[narrator] In New Mexico,
a traffic violation...
[siren wailing]
[Duran] The driver has this, like, 1,000-yard stare.
It sent, like, a chill down my spine.
[narrator] ...turns into a terrifying ordeal.
[gunshot and glass breaks]
The guy, like, has [bleep] shot me.
[gunshot]
[narrator] In Ohio...
[female dispatcher speaking]
[old woman speaking]
-[narrator] ...two hostages... -[indistinct talking]
[officer yelling]
[Cox]I never expected this.
It's like being in a movie.
[narrator] ...a manhunt...
[Craft speaking]
[narrator]...and a carjacking...
[dog barking and indistinct shouting]
This is definitely one for the books.
[female dispatcher speaking indistinctly]
[male officer shouting]Yeah, I've caught him! Come outside!
[narrator] In New Mexico,
nestled at the base of the Sandia Mountains,
is Albuquerque.
[Duran] Interstate 40 runs from east to west
throughout the whole entire country.
But my main area was Albuquerque.
And it is known for so much crime.
Commercial motor vehicle trailers being stolen,
large amounts of dope,
stolen guns, human trafficking.
You name it, you can find it on I-40.
We call it "The Beast" here in New Mexico.
I'm assigned to overtime that day.
And so, I was super excited.
I was a brand-new officer
to the K-9 Team,
I had only been on for about four months.
And I had talked to my shift partner,
and we had decided that we were going to work
some commercial motor vehicle traffic
that day at the port in Gallup.
I started traveling out westbound on I-40,
and I made it to the State Road 6 exit.
And so, I have time to pull over a couple of cars.
As I was watching traffic, I'd seen
this camper trailer coming
towards me, and it was one of these huge fifth-wheels
that, like, you could just live in.
What caught my eye, is I'd seen a mirror
kind of popped out behind it.
Once the camper trailer came a little closer to me,
I could see that's, uh,
a smaller pickup truck, kind of hiding behind this camper.
As he starts to pass me,
I've already got the violation of following too close,
and so, I really start to pay attention to him.
This guy is not looking at me.
He's looking straight ahead.
He has this, like, 1,000-yard stare.
It was a little eerie in a sense,
and it sent like, uh, a chill down my spine.
I'm driving a little ways behind him
before I even turn my lights on.
And the plate comes back to a "Robert Benjamin Nelson."
-[siren wailing]-No criminal history pops up,
so I'm like, "Okay, this guy is clean."
The normal motoring public, at this point,
would start to look at you
and look for you, and see what's going on.
But his head and eyes are straightforward.
There's no movement in the truck whatsoever.
The eerie feeling starts happening again.
At this point, I'm like, "Okay,
let's just have a conversation with this guy
and see, kind of, what's going on."
[clears throat]
As I'm walking up...
I watched the brake lights come back on.
What I was expecting was, he was getting ready to run.
[gunshot]
[grunting softly]
[straining]
[gun firing]
[grunts softly]
[straining]
[grunts]
[radio beeps]
[distorted gunshot]
Everything went black
for a moment, and I was like, "Oh, God, this is it."
This guy just shot me.
[gunshot]
[distorted gunshots]
The guy, like,
has [bleep] shot me.
[gunshot]
[gun firing]
[continued firing]
[grunting]
Hearing the glass shatter,
the way that it did,
I... I had heard that sound before in training,
like, shooting through cars.
And I was definitely shot,
I just didn't know how bad I was.
[distorted gunshot]
Immediately, I felt like time was just standing still.
And so,
I told myself,
"You're not going to let him have this moment.
[sniffles]
You need to get home to your family.
And you need to do whatever it takes
to go home."
Because I really thought
that, "If I lay here any longer,
he's gonna come out and he's gonna murder me."
At that point...
-[muffled gunshot]-...my training just kind of kicked in...
-[muffled gunshots]-...and the fight was on.
And that's when I'd seen all the blood.
I didn't know was it my face that was bleeding,
was it my hand?
-[male officer over radio] -[grunting]
[Duran] I... I just walked up on, uh, what I thought
was going to be a normal traffic stop.
I was really pissed off.
-[panting] -[radio beeps]
[breathing heavily continuously]
Um...
