[tense music playing]
[narrator] In New Mexico, a prisoner's emergency...
[Sanchez speaking]
[prisoner 1 speaking]
Something's not right.
[narrator] ...takes a crazy turn.
[Sanchez speaking]
[Sanchez groans]
It was probably the worst day of my life.
[Sanchez speaking]
[narrator] And in Nebraska...
[woman speaking]
[female emergency operator speaking over phone]
[woman speaking over phone]
We have no clue who they are.
[Deputy Axon speaking]
[injured man speaking]
[Deputy Axon] That's the sort of crime
that somebody needs to answer for.
[emergency operator 1 speaking indistinctly]
[emergency operator 2 speaking indistinctly]
[officer shouting indistinctly]
[narrator] In New Mexico,
heading west out of Albuquerque
toward the Pacific coast
is historic Route 66.
[old western music playing]
[Sanchez] It's beautiful out here.
You see a lot of the landscape,
the rock formations.
It's kind of desolate out there,
not much but plains and sagebrush.
The Civil Division has different sections.
One of the main ones is picking up inmates
for transports and court security.
The main route we take is I-40,
that's Route 66.
[Sanchez speaking]
[Sanchez] That day, I am transporting inmates
from Bernalillo County Detention Center
and bringing them to the McKinley County Detention Center.
[Maiorano] Deputy Sanchez was
going to pick up three prisoners
wanted for outstanding warrants.
One was wanted for receiving and transferring
of a stolen motor vehicle.
So it's a felony crime, but non-violent.
One was wanted for a misdemeanor larceny.
And one was a felony warrant for shoplifting,
a non-violent charge.
The charges were not severe.
[Sanchez speaking]
I place the two males
in the back of the transport van.
[Sanchez] And then I place the female
on the side compartment,
keep them separated.
[Sanchez] I always treat people the way I like to be treated.
You know, telling them,
"Be respectful to me, I'll be respectful to you.
[female prisoner speaks indistinctly]
[Sanchez] It's about two hours travel time
from there to the McKinley County.
[Sanchez speaking]
[dramatic music playing]
[Sanchez] Everything was starting,
like regular transport.
[banging]
[Sanchez speaking]
[banging continues]
[Sanchez] I just hear a lot of noise in the back.
[banging]
[female prisoner speaking]
[Sanchez speaking]
[female prisoner speaking]
[narrator] The camera monitoring the two males has been
knocked out of position.
[Sanchez speaking]
[banging and clattering]
[Sanchez speaking]
[tense music playing]
[phone ringing]
[Sanchez speaking]
[Sanchez] I just think that one of the inmates is
just being a nuisance in the back.
[Sanchez speaking]
[prisoner 1 speaking]
[Sanchez speaking]
A red flag raises up in the back of my head.
What if this really is a health issue?
We do have medical training,
so I could get him some medical assistance.
[van door slams]
[prisoner 1 groaning]
[Sanchez speaking]
[prisoner 1 speaking]
[Sanchez speaking]
-[prisoner 1 speaking indistinctly] -[Sanchez speaking]
-[prisoner 1 speaking] -[Sanchez speaking]
I'm a sheriff of the McKinley County Sheriff's Department...
[Sanchez] I call 911,
see if we can get some kind of medical assistance.
[Sanchez speaking]
[prisoner 1 speaking]
-[Sanchez speaking] -[prisoner 1 speaking]
[Sanchez speaking]
-[prisoner 1 speaking] -[Sanchez speaking]
[prisoner 1 speaking]
[Sanchez] Something's not right. But...
still, he's in my custody.
He's in my protection.
I got to make sure he's safe.
[Sanchez speaking]
[prisoner 1 groans]
[prisoner 1 speaking]
-[prisoner 1 speaking] -[Sanchez speaking]
[Sanchez] And then I called my chain of command
and told them what was going on.
[music intensifies]
[tense music playing]
[prisoner 1 laughs]
[Sanchez speaking]
[Sanchez] He was complaining about not breathing.
