[narrator] In Oklahoma...
[man speaking]
[Guth speaking]
...a crisis negotiation...
[man speaking]
...turns deadly.
[man speaking]
[gunshots]
[Guth speaking]
[narrator] In Florida, a Joy Rider...
[man speaking on radio]
...stops at nothing to evade capture.
I've never seen anything like that before.
Head butt his way out of the window.
[narrator] And in Arizona...
[911 officer speaking]
[man speaking]
[narrator]...a life or death rescue.
You're holding your breath, hoping that that truck doesn't move.
[narrator]Sitting on the eastern edge of the Great Plains
and known as the wheat capital of Oklahoma
is the city of Enid.
[Jeran Jones]Enid is a blue collar town. We've got train tracks,
grain elevators, a few places to eat,
but mostly a town for people who go to work and go home.
I started working there about three years ago.
Before that, never really had any intention of becoming a cop.
It just sort of fell into my lap.
There's something new every day, and it's never the same.
It's always exciting.
[911 officer speaking]
[woman speaking]
[911 officer speaking]
[woman speaking]
[911 officer speaking]
[woman speaking]
[911 officer speaking]
[woman speaking]
[911 officer speaking]
[Guth speaking]
[woman speaking]
[Guth speaking]
[woman speaking]
[Guth speaking]
[woman speaking]
[Guth speaking]
My partner, Officer Guth first arrived at the scene.
[Guth speaking]
[man speaking]
Dispatch tells me that there is a person experiencing a mental crisis.
That there are weapons in the house,
but unknown location,
and that there are children inside the house.
These calls are very rarely straightforward as they are set out.
[Guth speaking]
[Jeran]As I arrive on scene, I know the wife is in the house.
My partner is in the house.
And I know somewhere there are children, but I don't know where.
Well, our goal is never to escalate.
We always want to de-escalate.
Having children inside the house,
they're innocent bystanders.
We do want to keep it as calm as possible.
[Guth speaking]
[Jeran speaking]
[Guth speaking]
[Jeran]As I walk up to the house, it seems fairly quiet,
so I'm thinking in my head,
maybe it's calmed down a little bit.
[Guth speaking]
[woman speaking]
[Guth speaking]
[Matt speaking]
[Guth speaking]
[indistinct radio chatter]
[Matt speaking]
[Guth speaking]
He seems very agitated.
His words are slurred.
You can't really make out what he's saying.
[Matt speaking]
[Guth speaking]
[Matt speaking]
[Guth speaking]
Our training mostly focuses on establishing communication,
trying to keep the suspect as calm as reasonably possible.
[Matt speaking]
[Guth speaking]
[Jeran speaking]
[Guth speaking]
It's not that it's an unreasonable request,
but the main concern is that by taking our badges off
and sliding them under the door,
that tells them exactly where we're at.
[Guth speaking]
Myself and Sergeant Evans
hear the call come out and we decide we're going
to respond due to the nature of the call.
We get these types of calls a lot
where people are having
these thoughts of self-harm, maybe homicidal thoughts.
My understanding, it was
Mr. Travis's wife that's upstairs.
And also two small children that are with her.
Being that he's made these statements that are kind of delusional,
he's not understanding that we're the police and we're there to help.
In his mind, his family can now turn into bad guys,
that his wife and his children are now the enemy,
and he needs to take them out.
As soon as we step out, Norton starts speaking to the wife of the couple
that was, they're having dinner.
[Lt. Roberto speaking]
[woman speaking]
[Lt. Roberto speaking]
[Sgt. Evans] If he did say he was gonna kill himself,
kill his wife, that kind of thing,
we can put him in protective custody.
[narrator]Back inside the house,
officers again try to reason with Travis.
[Guth speaking]
I started realizing that the situation may be escalating.
I put my foot in front of the door to make sure
that he just can't swing it open.
[Guth speaking]
[gun cocks]
At that point, I do hear the very distinct sound of the slide
to a handgun racking in the basement.
[gunshots]
[Guth speaking]
[Jeran] This is my first active shooting.
It's hard to say what emotions you're experiencing in that moment,
because just about every ounce of adrenaline in your body
pumping through your system.
We weren't given that much time.
[gunshots]
As shots are being fired, I feel something hit my cheek.
I have no idea what it is.
I recognize that it hurts, but I'm still moving.
I'm still functioning.
I did reach up and feel my cheek.
There wasn't any blood.
I determined that it was either wood from the door or bits of drywall.