[breathing heavily]
[device beeps]
[engine accelerating]
[dispatcher over radio]
[Duran breathing heavily]
[dispatcher over radio]
-[radio beeps] -[Duran speaking]
[panting]
[dispatcher over radio]
My nearest backup is in the city of Albuquerque,
which is still another 20 minutes away from me.
I start trying to catch up to this guy.
And I feel like I'm going so fast.
Right? In my head, I'm like, "Yeah, I'm going...
I'm going super-fast."
Well then, I start seeing traffic,
and I'm not really passing traffic.
And so, then I look down at my speedometer,
and I'm doing, like, 70 miles per hour.
And so, I had to have a small
motivational conversation with myself
of, like, "Get your head out of your ass.
This guy just shot you.
You're still going. You need to get this guy."
You can see the speed on my radar change
from double digits to triple digits.
[radio beeps]
The hole in the back of his window looked like a basketball.
It was just huge, and I was like,
"Okay. This is... This is him.
This is the guy."
[dispatcher over radio]
-[radio beeps] -[Duran speaking]
He was traveling at normal traffic speeds,
like if nothing had happened.
Who shoots at somebody,
and then just drives normal speed?
[dispatcher over radio]
[Adam Sandoval] I was one of the supervisors on that shift.
When I heard "shots fired,"
I knew it was Sharron immediately.
Um, I've worked with her for a long time.
I know her well.
Everybody and anybody that was on my team,
I needed them there.
[narrator] But then, the driver makes a surprising move.
[bleep]
[Duran]Talk about gut check,
his hazards come on.
And my gut just falls completely down.
And I had to take a deep breath and be like,
"Oh, my God. He knows I'm here."
I watch him, and he starts to swerve.
[exhales in frustration]
I'm not ready for this.
I was shot.
I was continuously bleeding.
I'm... I'm looking at my hands at this point.
They're hurting.
It's hard to keep them closed on the steering wheel.
I look back at my, uh, rifle,
and it's in a gunlock.
And I'm like, "He's got the upper edge on me.
I've got to do something."
[groans in pain]
[bleep]
[sighs in frustration]
When I'd seen the rifle,
I watched the sling come away,
it just... I knew it was an AK-47.
-[groans in pain]-It's a 7.62-mm armor-piercing caliber round,
where I was shooting a 5.56-mm with my rifle.
I was outgunned.
[engine sputters and revs]
I keep my distance.
And I keep my rifle drawn on him,
and I start giving him commands over the PA.
But he's not moving from that driver's side.
[yelling]
[dispatcher over radio]
[car door chiming]
[Duran] We've now got two long-range rifles...
ready to go, between him and I.
I'm like, "Oh, man, we're gonna go round two."
He's not moving away from that driver's-side door.
He still has access to those guns.
He's got that rifle.
I wasn't going to fall into his trap again.
I was so focused.
I was so locked in on him.
[radio static and beeps]
[dispatcher over radio]
[Duran speaking]
[radio static]
I'm going as fast as my truck will go.
This was the first time
one of my officers had been shot.
I didn't know how bad it was.
I didn't know if she was still in the fight.
[Duran] Sir...
[dispatcher over radio]
[dispatcher continues indistinctly over radio]
-[man speaking indistinctly over radio] -[Duran speaking]
[radio static]
All of a sudden, two Laguna PD units pop up over the hill.
[indistinct talking]
[dispatcher over radio]
[continues indistinctly]
[Duran speaking]
It was a relief knowing I had some backup.
But, in my mind,
it was still, like, "I still don't have this guy in custody yet,
and he's still a danger.
He still has access
to a rifle, armor-piercing caliber round,
and a handgun.
What is he going to do?"
[narrator]But the shooter isn't the officer's only concern.
[Duran]As the Laguna PD officers start coming down,
I took my eyes off the subject
for just a moment, and I looked behind me.
All of a sudden, that camper trailer
that the suspect was following...
is now coming up on my 6:00.
Immediately, in my head, was like,
"Oh, God. They're here to ambush me."
Now, I, like, kind of barricade myself
in the door seam of my unit.
This was the camper that was following him.
What are they up to?
Are they going to fight now, too? Like,
I don't know
who's in this trailer or what they've got.