So I opened up the hatch and let him out.
I was shocked he got out of his handcuffs.
And then he hit me pretty good on the temple.
I wasn't all there.
The whole side of my head was just throbbing.
I tried to just tackle him,
took him down with a double leg.
[Sanchez speaking]
He was going for my weapon.
All my strength and everything was
trying to make sure he didn't get my weapon.
[Sanchez speaking]
-[prisoner 1 speaking] -[Sanchez speaking]
[Sanchez] I knew if he did,
it would be pretty serious.
Heaven knows that he would have done with my weapon.
[Sanchez speaking]
-[man speaking] -[Sanchez speaking]
He saw my hesitation,
and that's when he jumped in the van.
[Sanchez speaking]
[Sanchez] I tried to jump in the van
and tried to stop him,
and he dragged me a little bit in the van.
[Sanchez speaking]
[bleep]
[panting]
[Sanchez] I just let him go.
I think I might have made things worse
by firing my weapon.
It was probably the worst day of my life.
[wind blowing fiercely]
[Sanchez panting]
It's a normal day at the sheriff's office.
And then we get a phone call
that says something has gone terribly wrong.
[Sanchez panting]
[Sanchez speaking]
We start to get the information
about what's going on out in the Albuquerque area
with Deputy Sanchez.
[female prisoner speaking]
[prisoner 1 speaking]
[female prisoner speaking]
[tires screeching]
[female prisoner speaking]
[Maiorano] We were getting information
that the person in the back of the van
had faked a heart attack,
and that's how he got control of the van.
[Maiorano] So we work very quickly,
putting together resources
to try to find our van
and try to get it back in our custody.
-[wind blowing] -[Sanchez panting]
[Sanchez speaking]
[emergency operator speaking]
[Sanchez speaking]
[emergency operator speaking]
[Sanchez panting]
[Maiorano] Josh Hall was being picked up
on a felony warrant
for shoplifting.
My initial thought is
why is a guy with a shoplifting warrant trying to take our van?
We don't know
whether the other two inmates conspired for this plan.
I can't rule it out.
[female prisoner speaking]
[Maiorano] I just know who is in the driver's seat.
[female prisoner speaking]
[Maiorano] But if the other inmates did not conspire to take this van,
then I have two people who have been kidnapped
and are on a wild ride
while this guy takes the van wherever it is he's headed.
[narrator] The prison van has gone missing
on a stretch of interstate
that crosses three police jurisdictions.
I called everyone in three counties
and said, "I need everything you got."
And nobody batted an eye.
They all just sent everybody they had,
understanding the situation was extremely unique.
Then, one of the guys logs into a license plate reader
and has found the van.
It's westbound on I-40.
[officer siren wailing]
[narrator] Police units from all three agencies
and state patrol converge
on the interstate west of Albuquerque.
[emergency dispatcher speaking]
[Maiorano] We have agencies from here to Albuquerque
all set up along the interstate waiting for it.
[emergency dispatcher speaking]
[Maiorano] And it doesn't pass by.
And we can't figure out why.
We have no idea where it's gone,
how it left the interstate,
or how I'm going to find this guy today.
Nothing like this had ever happened before.
I was extremely worried.
We start working our way backward
to where the van was last seen on the license plate reader.
And we just kind of figure out
he must have taken a side road somewhere
and disappeared out onto the Navajo Indian Reservation.
[Hall speaking]
-[female prisoner speaking] -[Hall speaking]
-[female prisoner speaking]
[Hall speaking]
[female prisoner speaking]
[Hall speaking]
[female prisoner speaking]
[narrator] The other male inmate has
smuggled a phone into the van.
-[prisoner 2 speaking] -[Hall speaking]
[prisoner 2 speaking]
[Hall speaking]
-[prisoner 2 speaking] -[Hall speaking]
[narrator] Josh Hall can be seen holding the phone,
but he's also got something else.
The deputy's Taser.
[Sanchez] The Taser, I realized it wasn't on me.