[gunshots]
[Sgt. Evans]There's a lot going on.
And it kind of takes my brain a second to process.
[Guth speaking]
The one thing that was going through my mind
is that he was directly below his children and his wife.
At this point, I'm not sure if his wife is the catalyst
that got him so upset.
So I was worried that he was going to try
to shoot through the floor upwards,
[narrator] With no time to evacuate the family,
police must get Travis to comply.
[officer] You gotta go. You gotta go.
We have Mr. Travis's wife and his two small children upstairs.
[man on radio]
The decision was made not to go upstairs
because we could become unnecessary targets.
And then are we putting the Travis family in danger?
By making movement, I don't know if he's going to shoot
warning shots up into the air, and those bullets are going to be
going up the staircase that a family could potentially start walking down.
So at that point, it's best to kind of just leave everything
where everybody is until he is taken into custody.
[officer 1 speaking]
[Sgt. Tyler speaking]
[officer 2 speaking]
[Jeran] Initially I was in the line of fire had anything happened.
So I slowly began to work my way out of the house.
[man speaking indistinctly on radio]
[officer speaking]
[Lt. Norton] The SWAT team and other resources that are going to come in
and do the negotiating are at least an hour away.
So Sergeant Evans now has to engage this person in conversation.
When somebody is in that paranoid sort of state,
you don't know how far they're willing to go
to even harm their own children or wife.
[Sgt. Evans] Mr. Travis comes to the top of the stairs
and then he saw us and he went back down.
That's whenever he started trying to speak with me.
We just went from adrenaline rush,
him firing shots...
[gunshots]
...feeling in danger,
to now, we have to try to play nice.
He tells me I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do.
And that is not what you want to hear.
If he feels as though he can control the situation,
I think that gives him more confidence to either shoot at us again
or make some sort of drastic action.
He tells me that he's throwing the magazine on the top of the stairs.
He ends up throwing the entire gun up on the stairs,
on the floor to where we can see it.
[officer 1 speaking]
[officer 2 speaking]
[Sgt. Evans speaking]
I'm scared because we're always taught in training
the plus one rule.
If somebody has one gun, you need to assume that they have another
so that you don't get complacent and put yourself in a bad spot.
Sergeant Evans goes for his gun.
He walks towards the front door.
[all speaking indistinctly]
It's not by the book what should happen,
but I felt like it would end the situation quickly.
Okay.
[officer speaking]
Once he's in handcuffs, there's a great relief off my shoulders.
We got the job done as a team.
Nobody else was hurt.
[Lt. Norton] Sgt. Evans, essentially putting himself in harm's way,
in my opinion, says a lot about his character.
He's willing to sacrifice his life
to protect the people that are upstairs, that are still in harm's way.
[officer 1 speaking]
[officer 2 speaking]
[Jeran speaking]
[Jeran] I went upstairs with the officers
that were clearing the rest of the house.
So I get to the room where the children are.
I can see that they're breathing.
They appear to be sleeping.
And at that point I was able to take a huge breath of relief
knowing that they had not been hurt.
[narrator]Matthew Travis is found guilty
of two counts of shooting with intent to kill.
He is awaiting sentencing.
[Lt. Norton]Mental health calls are one of the calls
that I personally fear the most
because you're dealing with somebody
who's not in their right mind.
You couple that with alcohol, and now you're adding a whole different element
into an already volatile situation.
So after everything happens
and I see in the door where he had shot through...
and I realized how close I was to actually being shot.
I kind of took a moment to recognize and appreciate
how fortunate I was to be standing there and completely uninjured.
You don't recognize the magnitude
of the danger that you're in until the situation is over
and when the situation resolves, it hits you pretty hard.
[narrator] In Florida,
eighty miles northwest of Orlando, is Ocala,
[Cpl. Esquivel]Ocala during the day, it's just like any other city.
It's nice and busy. It's away from our downtown area.
Not a lot of traffic, a lot of pastures, a lot of horse farms.
We have our lakes and our streams,
but it's growing exponentially.
It was a very busy weekend.
We were called to call the entire night.
It finally slowed down until I heard Cpl. Esquivel on the radio.
[narrator]Cpl. Esquivel is at the end of his night shift,
patrolling with his canine, Jet.
[Cpl. Esquivel] I stopped at the gas station on Maricamp,
just on the outside of the city.
I see a vehicle enter the parking lot.
The suspect goes inside.
He gave me little to no attention
when he walked in the store.
