[narrator] In Florida, an officer is taken for a ride.
[Officer Cusack] My heels are just sliding across the ground.
I am literally skiing, holding on to the door.
We are doing about 45 miles an hour.
So, I just hold on for dear life.
[narrator] In Georgia, an ambush is about to happen
[Officer Wilcox] I didn't kn if this person was coming after us.
I didn't know if he was behind us.
[narrator] And in Michigan, a traffic pursuit goes horribly wrong.
[Sgt Holdwick] He wasn't running because he didn't want a traffic ticket.
It was something else.
[Former Deputy] I knew he was gonna make a dash.
The terrain was awful.
I did consider the potential of an ambush.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[voice over radio] Shots fired, 10-4.
[officer] Sheriff's Office, come outside!
[narrator] 12-miles southwes of Fort Lauderdale,
is Pembroke Pines, Florida.
[over radio]
[police car siren blaring]
This call comes out of two people
possibly overdosed inside Century Village.
Century Village being the retirement community.
We have had, in the past, elderly people with
you know, somebody is terminal, they have tried to take their pills,
and do themselves in.
That was where my mindset went to initially,
that it must be an elderly couple.
[siren wailing]
[Officer Anaya] Officer Cusa is the primary officer,
and I was dispatched as the backup.
So, I am thinking, I need to get there quick.
You don't know what that other officer can run into.
You don't wanna leave them alone.
Century Village is a city within a city.
The gate was very narrow
with big concrete columns
that allowed just barely one vehicle to pass through.
As I am pulling up, I see security,
and they are pointing at this vehicle.
So, I am like, okay, I'm here.
I can see the male is in the driver's seat.
I could see a female in the passenger seat.
Lo and behold, they were in their 30s.
And, that struck me as odd
because this is a retirement community.
She was just rolling her head back
and never opened her eyes.
The gentleman, his pupils are pinpoint.
I can see little, clear plastic baggies
with an off-white powdery substance in there.
I couldn't tell if it was heroin, if it was cocaine.
But it definitely was drug paraphernalia of some sort.
He's not there. It's almost like it's not registering yet
what's going on and who I am
He just keeps, like, looking around.
I was very close to where the address was,
and I hadn't seen him yet.
So, I asked the dispatcher to tell me again
the building name.
[over radio]
[Officer Cusack] I am facin the driver side window.
Officer Anaya says, "What's the name of the building?"
And, I say, "Cambridge and Mike."
The driver, he hits the gas
And, when I say he hits the gas, he floors it.
The left side of the car is now pushing up against me.
I am thinking, "He's going to run me over.
I'm gonna go underneath this car,
and I may be crushed."
So, I take my right hand,
and I grab the top of the door frame.
My heels are just sliding across the ground.
I am literally skiing, holding on to the door.
Within 30-40 feet,
we are doing about 45-miles-an-hour.
So, I just hold on for dear life.
[siren blaring]
[Officer Anaya] As I am approaching where he was,
the vehicle was coming around the corner at high rate of speed,
and I saw Officer Cusack
hanging from the driver's side door.
It was really shocking to se
I was thinking,
"How long is he gonna get dragged?
How far is this car gonna go
It just keeps speeding up."
So, I made a U-turn to get behind the car.
I didn't want to get too close because I didn't want
Officer Cusack to dislodge from the vehicle,
and me strike him.
I knew that the potential for me to get injured
went up the longer I held on.
But, he never slowed down.
And then I realized that he is purposely
steering the vehicle towards the tree line.
These are not little, small trees.
These are huge, palm trees
that have been there for decades.
If I hit that tree, there's no way I'm surviving that.
Fortunately, he then jerked the vehicle back to the right.
[over radio]
As we are still travelling,
he takes his left hand and reaches up,
and starts to try to pry my fingers off the door frame.
It strikes me that this is a person without remorse,
and that, it doesn't matter if he kills me.
Doesn't matter if I die, to him.
I threatened to shoot him
because I felt, like, maybe if I said this,
he would think about what he is doing, and go,
"You know what? It's not worth it."
That's about the time that the body cam falls off
My feet and legs are now dragging behind me,
and I am just holding on
as I am being pulled.
It's about 200-feet till you hit the exit gate.
I realized that it's such a tight opening,
there's no way that I'm going to make it through
with the door open.
Something's gonna have to give.
Right at the last second, he brings the vehicle to the right.
As he does that, I realize
this is my only opportunity to let go.
I tucked in, I just brought my hands in.