You know, you have to take off pretty much everything
when you go into a detention center.
And I forgot to attach it to my belt.
[prisoner 2 speaking]
[patrol officer speaking]
[Maiorano] Time passed very slow.
It felt like forever
waiting on new information
so we knew where to send our resources.
[narrator] As more and more units join the manhunt,
further information about the suspect begins
to emerge.
[Maiorano] When Deputy Sanchez went
to Albuquerque to pick up Josh Hall,
the only thing we thought we were going up there for was
a felony shoplifting warrant, non-violent crime.
But then we find out
that he's got a criminal history.
He has been charged federally
for assaulting a federal officer.
And he's got another outstanding warrant
for resisting and evading law enforcement
in the next county over.
Josh Hall was involved
in the theft of a motor vehicle
and was being watched by a federal task force.
He used that stolen vehicle
to try to run over
one of those federal task force officers.
[narrator] The prison van's CCTV captures
Hall shifting the camera out of position
just minutes after being placed in the vehicle.
It's pretty clear now
he just doesn't want to go to jail.
[narrator] The prison van is still stranded
with the two inmates locked inside.
[prisoner 2 speaking]
[female prisoner speaking]
[prisoner 2 speaking]
[soft clattering]
[female prisoner speaking]
[soft clattering]
[door shuts]
[narrator] With no explanation,
Josh Hall returns
and drives back south toward the interstate.
[officer 1 speaking]
[Maiorano] There would only normally be two,
maybe three vehicles involved in a pursuit
as it travels from one jurisdiction to another.
[officer siren wailing]
[Maiorano] You would hand it off from agency to agency.
But in this particular one,
everybody just kept coming.
[indistinct radio chatter]
I-40 is a four-lane interstate,
75 mile-per-hour zone.
The van is doing between 80 and 90 miles an hour,
sometimes exceeding 90.
[officer 2 speaking]
[tires screeching]
[narrator] Two patrol vehicles try
to obstruct the prison van,
but Hall gets away again.
I am praying for a safe and quick stop of this van
so that nobody gets hurt.
There's trucks, there's cars.
We're trying to maneuver around it.
Of course, there's this parade of law enforcement vehicles
with all their lights on following behind it.
So that did a really good job
of just getting people out of the way.
We know that the longer this situation drags on,
the more desperate this is gonna become.
We strategize how we can stop the van.
[officer 3 speaking]
[Maiorano] Three of us were stacked there,
just waiting for the van to pass.
[clattering]
[Maiorano] He drove over them.
We watched him drive over them.
[officer 4 speaking]
[Maiorano] But the tires didn't go flat.
[indistinct radio chatter]
This one was definitely different
than your normal everyday chase.
[narrator] With some 20 police vehicles pursuing him,
Hall takes the chase off road.
[Maiorano] He just diverts
right off the side of the interstate.
He's going through fields, clearing fences,
he's through cow pastures,
now heading straight north toward the old Route 66.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[Maiorano] And so we're just trying to see
if we can cut him off
when he gets back to a main road.
[female prisoner speaking]
[Maiorano] Cibola County Sheriff's Office,
one of their trucks has hit it from the side,
so rendering it almost completely stopped.
[officer speaking]
[female prisoner speaking]
[officer speaking]
[officer 2 speaking]
[officer 3 speaking]
[officer 4 speaking]
[officers clamoring]
[officer 1 speaking]
[sirens wailing]
[officers clamoring]
[Maiorano] I come around the corner,
and they have all the inmates.
And it looks like this has come
to what I would consider to be a peaceful resolution.
No shots were fired.
No one was seriously injured.
[indistinct radio chatter]
We had the benefit of having cameras installed
inside the van.
So as we reviewed that video footage,
we were able to easily exclude the fact
that the other two inmates were in any way involved.
As a matter of fact,
they were listed as victims of kidnapping.
[narrator] Joshua Hall is charged
with assault with intent to commit a violent felony
on a police officer,
the kidnap of two inmates,
aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer,
and five counts
of criminal damage to property.