We never made eye contact.
Leaves the car running, and the music is blaring with the windows down.
His actions and his demeanor
seemed a little bit suspicious.
I was going to let him be, but he exited the parking lot
and immediately accelerated,
spinning his tires.
So I pulled out behind him, started following him from a distance.
I definitely could tell he was speeding.
He's creating a larger and larger distance on me,
which means that he's traveling at speeds a lot higher than I am.
So that raised suspicion that there was something going on with him.
-[siren wailing] -[Jet barking]
I knew that if I wanted to keep up with him,
I had to close the distance.
I didn't want to let him out of my sight because he is dangerous to the public.
So I accelerated into well over 100 mph on that road.
-[speaking indistinctly] -[Jet barking]
[Jet whining]
K9, he's very aware of what's going on.
He knows we're going to a call.
So he's excited.
He's very vocal about it.
[Jet barking]
[Sgt. Rodriguez]As Cpl. Esquivel was providing updates
on where he was, and I was thinking,
where are they in relation to where I am?
The car was basically driving in circles.
They were coming up to residential neighborhoods.
How can I get there?
I have to make sure that nobody gets harmed.
[Jet barking]
[Cpl. Esquivel]He is swerving and changing lanes.
[Jet barking]
[officer speaking on radio]
[Cpl. Esquivel speaking]
The K9 deputy, Cpl. Esquivel,
is in a pursuit of the vehicle near my zone.
In my head. I'm thinking, when you're chasing somebody,
it's best to have two to three vehicles in pursuit.
So I need to get there.
[Cpl. Esquivel]Is the vehicle stolen? Was this used in the crime?
Who am I actually chasing?
All this is running through my mind,
but I know right now that he's in front of me.
He knew I was behind him and he was going to do
everything he could to get away.
The suspect has no regard to safety.
[Jet barking]
I was afraid that he was gonna crash into somebody
and hurt himself and hurt somebody else.
He knew that I was behind him,
and I was thinking, could I conduct a pit maneuver?
[Jet barking]
A pit maneuver is to stop the vehicle
by bumping their rear quarter panel and spinning them out.
[officer speaking on radio]
[Sgt. Rodriguez]As I see them drive past me, I thought, okay, here we go.1
Then I proceeded to call the chase from there.
[Sgt. Rodriguez speaking on radio]
[officer speaking on radio]
[Cpl. Esquivel]Due to his speeds and his recklessness,
I knew that If I do conduct this pit,
it could travel a good distance away
and crash into something
because they're spinning out of control.
So I'm just gonna let it play out just a little bit longer.
I'm traveling parallel to him a street over.
But I was ahead of them.
[narrator]Cpl. Esquivel closes in to conduct a pit maneuver.
[officer speaking on radio]
[Sgt. Rodriguez speaking on radio]
[officer speaking on radio]
[tires squealing]
[Sgt. Rodriguez speaking on radio]
[Cpl. Esquivel]I pitted the vehicle and continued to follow it.
The bumper was hanging on, and the last thing I wanted
was for it to fall off and get under my vehicle
and disable my vehicle and get me out of the pursuit.
He continued to flee.
At this point, they're coming right towards me.
I had in my head that stop sticks might be the best option.
I try to get on the radio to say I'm in position,
back off a little bit so that you don't also get stop sticked.
In a pursuit of the second vehicle, Sgt. Rodriguez,
she was the one taking over the radio communications
so that Cpl. Esquivel could focus on driving.
When she calls out on the radio,
where they are, what they're passing,
and that's kind of giving me an update to see
how close they're coming to me.
I'm in position.
[Cpl. Esquivel]And I could see it off in the distance
where her vehicle was parked.
The last thing I want is to run them over myself.
It was like really trying to be on my A-game
to rip them out in time before K9 crossed over them.
[Deputy Eck speaking on radio]
[Cpl. Esquivel speaking]
[Deputy Eck]I was very excited that I got a good hit on him.
I heard the tires squeal and everything like that.
He actually flung the stop sticks off the road.
Once he drove over the stop sticks, his tires were deflated.
[officer speaking on radio]
[Sgt. Rodriguez speaking on radio]
[officer speaking on radio]
[Cpl. Esquivel] The vehicle was barely going 10 mph.
He had absolutely no traction.
[Sgt. Rodriguez speaking on radio]
[Cpl. Esquivel]What worried me was what's going to happen next.
I knew that this guy had meant business.