[gun cocking]
-[male officer speaking] -[man speaking indistinctly over radio]
[Duran] Both Laguna officers were set on the shooter.
So now, I, like,
start focusing on this camper trailer.
A male exits the... the driver's-side door.
[person speaking indistinctly over radio]
And so, I start walking up
to the truck,
and camper that's behind us.
[yelling]
That was definitely not what I expected.
[man speaking]
What is going on?
[Duran speaking]
[man speaking]
-[man] Oh, my God! -[Duran shouting]
[man speaking]
[Duran speaking]
[Duran] I was very surprised that it was his dad.
It all hit very weird in my... in my mind.
None of it was just making sense.
[man speaking]
[Duran speaking]
[man speaking]
[Duran] I remember grabbing the pocketknife,
and just launching it into the field next to us.
[Duran speaking]
[man whining]
[Duran speaking]
[Duran] So, I finished dealing with the dad,
and I start to move back up to my unit.
Both Laguna officers were set on the shooter
behind my passenger door,
and we started moving up slowly.
I finally got a response from him,
and he started moving forward.
[male officer speaking]
[Duran] I kept him in my sights
the whole entire time.
[male officer speaking]
-[continues indistinctly] -[Duran] I didn't have any trust for him whatsoever.
He already ambushed me one time.
Who's to say that he doesn't have that pistol stuffed
behind his back?
[male officer speaking]
[Duran] I didn't set my rifle in my unit
until he was in cuffs.
That was the only time I finally was like, "Okay, we're done."
[male officer speaking]
[shooter speaking]
That's all.
[male officer speaking]
[Sandoval] When I arrived on scene,
I was extremely happy to see
that Officer Duran was standing.
She appeared to be in pain,
but she wasn't lying on the ground.
[Sandoval speaking]
[Duran speaking]
[Sandoval speaking]
[Duran]Robert Nelson was charged with discharge of a firearm...
-[gunshot] -...and attempted murder
of a federal task force officer.
He was sentenced to 30 years.
[narrator]Officers later discover
that Robert Nelson
was following his parents' camper trailer
to attend a family funeral.
His father was released without charge.
I don't think, initially, the father realized
how much trouble the son was in.
I think the father was still in shock.
[groans in frustration]
-[Sandoval speaking] -Oh... [mutters indistinctly]
It haunts me every day.
I do things so differently now.
I can't enjoy life the way that I did
before this incident,
because I'm so hypervigilant
on what people do around me now.
I woke up that day,
eager as a new K-9 officer,
just wanting to go out there and find a load of dope
or a load of money,
or whatever have you. And all of a sudden...
Bam!
[muffled gunshot]
[Sandoval] I'm very proud of Officer Duran.
I think she handled the situation amazingly.
She handled it with extreme professionalism,
with integrity.
She stood her ground.
She didn't give up in the fight.
He shot three times,
and I got hit three times
my knuckle here,
and that bullet stayed in my knuckle up until surgery.
[breathing heavily]
There's a screw inside of this finger here now
because the shot shattered part of my finger.
[male officer speaking]
[Duran chuckles]
And then the third shot hit my vest up here.
The glass shard that hit my eye,
um, damaged my vision quite a bit.
[male officer speaking]
I think he just didn't like law enforcement.
He knew what he wanted to do.
And he had the opportunity and he pulled the trigger.
[Duran]He's now 31,
and now he's got to spend, like in my opinion, like
the best years of his life,
rotting away in a prison cell, you know.
For what? For a dumb decision.
[narrator] In Ohio,
40 miles south of Cleveland,
is the city of Akron.
[Jeff Edsall]I was born and raised here.
It's always been a very large city on a smaller scale.
Most of our citizens live in poverty.
And when you live like that, a lot of crime happens.
[line ringing]
[911 operator speaking]
[woman 1 speaking]
[911 operator speaking]
[woman 1 speaking]
[male dispatcher speaking over radio]
[male dispatcher speaking]
I happened to be a couple of blocks away
when I heard the call go out for a signal 10,
which is a fight.
[911 operator speaking]
[woman 1 speaking]
[911 operator speaking]
[woman 1 speaking]
[911 operator speaking]
[woman 1 speaking]
[narrator]Several units are dispatched
as more calls start to come in.