He is awaiting trial.
[Sanchez speaking]
-[Hall speaking] -[Sanchez speaking]
Don't do it.
I did have that opportunity
to fire my weapon to stop him.
[Sanchez panting]
I had that choice where I had a person's life in my hand.
He got the drop on me and I was complacent.
But I couldn't take his life just because he kicked my ass.
I saw him in court,
looked him in the eye, and it was really hard.
But then I also saw that he had a mom there.
I think I made the right decision.
[narrator] In Nebraska,
on the outskirts of Omaha,
is the suburb of Chalco.
Chalco is three blocks south of the Omaha city limits.
It's a regular suburban neighborhood environment
with single family homes.
[Larsen] Fourth of July is a pretty big celebration around here.
A lot of families are out cooking, barbecuing,
hanging out together and having a good time.
[narrator] The O'Briens are among the families enjoying
the holiday.
That Fourth of July was a very nice, peaceful day.
I ended up going out to my parents' house.
[Jeff] We had our cookout, friends and family come over,
kids got to play, had a great time, and...
all in all,
just a wonderful, relaxing day.
My wife and my son and his girlfriend
and our neighbor,
we were sitting in the driveway,
just winding down from the evening,
and somebody noticed
there's somebody walking up the street.
But we really didn't pay attention to it.
And that's when the mayhem started.
[fireworks going off]
[woman speaking]
[indistinct shouting]
This was completely out of the blue.
[woman shouting]
[Jeff] The older teenager turned
and had litten his firework.
It started coming right up the driveway towards us,
shooting us.
[fireworks going off]
[woman speaking]
[Alex] Fireworks were actually getting shot,
really shocked me.
[fireworks going off]
I didn't see other people
out of my peripheral vision at all.
[fireworks going off]
[Jeff] My focus was strictly on what is this person doing.
He was coming straight at us.
So I'm going to just run him off.
I'm just going to make this kid go away.
That didn't work out very well.
[fireworks going off]
I don't want to see anyone getting hurt,
especially anyone in my own family.
[Jeff] All of a sudden, it just seemed
like there was people all over the place.
[narrator] Jeff and his son are being attacked
by complete strangers.
The teenager,
a woman,
a man,
and two kids.
They definitely were enjoying themselves,
being able to inflict pain on our family.
[Jeff] There was a woman
and she had the firework,
I mean, it was probably six inches from my left eye.
She had a look on her face
that she wanted to make sure
that she was going to drill me with it.
And I turned my head,
split second,
and that firework went off
and hit me in the side of the head,
burning my head.
[kids shouting]
[Alex] I approached the eldest teen
and I just really was trying to swat down the fireworks
out of his hand.
[Jeff] The older guy and I, we both went down
and he got up and then...
kicked me in the ribs.
And I couldn't breathe,
and I was having severe pain on the left side,
and I was pretty much useless.
And then I saw him hit my son, Alex.
[Alex] The father came up and blindsided me
and hit me in the temple.
I recall getting hit several more times and then...
getting kicked in the face.
[indistinct shouting]
[Jeff] They beat him severely,
and I couldn't do anything to keep them off of him.
That is probably one of the toughest moments...
that I've ever had.
[woman speaking]
[Jeff] It happened in a flash.
You don't know who they are.
Why would they be doing this?
[Alex] Finally, someone had yelled
that they had called the cops.
[emergency operator speaking]
[woman speaking]
[emergency operator speaking]
[woman speaking]
[emergency operator speaking]
[woman speaking]
The whole time this happened, none of them said a word.
[indistinct shouting]
[Jeff] They just came,
did what they were going to do.
Then the older guy said, "Let's go."
And they all just left.
[Axon] The initial details were
a lot of people fighting in the street.
So given that this was the 4th of July,
a drinking holiday,
I figured that this was going to be
a kind of a family disturbance
or neighbors fighting with one another.