And, I basically absorbed most of it on my forearms
as I slid across the pavemen
[Officer Anaya] When he was dislodged from the vehicle,
I quickly pulled over, as close as I could, to him
He had a lot of injuries to his elbows, his knees,
the top of his feet.
The shoes were worn down, there was no shoe.
You could see the flesh from his feet,
all the way down to the bone in one foot.
I can tell he had a lot of adrenaline running through his body.
He wanted to get up,
but he had so many injuries to his feet
that I wanted him to just
stay lying down until rescue could come to him.
[narrator] Officer Wagner waits for the suspect
by the entrance to highway 595.
It's a main highway
leading east to Fort Lauderdale.
I figured that the suspect would
potentially take that route.
I am feeling anticipation as he is approaching,
I am standing by, waiting in the on-ramp
for only a matter of minutes.
As I pull up behind the driver,
he was actually smoking a cigarette.
Just looked like he was out for a drive.
There's multiple police vehicles in the pursuit.
There's also a Papa unit above,
which is the aviation unit.
[over radio]
Heavier traffic does slow the speed of the pursuit dow
But, it causes concern
for safety for everyone else on the highway.
[over radio]
[siren blaring]
At that time we were able to grab the suspect,
and place him into custody.
I would say it was only a few minutes
from the time it happened
to the time he was transported by Rescue.
I remember being told to stay on scene,
To remain on scene, he was gonna be okay.
I was left in a scene where his shoes were there,
his belt was lying on the ground.
It was like, what just happened?
I wanna go to the hospital, too.
You know, I wanna go and see if he's okay.
[Officer Cusack] We get to the hospital.
The nursing staff
cut what was left of my pants.
And that's when I could actually look down and see.
From my knees to my toes,
there was tons of different lacerations,
road rash,
there was
just a lot of flesh that had been ripped off.
[Officer Wagner] After the stop, I did a search of the vehicle.
[narrator] Tests confirmed the evidence found
in the suspect's vehicle is heroin.
The suspect is identified as 38-year-old Thomas Cabrera.
Cabrera is charged with fleeing police,
driving with a suspended license,
and attempted murder of a police officer.
His trial date is scheduled for later this year.
[indistinct conversation]
The female passenger is charged with drug possession.
[indistinct speech]
Officer Cusack returns to light duty just three weeks later.
[Officer Cusack] I would say that this ranks
right up there, as far as,
one of the most traumatic events
that I've ever been involved in.
For a brief moment I did consider,
"Is it time for me to think about something else?
Find a different career?"
My wife and my friends were extremely supportive,
and influential, and basically telling me,
don't let this one incident
define who you are,
or allow it to change who you are.
So, coming back to the road
and being able to get back in there,
put the uniform back on,
and go back on patrol,
was actually, probably, the best thing for me.
[Officer Anaya] I was glad that the outcome was what it was
versus what it could've been
Overall, when you think about it, you are, like,
it turned out okay,
Officer Cusack recovered.
And, it's just something tha we're always gonna think bac
that we went through together.
[narrator] 100-miles south of Atlanta, Georgia,
in Houston county,
is the 4-square mile town of Centerville.
[over radio]
When responding to domestic disturbance,
you never understand
what you are going to deal with.
You can walk into a calm situation,
you can walk into a situatio
where everything is breaking loose.
So, you really want a primary officer,
and a backup officer.
It's just me and Corporal Mashuga
working that night in the area.
So, we both respond.
We didn't approach with sirens or lights, of course,
because it wasn't a major call,
it wasn't a physical domesti
Upon my arrival,
Corporal Mashuga was at the front door of the address.
So, I was able to park my ca
get out and start walking up towards him.
[gunshot]
[Officer Wilcox over radio]
I see Corporal Mashuga.
I knock on the door, I step back down the steps.
At that time, the garage doo to the right of me opens up
and a female walks out.
All she told me is that he is drunk,
he just needs to go to sleep.
I see out the corner of my e
the front door open up and the male stepped out.
He had a handgun pointed at me.
I was completely taken by surprise.
[gunshot]
[Corporal Mashuga] As the shot was fired, almost instantaneously,
I could feel a sharp pain in my stomach.
Officer Wilcox had arrived on scene.
I was able to get back on my feet
and run to the back of his vehicle.
[Corporal Mashuga]
[Officer Wilcox]
Ultimately, he was just trying to figure out,
one, where he was shot.
[Corporal Mashuga]
And two, where is the shooter?
I didn't know if this person was coming after us.
I didn't know if he was behind us.
[narrator] Units from the neighboring town
of Warner Robins are called in to help.