[woman 2 speaking]
[male dispatcher speaking]
[woman 3 speaking]
[eyewitness]I seen a man with a ski mask
walk the victim into the house,
and immediately the house starts shaking.
You can physically see the house shaking
from the altercation that is going inside.
You can hear glass shattering.
It is terrible.
[cell phone vibrating]
[Donohue speaking]
I was the first responding officer to arrive on scene.
[man 1 speaking]
[Donohue speaking]
I read the call notes which indicated that two Black males
wearing ski masks had taken another male
into the house by gunpoint.
[narrator] Reports suggest there may be a second suspect.
[Donohue speaking]
[officer over radio]
[Donohue speaking]
I have the big unknown. Who am I dealing with?
And where are they at?
Now, we know that at the very least,
the suspects are still on scene.
[man 1] They're right here.
[Donohue]There was a danger
that was really high at this point in time
because we have suspects with a gun,
a possible hostage situation.
So we were on high alert.
[siren wailing]
[narrator] Officer Cox arrives as further backup.
[Cox] I was directed
to go to the rear of the house and cover that,
so nobody came out of the windows.
What heightens our senses in any situation like this
is the unknown,
like you can't see exactly what's going on.
In that moment, I'm like, am I... am I ready for this?
Am I trained for this?
I'm not in the best position for this,
because if he has a gun, he can point it out the window
and start shooting.
He wasn't obeying the commands.
He's looking for an escape route.
He's looking for somewhere to run.
[Donohue speaking]
[narrator]Officers are stationed
at every exit of the residence.
[Donohue] I always worry about my officers.
Realizing the desperation now for the suspects
trying to get out the front, trying to get out the back.
[gunshot]
[officer speaking]
[Cox speaking]
[officer over radio]
[Donohue speaking]
[Cox speaking]
[female dispatcher speaking]
[eyewitness]I can't even imagine
what's going on in there.
You don't know if there's multiple people in there.
If there's a family, if there's children,
I'm right across the street.
It's so crazy that this is happening
right in front of me.
It's so terrifying.
[Cox] And that's when your mind starts racing.
Were they shooting at an officer
in the front of the house,
or did they just shoot one of the victims?
[narrator]But then, the suspects
make an unexpected move.
[suspect 1 speaking]
[bleep]
[Donohue speaking]
[James Craft]Immediately, when I arrived,
I could hear somebody
yelling from the inside the garage.
[suspect 1 speaking]
[narrator] Officers now know there's a second hostage.
[Donohue]I had no idea
there was a female even inside the house.
[eyewitness] We see this girl being dragged out by her neck.
She was crying.
She seemed so scared.
She was terrified.
-[Craft speaking] -[female dispatcher speaking]
[Donohue speaking]
[officer over radio]
[Donohue] It changed the whole scenario
to a life or death situation.
[female dispatcher speaking]
[Craft speaking]
[officer over radio]
The call was two suspects.
It wasn't until they took flight
that I knew there was three suspects.
[officer over radio]
[Craft speaking indistinctly]
[officer speaking]
[Cox speaking]
[officer over radio]
[Cox speaking]
I never expected this.
It's like being in a movie,
people being taken hostage.
This is a whole lot to take in.
[officer] They're moving west. Moving west.
[Cox speaking]
[Donohue speaking]
I was really surprised
to see one of the suspects walking across the backyard.
He must have saw there was other officers
there and decided to play it off,
"I'm just going to walk through the backyard."
While that's going on,
the hostage comes out from behind the garage.
It was a great relief to see that she was unharmed.
Hands out like your friend.
[Donohue speaking]
[hostage speaking]
[narrator] The hostage also informs police
that her boyfriend, the male hostage,
is injured but now safe in their house.
Everything happened so rapidly.
Even though the hostages are safe,
we still have two armed suspects
running around the neighborhood.
[officers over radio]
[narrator]A three-block perimeter is set up
as officers pursue the escaped gunmen.
[Craft speaking]
[Craft] The two suspects
run into a driveway between two houses.
I start thinking, okay, well,
they must have jumped the fence.