-[Axon speaking] -[woman speaking]
[Axon speaking]
[Axon] That was certainly unusual.
I had not been to a call before
where someone had
intentionally assaulted someone with fireworks.
[Axon speaking]
[narrator] Dispatch sends out a description of the truck
to patrol cars,
while Deputy Axon stays on scene to help the O'Briens.
[Axon speaking]
[Alex speaking]
[Axon] He was bleeding pretty heavily
from the left side of his face,
and I believe his left eye was already fully swollen shut.
This was likely going to be a first-degree felony assault.
[Axon speaking]
-[Mrs. O'Brien speaking] -[Alex speaking]
[Axon] Who would do this and why?
There was really no motive that anyone could figure out,
and no one had any idea who these people were.
As I was waiting for the ambulance to get there
to start talking with him,
his girlfriend came running out of the kitchen.
[girlfriend speaking]
[indistinct conversation]
[girlfriend speaking]
[Mrs. O'Brien] Are you serious?
[Jeff speaking]
-[Axon speaking] -[Jeff speaking]
[Axon speaking]
[Mrs. O'Brien] Yeah.
-[girlfriend speaking] -[Axon] What do you need?
It was my left side.
I couldn't breathe.
I'm going,
"Is this it?"
-[Jeff speaking] -[Axon speaking]
[Jeff speaking]
[Axon speaking]
[Axon] I ran to my cruiser,
got my AED in case his heart stopped beating,
and I might need to start doing CPR.
[Axon speaking]
[Jeff speaking]
[Axon speaking]
[Jeff groans]
[Mrs. O'Brien speaking]
[Axon speaking]
[Mrs. O'Brien speaking]
[Axon speaking]
[Axon] He was very sweaty.
He was having difficulty breathing.
He'd been hit in the head
and had some chest pain going on.
There's a lot of concerns
that that could potentially turn bad quickly.
[Axon speaking]
[Axon] I'm always very glad when the ambulance gets there.
[Mrs. O'Brien speaking indistinctly] [bleep]
[paramedic speaking]
-[Jeff speaking] -[paramedic speaking]
[Axon] It turned out he was not having a heart attack.
He had broken ribs,
which would explain a lot of his behavior
and the pain he was experiencing.
Once the paramedics arrive
and give medical care for the two victims,
then it becomes kind of fact gathering.
[Alex] It was definitely hard
trying to wrap your head around the fact
that some random family just assaulted your whole family.
[Jeff] We have no clue who they are.
So we weren't really able
to supply them with much to go on.
[Axon] We always want to make sure
that we do everything that we can
to catch those people
because that's the sort of crime
that somebody needs to answer for.
[narrator] But with no sign of the truck
and no license plate to go on,
officers draw a blank.
Criminal investigator Larsen takes over the case.
It's my job to figure out who the suspects are
and to help these victims get justice.
A lot of people in our county have
Ring doorbells,
security cameras on their doors.
We were lucky enough to find one across the street
from where this incident took place.
I'm looking at this footage and thinking,
"This is crazy".
That footage was key evidence in this case.
We were able to see
almost the faces of the suspects involved,
haircuts,
clothing, shoes they were wearing.
Suspects arrived in a mid-2000s...
Dodge Ram pickup.
[narrator] Inspector Larsen releases
the doorbell footage to the local news,
hoping for leads.
I had three Crime Stoppers tips come through.
[narrator] Three suspects are identified.
Jeremy Brown,
Brittany King,
and her 19-year-old son, Maddix Foss.
Jeff and Alex O'Brien confirm
that these are the strangers who attacked them.
[Jeff] I went to the hospital,
spent two days in intensive care.
I had burn to the side of my head,
burn to my left arm,
four broken ribs,
cuts on the back of my head and knees.
My injuries were
a laceration over my left eye,
two facial fractures,
and then broken nose along with minor concussion.
[Larsen] I don't want these suspects to be running around
and doing this to other families as well.
One of the tips actually said
the mom, Brittany King, was bragging about this incident
at the local bar.