[Officer Karl] A dispatcher comes over the radio,
and said, I need units en route to Centerville.
An officer is hit.
That's not something that comes over the radio very often.
I'm on a SWAT team.
And on top of that, I'm a medic in the reserves
Sooner I got there, the faster I could help.
[Officer Wilcox]
[Officer Wilcox] My partner is shot,
is very unlucky,
because you've got armor that covers your whole chest
and this just happen to go,
maybe an inch or two lower than the armor was.
I mean, you've got a bunch of organs,
intestines, everything in that area.
[Corporal Mashuga] I gave a description of the subjec
so we can contain the scene
Worrying about him leaving the area,
putting more officers at risk.
[Officer Wilcox] Out of the corner of my eye,
I see somebody standing at the side of the house.
Kind of clicked,
that was the person that was at the garage.
[narrator] The woman is the shooter's girlfriend
and was part of the domestic disturbance.
I thought at that point
she was pretty intoxicated, too.
[Officer Thomas] As we pull on the scene,
I've charged the weapon, put a line in chamber,
in case I have to immediately use it.
We make it over to the Centerville PD officer's car
So, officer Wilcox
is explaining to me what the situation is.
[narrator] More officers arrive,
and set up a perimeter.
Based on her actions and statements,
obviously, she really wasn'
coherent enough to comply.
I felt a large blow to my right foot.
I am thinking, you're kidding.
You got shot earlier, and here you are getting shot again.
So, I start scanning for the suspect,
I need to stop the threat.
Eventually, I see his muzzle flashes.
So, I line up my sights and I shoot at him.
At that point I didn't know whether I hit him or not.
I knew Corporal Mashuga was gonna need surgery
for that abdominal wound.
I wanted to get him out of there as soon as possible.
[Officer Wilcox] EMS was no not going to respond
to an active shooter situation.
Only way to get Corporal Mashuga out of there
was to put him in my vehicle.
The only thought I had was to get him to the hospit
as fast as possible.
We didn't really have a step-by-step game plan.
It was just, one, get out of there fast,
and two, get him to emergency medical care.
[siren wailing]
[police car siren wailing]
[Officer Wilcox] So, as I am headed to our local medical center,
at that point, they notify me
that they do not deal with gunshot wound victims.
So, we made the plan to have EMS meet me,
and exchange Corporal Mashug
and let him go to county hospital.
[narrator] On the perimeter a relative of the shooter
arrives on scene.
The shooter's sister approaches an officer
and gives the name Harry Baggett.
And, also informs him that
the suspect has been injured.
[helicopter whirring]
[narrator] Deputy Thomas continues to try to get
the shooter's girlfriend to safety.
I wanted her off the scene for her safety.
And, so that we could get some more information
on what's going on inside the house,
and what led up to this call being made.
[gunshot]
Another shot rang out.
He's still obviously a threa
That's the first time we realized that he is still with us,
after I shot him.
I requested the BearCat
because it's an armored vehicle.
Attempting to get the suspect out of the house,
and, into custody,
so that we can end this whole situation
without anybody else getting injured.
[helicopter hovering]
[narrator] Until the armored vehicle arrives,
it's a stand-off.
There's a procedure that we go through
whenever we have barricaded gunman.
If we can't make contact with him,
or if they are refusing to comply,
there are ways that we can coax them out of their house.
[helicopter hovering]
One of those ways is using CS type of gases.
[narrator] CS gas is commonly referred to as tear gas.
[tear gas sound]
The Houston County SRT uses a 40-mm grenade launcher
to put these gases through the window.
He did not exit the house because of the gas.
[Corporal Mashuga] When I got to the hospital,
I went into emergency surger for my stomach wounds.
A bullet went in right below my belly button.
It did damage some of my intestine.
During the surgery, they removed a section of the damaged intestine,
and removed the bullet from inside my stomach, wherever it was at.
[narrator] The 10-ton BearCa arrives on scene.
We're gonna make a dual entry
with the Sheriff's department SRT,
who is gonna go upstairs, the top of the house.
The Warner Robins Police Department SWAT team
was gonna go into the bottom of the house.
[narrator] Eight hours after the initial 911 call,
law enforcement enters the suspect's residence.
[Officer Karl] The SRT eventually locates him in the attic area,
and is able to take him into custody without any further incident.
[narrator] Investigators find an improvised fighting position,
and weapons stashed all over the house.
They also find evidence
that Officer Thomas' shots found their target.
[Officer Karl] One disabled the weapon.