[officer over radio]
[Craft speaking]
[Donohue]We had in probably
an excess of 20 units
responding from specialized units to patrol units.
They had several options, which was to hide,
maybe break into a house, maybe hijack a vehicle.
[Cox] I have no idea
what's going to happen next.
[suspect speaking]
[narrator] Two suspects are still on the run,
but Officer Cox searches the captured perp
for drugs and weapons.
[Cox speaking]
[suspect speaking]
[Cox speaking]
I found a gun in his jacket pocket.
There was a pretty big bag of marijuana.
And he also had some yellow pills in his pocket.
And, and a bunch of money.
[narrator]With the coast clear,
the hostages who are injured
leave their house to seek medical aid.
[Cox speaking]
They did not know any of the suspects.
He said he just walked outside and somebody
grabbed him and... and hit him with a gun.
They said they had never seen them before.
[male hostage speaking]
[female hostage speaking]
[Cox speaking]
[narrator] Multiple officers are urgently searching
the neighborhood for the armed suspects.
[officer 1 over radio]
[officer 2 speaking]
[officer 1 over radio]
[Edsall]Anytime you have
a desperate person trying to elude police,
or trying to fight police or whatever,
they're extremely dangerous.
Myself and my K-9 partner, Justice,
pulled up on Georgia Avenue,
where we know for a fact
that at least two armed men ran this way.
There's adrenaline there, and yes, it's an exciting call,
but that's what Justice and I are there for.
[man speaking]
These men are very desperate to get away.
They know that if they are caught,
they are going to prison for a very long time.
[Edsall]I am working my dog.
I am watching him.
He initially starts sprinting towards the back of the shed.
But when he gets to the shed, he kind of slams on his brake.
His head comes up off of the ground.
And he's air sensitive.
I'm convinced that he is in odor
and that the bad guys are super close.
And then I see a red SUV backing out of the driveway,
with an elderly couple sitting in the vehicle.
There is a male in the passenger seat that
I can see with his arm out of the window,
and he's pointing back at the house.
I knew that he had had some interaction
with the bad guys.
[officer speaking]
The fact that there is a vehicle
pulling out of the driveway,
seconds after we're searching it with the K-9
is not a coincidence.
[officer speaking]
So now we realize he was not pointing back at his house,
he was pointing to his back seat.
I take Justice to the back of the car and we're waiting,
when Officer Shafer pulls the back door open.
[bleep]
His feet hit the ground,
and he was in full sprint
as soon as that back door was opened.
I deployed Justice and put him into a non-lethal biting area
to gain pain compliance.
[officer speaking]
[bleep]
There was a great sense of relief
when we got the suspects.
We got all of them.
[officer speaking]
[Donohue]That male hostage signaling showed a great deal of courage
on his part to alert the officers.
[narrator] The carjacked couple are unharmed.
They give officers details of their ordeal.
Oh, man.
[officer speaking]
[woman speaking]
In my 27 years as a police officer,
never had one where we had a hostage
and then go from there
to another hostage situation on the... on the same calls.
[man speaking]
[officer speaking]
-[woman speaking] -[officer] Yeah, I know.
[narrator]Bryan McCroskey is convicted
of kidnapping, abduction,
and aggravated robbery with a firearm.
He is sentenced to up to 23 years.
Rikki Rudd is convicted of aggravated robbery
with a firearm, felonious assault,
and two counts of kidnapping,
and sentenced to up to 23.5 years.
And Alvin Brown is sentenced to up to 10.5 years
for aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary,
kidnapping and having a weapon while under disability.
The first hostages are treated in hospital
and have now made a full recovery.
[Cox speaking]
This case was one of a kind for me right now.
I haven't encountered anything else like this.
This is definitely one for the books.
[Edsall]This case will stick out
in my career.
It will stand out in my mind forever
as one of my all time.
[Donohue] I think everyone that was on that call
should be commended for their actions that day.
I mean, the fact that we all went home that night
and, you know, can sleep on our bed
peaceful is a big deal.
[narrator] In Georgia...
It's game on. We're bringin' all the troops in.
[narrator] In Florida...
He could be running around the store
with a machete.
Everybody with their hands up!
[narrator] And in Wisconsin...
They don't have a lot of time. We gave to go in.
♪