I've never seen anything like that before.
Headbutt his way out of the window.
It almost looked like he was a dolphin trying to get out of the car.
[Deputy Eck] I don't know how he managed it.
Do that and continue to get up and run away.
[Sgt. Rodriguez]My concern is,
is there somebody else who has a weapon?
Is there something more that we're missing?
I felt a sigh of relief knowing that there was no one else inside that car.
[Cpl. Esquivel] When that door opens after the pursuit, Jet's coming to work.
There are very few people that have gotten away from Jet.
He's 90 pounds of pure muscle.
When he apprehends you,
he's gonna hold you until I get there.
This guy's in my world now.
He's not getting away from Jet.
[officer] Get them off.
[groaning]
[Cpl. Esquivel speaking]
After incidents like this, there's always a story.
The suspect made a statement that he was robbed
at the Circle K, of his gold chain.
And I knew that was not true because I was sitting there
in the parking lot watching him the entire time.
[narrator] The suspect, Tyler Fayconsolo,
is charged with offenses of DUI property damage,
felony fleeing, and resisting an officer.
He is awaiting trial.
[Sgt. Rodriguez]After the suspect was taken to the hospital by EMT personnel,
the registered owner actually showed up on scene
and it was a friend of her husband's.
He stole their vehicle while they were asleep
and he took the vehicle on a joyride.
[Deputy Eck] He obviously was very desperate to get away.
[Sgt. Rodriguez]I've never seen somebody use their head
to get out of a car like that.
I was amazed that he didn't have head trauma.
[Deputy Eck]For this incident,
Since I successfully stopped sticked the suspect vehicle,
I was able to be awarded
this stop stick pin right here on my uniform.
I'm very proud of it.
But I don't think he realized that the one
that was pursuing him was the K9 deputy.
We all united as a team to put this individual into custody.
[narrator] Fifty miles northeast of Phoenix, Arizona,
is the town of Tonto Basin.
[Sgt. Nudson]I've lived in Tonto Basin about 13 years.
It has that small town feel.
When people think of Arizona, they usually think of cactus and deserts.
But in reality, Arizona has torrential flooding.
The tunnel basin has a creek that passes through town.
Many residents live on the backside of the creek.
Whenever it's flooded, crossing the creek,
the amount of water coming down is usually a dangerous amount.
The creek can be very deceptive.
[911 officer speaking]
[man speaking]
[Sgt. Nudson]I was driving on patrol. When I heard that call,
I immediately responded to the area.
Whenever I hear a call like this,
it definitely gives me a sense of urgency.
I knew that we were gonna need the state troopers with their helicopter.
Swift water rescue is probably one of the more
high priority calls that we can get.
But we never really know what exactly we have
on our hands until we arrive overhead.
On a good day, it's maybe 20 minutes
to where this rescue was taking place.
[911 officer speaking]
[man speaking]
[911 officer speaking]
[Scott]The day of the incident,
we had several storms that were in the area.
So that is why the creek was running at that time.
[narrator] The stranded driver was going from the west side of the river
to his home on the east side.
The creek has three dirt roads
that allow members of the community
to drive from west to east.
Whatever the water flows across the dirt roads,
if I hear someone stuck, my concern is, is the water increasing?
Is there more debris flowing down the creek?
We've had young children,
we've had adults that have tried to cross,
and we've had some successful rescues,
but we've had a number of fatalities
through there, where the vehicle gets washed out.
[911 officer speaking]
[man speaking]
[911 officer speaking]
[man speaking]
[911 officer speaking]
[Sgt. Nudson]Sometimes people will ignore the signs.
Most people think that they are going to be lucky and make it across the water.
I continued to the location and drove as close as I could
to the center of the creek.
The water was moving pretty fast.
We had some weather, a lot of low lying clouds
on the mountain ranges between us and where the rescue is taking place.
So there was some navigating in and around the canyons
to kind of get into the Tonto Basin area.
We don't know what we have at this point.
We're always kind of anticipating the worst.
[narrator] Randy Roberson is on the bank of the creek filming the disaster.
I'm trying to just document that,
"Hey, we've got another vehicle in the creek,"
and trying to remind people
that, hey, this is what happens
when you get out there in the water.
[Sgt. Nudson]When I spot the vehicle,
I noticed the water was increasing its height,
starting to approach the top of the hood.
The chances of the motorist surviving
if he was washed away from the vehicle, very slim.
[Sgt. Nudson] When I saw the helicopter arrive, I was relieved.