Jeremy Brown was a felon in the state of Nebraska
for drug charges,
a weapons charge, and burglary.
And then Maddix Foss, he had assault charges.
He also ran with members of a gang
in the Omaha area.
The last tip,
they recognized the pickup
and they actually gave us an address
of where the family lived.
[narrator] Finally, it's time for the family to face justice
for the July 4th attack.
Given their violent past,
investigator Larsen calls in the SWAT team.
[Wrigley] When we're learning
that there was a family shooting
roman candles at victims,
it was very disturbing,
and it kind of got all our juices going.
We chose a very early morning to conduct this operation
to give us the element of surprise.
[narrator] Investigator Larsen joins
Lieutenant Wrigley on the SWAT team.
I'm a little nervous at this point.
Since this is my investigation,
I would feel responsible if something bad happened.
[officer speaking]
You know, your heart kind of starts racing a little bit.
[officer speaking]
[officer 2 speaking]
[officer 3 speaking]
[officer 2 speaking]
[officer 3 speaking]
[officer speaking]
[officer 2 speaking]
[Wrigley] We knew this was a split-entry home.
I'm assigned to go upstairs,
and another team, their responsibility was to go downstairs.
[officer speaking]
[officer 2 speaking]
[officer speaking]
You don't know what's behind every...
corner you turn.
You don't know what's behind a closed door.
[officer 2 speaking]
[Larsen] There's steps that go down into the basement.
When I went in,
immediately I saw a bedroom area.
[officer speaking]
[indistinct conversation]
[officer speaking]
[Larsen] Brittany and Jeremy were extremely shocked
that we were there.
They appeared to have been asleep
and were still rubbing their eyes
as they stood up.
[officer speaking]
[indistinct conversation]
[officer 2 speaking]
[officer speaking]
[officer 2 speaking]
[officer speaking]
[Wrigley] We heard them downstairs first
and then quickly realized
we still had one outstanding person.
[officer speaking]
We call it finishing strong,
is where we don't let up,
uh, we make sure we stay focused.
[officer speaking]
-[officer 2 speaking] -[officer 3 speaking]
Your adrenaline starts pumping through your body
and you get extremely focused.
[officer speaking]
[officer 2 speaking]
[officer 3 speaking]
[officer speaking]
[narrator] 19-year-old Maddix Foss is found upstairs
in the master bedroom.
[officer speaking]
[officer 4 speaking]
[officer name speaking]
[Wrigley] He was sleeping.
And we were able to get him in custody
before he could really even wake up.
-[officer 2 speaking] -[officer speaking]
[Wrigley] We could see drug paraphernalia.
So he was pretty much passed out,
intoxicated.
And we were able to put him in cuffs, no problem.
[Larsen] I don't think it could have gone any better.
Our suspects were in the house.
Nobody got hurt.
[narrator] Jeremy Brown is sentenced
to up to four years
for first degree assault.
Brittany King is sentenced to two to four years
for second degree assault
and possession of a deadly weapon
while committing a felony.
And for first degree assault,
Maddix Foss is given four years of probation.
[Larsen] During the search on Maddix's phone,
I found a video.
It appeared to be in the back of the Dodge Ram
that they used during the assault.
[indistinct conversation in background]
[Brittany speaking indistinctly]
[indistinct conversation]
[Maddix speaking]
That was pretty shocking.
I learned that this family would
perform these pranks on other families
and kind of make like a game,
like of war out of it.
And it kind of seemed like
it was just something they did to have fun.
[woman speaking]
[fireworks going off]
[Larsen] It was just a random...
attack on a random family.
[Alex] Honestly, to this day,
I try not to think about it too much,
knowing these people had...
taken the time just to literally go out
in what they considered fun to...
you know, assault somebody else.
It's...
very hard to wrap your head around.
[Jeff] I can forget more my pain.
I can't forget what he went through.
It's really never made any sense to me
why they did this,
but I would say
that justice has probably been served.