And then, one of the rounds hit his finger,
left his finger lying right there on the ledge.
He also took his own blood
and was writing on the walls
[narrator] Harry Baggett is sentenced to 100 years in prison
for criminal attempt to commit malice murder,
and aggravated assault on a peace officer.
45-year-old Baggett won't be eligible for parol
for 60 years.
I just didn't understand.
I didn't understand what the reason behind it was.
[gunshot]
What made him, you know, wanna just
have an all-out standoff with police
for a domestic that
we were to come out, separate the parties.
Nobody would've been arrested at that point.
[narrator] Corporal Mashuga returns to light duty
two months after the shootin
I do believe that all the officers that responded that night
did save my life.
And that I owe them something I'll never be able to pay back.
[Officer Karl] I've trained for a lot of my life,
and until you're in that situation,
you really don't know how you're gonna do.
And I was able to perform.
[Officer Thomas] It doesn't any good living the rest of my life
having hard feelings about it.
I mean, I signed up for this job knowing the risks,
and I knew that this was possible.
But, I'm not gonna live the rest of my life
angry about it.
[narrator] 20-miles north of Detroit,
is the suburb of Clinton Township.
Sergeant David Holdwick with Clinton Township PD
is working the Sunday shift
Typically, a Sunday patrol shift is slower than normal.
Businesses are closed, schools are closed,
lighter traffic.
Even though it was a Sunday
there's still people drivin in excess of the speed limit
As this vehicle went past me
it was abundantly apparent how fast he was going.
I immediately put the car in gear,
and went to go stop him.
[police car siren wailing]
[narrator] Just up the road
is Macomb County Sherriff's Deputy Jake Stark,
and his trainee deputy.
Our dispatch aired that Clinton Township Police Department
was chasing a suspect, northbound on Dalcoma,
exactly where we were.
We back them on big incident
We never want any police officer to be by himself.
In our minds, we ultimately
had to think pretty quickly on our feet
to try and get involved in this pursuit.
I knew at that point
he wasn't running simply because he didn't want a traffic ticket.
There was something else going on.
[narrator] Back down the roa
officers want to find out
exactly what the driver of the vehicle was getting rid of.
[Deputy Stark] When they told us
that the suspect had thrown something out of the window
we don't know what it is at that time,
which makes the chase a little more serious.
We don't know what he is into, or who he is.
We don't for certain, but there could be
a potential of a weapon inside that vehicle.
I didn't know that the Sheriff's department was near
until I looked into my rearview mirror,
and saw their flashing light
[Deputy Stark] When we approached officer Holdwick
we have to go by what he is doing. He is the lead officer,
he's the one in charge right now.
It's not like a normal pursuit.
You know, the suspect was driving at a slower rate of speed.
[Sgt Holdwick] As we approached the first traffic lights,
the thing that struck me as odd is,
the car stopped at the red light,
like you would for normal traffic.
I've never seen someone stop at red lights,
while they were actually trying to get away.
When the vehicle stopped,
my thought process was that he was going to open the door,
and take off running.
And, it was then going to turn into a foot pursuit.
But he continued to drive.
[police car siren blaring]
[Deputy Stark] The best way to get him to stop
is to get him to slow down,
and to get him boxed in,
to allow him not to be able go left or right.
Unfortunately, we only had two patrol cars at this time
So, he was able to get out of our box.
So, as the pursuit went northbound on Van Dyke,
approaching Hall Road, we had a red light.
Hall Road would be the last road,
that I would pick to run a red light at.
That's when things really go serious for me.
There's a chance that he is now endangering the public.
[police car siren blaring]
[Officer Stark] As we cross Hall Road,
you know, your mind is going a thousand miles.
You wanna make sure and hope
that the suspect is not gonna crash.
There was one vehicle in particular
that he almost collided with
It was pretty close to a miracle
that nobody got severely injured
going through those intersections.
[Former Deputy] There were other vehicles that back-traced
the steps of where the pursuit was.
And then that's when they found the narcotics.
[Deputy Stark] Once we found out there is narcotics
there's a reason he is running.
He could have a lot more narcotics in there.
[Officer Stark] We don't kno if he does have a gun at this point.
We did see him reach into his center console multiple times.
So that obviously has heightened our awareness
way more than just a normal pursuit.
So, we are now approximately 8-10 miles
north of where the actual pursuit started.
We are trying to do everything we can to stop the suspect
before he can continue.
Once we turned eastbound on 27 Mile Road,
his speeds definitely were increased.
[Sgt Holdwick] We are enteri more of a farm land.
