to make sure
that they get the help that they need.
[officer]
[officer 2]
[Galbraith] Any one of my operators probably saved the life
of one of the suspects in there that had overdosed.
So, overall, I felt very good.
It was a successful operation.
[indistinct conversation]
[Patton] We've trained for those moments our entire careers.
That's why you can see that we're able to go from
a tactical unit of transition to life saving capabilities.
I love it. I love the adrenaline to it.
It's exactly what we trained for.
[narrator] The suspects are Travis Stack and Joshua Bess,
Both are transported to the hospital
and treated for suspected drug overdoses.
Travis Stack pleads guilty to one count of solicitation
to commit third degree burglary, unlawful entry.
He receives two years of supervised probation.
Joshua Bess pleads guilty to three counts of aggravated assault on an officer
and one count of third degree burglary,
unlawful entry.
He is sentenced to six years in prison.
[Berumen] I've been a patrol officer for 11 years,
and in my entire career,
this is the first time that I ever saw an arrest
turned into a life saving venture at the same time.
[officer]
[McGee] So, the suspect's actions that day I thought
were just desperate moves made by someone who was in a bad situation.
[Patton] It's still just very odd how they got into that little room,
and essentially, what it is is it's a display area for the pawn shop.
Essentially, those two were in a display case
on the side of the road.
At any point, they knew the police were there,
they could have surrendered.
Their actions, it was unneeded, it was unwanted,
and that's why they ended up where they are now.
[indistinct conversation]
[Patton] Looking back, if the dog knew
somebody was on the other side of that wall,
it was something that we should have picked up on.
I guess they're smarter than we give them credit for, the dogs.