[Scott] We really did not have any updates on the driver's condition.
A person that has been exposed to cold water
for an extended period of time and in this case,
for about two hours,
it makes it so their muscles are not
working the way that they normally would.
And it progresses to the legs
not being able to support weight.
In addition to their ability to make decisions.
Myself and Trooper Dodge come up with a plan.
He's gonna sit in the back of the helicopter
and we're gonna come around to the pickup truck
and just do a low hover right over the bed of the truck,
and he's gonna get out in the bed of the truck
and make contact with the victim.
This is going to be a tough rescue,
even with the helicopter.
Because if something changes, the vehicle moves,
myself and my fellow deputies
had to be prepared to enter the water.
So I got my swift water gear on.
[Scott]There was rainfall that was happening
up towards the north of us.
So is there more water coming down?
Is there a surge of water
two or three feet headed our direction?
A flash flood can come really, really fast.
It only takes a few inches, five, six inches of water
and they can afloat a greyhound bus.
If the truck were to have been moved downriver at that point in time,
it very well could have changed this from a rescue to a recovery.
We do not want to touch those skids to the truck.
We don't want to bump it or dislodge it
and possibly cause that truck going downstream.
[Russ] So I started in an open doorway
and then had my feet on the step
and ready to step out to the skid.
There's nothing guaranteeing that that truck isn't going
to all of a sudden start moving.
I disconnected from my safety connection point on the aircraft.
There's still movement on that vehicle
because of the water and the rotor wash.
I carefully stepped down to get my footing onto the vehicle.
I was pretty relieved to not feel any movement from that truck.
[Sgt. Nudson]When I saw the helicopter dropping off the trooper,
I felt that he needed a lot of prayer.
[Scott]And we're not going to just hold that position.
I don't want to create all of that wind
and rotor down wash on him.
[Russ speaking]
[man speaking]
[Scott] It seemed like an eternity.
You're looking at your watch a lot
and saying, kind of, hurry up,
hurry up, hurry up.
You're holding your breath
hoping that that truck doesn't move.
[Randy] One misstep, and this is gonna be even a bigger tragedy.
So everyone's kind of sitting right on the edge of their seat,
waiting to see how this is all going to play out.
[man speaking]
[Russ speaking]
[Russ]But once I was able to get hands on the driver,
it was a pretty major relief.
Trooper Dodge gives me the signal,
and then I'll start to move the helicopter back in.
This is probably the most dangerous part of the rescue.
[Russ speaking]
The driver, at that point, the experiences he had
was probably one of the worst days of his life.
So the potential for him to panic was pretty high.
[Scott] Yeah, time is of the essence at this point.
You just don't want to risk the chance
of that pickup truck coming dislodged
while they're trying to climb on board the helicopter.
[Russ]If the vehicle started moving,
the idea was to grab the driver
and basically jump over the side of the pickup truck.
[Sgt. Nudson]As I'm watching the truck and preparing myself
with the rescue line to jump in the water.
[Russ] We're trying to move someone who is hypothermic,
has been through a traumatic event,
is wearing gear that they're not used to.
[Scott] Now that our patient and Trooper Dodge
are onboard the helicopter, there's a huge sigh of relief.
They're both safe, and now we have to transport them
over to the shoreline.
[Sgt. Nudson]Once Trooper Dodge brought the motorists safely to land,
I was relieved.
Driving across the roadway
when it's flooded is a misdemeanor crime.
When the victim was issued a citation,
it appeared that he realized he made a mistake,
and I think he was appreciative that we saved his life.
[Scott] I mean, the overall outcome was great.
We were all excited that nobody got hurt.
Nobody was killed.
[Russ]These types of rescues are at very high risk.
I try not to think about them too much
because if you concentrate
on the dangers and the hazards,
it can affect your decision making ability.
But knowing that these rescues and the jobs that we do,
there are inherent risks and are inherent hazards
that can have catastrophic events.
[Scott]We all make bad decisions at times in our lives.
He made a bad decision.
He made a decision that potentially could have been fatal.
At the end of the rescue, he actually came up
and shook my hand and apologized
and said, "I am so sorry for risking your life."
We're there to help people.
At the end of the day, that's what we're there for.
In New Mexico...
[yelling]
If they're willing to shoot a deputy
there's no telling what else they are willing to do.
[rapid gun fire]
In Oklahoma...
Driving a lifted pickup truck that fast
is a recipe for disaster.