More dirt roads,
getting away from subdivisions and neighborhoods,
and more into open country.
We actually had a second Clinton Township ca
joining the pursuit.
We could see the Sheriff's Department vehicle ahead
with its overhead lights activated.
[Deputy Stark] There's no ca in plain sight.
It's a country-style road.
Knowing the road and knowing we were at,
I knew we would hit gravel at that rate of speed.
There's a good chance that one of us could lose control.
[Former Deputy] As soon as we hit the dirt road,
I knew that this chase was gonna end soon.
I knew that his options
of where he was gonna go, was running thin.
And, now we're going into an area
that we are not 100% familiar with.
But he may be very familiar with.
I did consider that there was the potential
of us getting involved in some sort of ambush.
[Former Deputy] When he started slowing up as we are behind him,
I wanted to have the advanta
of having my door somewhat open.
If he fled on foot,
I get out, and then chase him on foot.
[Deputy Stark] My number on concern was does he know the people that live here?
Are there going to be peopl waiting for us behind the house?
We don't know at that time,
so, our awareness
is definitely very high.
There was dense woods behind the house that he went into.
I knew that as he pulled in that driveway,
that he was gonna make a dash for those woods
I saw that there was a big ditch.
Unfortunately, the suspect was able to up and over that ditch,
and then crash into a set of trees.
And then, took off on foot.
I am not familiar with the area.
We don't know what he is doing out there,
we don't know if he has a gun on him.
It definitely makes it lot more dangerous.
[Former Deputy] As the vehic is approaching the backyard I'm thinking in my mind,
this individual could either have more drugs on him,
or the biggest thing is, he has a weapon.
Deputy Stark began pursuing him on foot.
I went the other way,
opposite of where he was going,
so that all points of entry were covered.
And, all the points of him exiting the field
were covered as well.
[Deputy Stark] As we see his car come to a stop,
there's wood everywhere.
We don't know where he is at that point.
Fortunately for us, I was able to locate him,
give him multiple verbal commands
to stop, stop running,
let him know that the police are here.
And he continued to run on foot.
[Former Deputy] The terrain was awful.
We didn't know exactly what was in the wate
We didn't know if there were any trenches,
or if the water was going to get deeper.
We had no idea.
If I'm in deep waters, and he's out of deep waters
and, he does engage me,
I am an open target.
The further we got into the woods,
the more water there was.
There was probably a good 1-and-a-half to 2-feet of water,
that we are running through
which makes our clothes that much more weighted down
I was approximately 30 yard from where the suspect was.
All I was trying to do was keep an eye on him,
even if didn't gain ground on him.
I didn't know if I was going to encounter him
laying down, behind the tree.
I didn't know if I was walking into an ambush.
I didn't know if I had to engage this individual,
if this individual was going to start firing upon me.
[Deputy Stark] There's multiple times when he looked back
to see where we were.
But, we don't know why he's looking back at us
We don't know if he has a gun in his hand.
The terrain that we are running through
was a lot of water.
We got tired, he got tired.
[Former Deputy] I was trying to find any sort of tree,
or any thick brush
that I can get behind,
and get some form of concealment.
I was keeping my eye out for him
because I didn't know exactly where he was.
[Former Deputy] I knew the general direction of travel,
and I can see a break
that opened up to a more open area.
When I saw that, I thought to myself,
"Okay, this is where the suspect is going."
[Deputy Stark] Fortunately, I was able to see
his hands to know that he didn't have any weapons
in his hand at the time.
And that he was probably just looking to see
exactly where we were.
I come out of the woods,
and at that point, I know his hands are in the air,
but we don't know if he can make any sudden movement.
So, I do pull my gun.
I could hear my trainee, along with another officer,
yelling verbal commands,
for him to get down on the ground,
and put his hand behind his back.
Once I hear that, my adrenaline is running.
We eventually take the suspect into custody.
[narrator] The items thrown out of the suspect's car
test positive for cocaine.
The suspect is Aniano-Arialo Mora.
He pleads no contest to multiple charges,
including fleeing an officer
and possession of narcotics under 25 grams.
He is sentenced to two years probation,
and released into substance abuse treatment.
Anytime that you assist another department
in a big incident,
we're all one team.
At the end of the day,
we wanna make sure that they're safe,
they wanna make sure that we are safe.
I think that really made thi
the best outcome possible.
Nobody wearing a badge got hurt that day,
no civilians were injured that day,
the suspect wasn't injured that day.
That's ultimately
what you want,
being in law enforcement.