[narrator] In Wisconsin, an undercover sting
results in an officer posing as a hit man.
Someone's life is in jeopardy.
So we set up a time to meet the very next day.
She seemed as if we were meeting to conduct a transaction
for a used item that she had listed in the classifieds.
[Nicholas Pendergast speaking]
[Megan Wanty speaking]
[Captain Josh Chiamulera] It's difficult to listen to
I cannot believe that,
that someone is thinking like this.
[narrator] Then in Colorado.
[caller speaking]
[Sergeant Christopher Griggs-Ortiz] This is an 80,000 pound missile
barreling down the road.
This situation is deadly.
[narrator] The stakes are raised when the semi exits the highway.
If this truck decides to plow into a house
the potential for mass casualties is huge
[Griggs speaking]
It's taking out power poles it's hitting cars.
[siren wailing]
[bleep]
[narrator] Entering this neighborhood makes it personal.
People that I love and care about were in the way of this truck.
[dispatcher 1] There's cars the west lane.
[woman] Shots fired. I only brought basic marks.
[officer] Yeah, drop it, come outside.
[narrator] Just south of Lake Superior...
...in northern Wisconsin
is the small city of Rhinelander.
Captain Josh Chiamulera is about to do something
that every police officer dreads.
[Chiamulera] I've worked in law enforcement for 17 years.
I, unfortunately, had to give the news
to a family that someone has passed away.
[Chiamulera speaking]
[Chiamulera] You have three fully uniformed officers standing in your wo
asking to meet with you in a private area.
Her heart's just got to be pounding.
[Chiamulera speaking]
[Detective Kyle Parish] Normally, when we do death notifications
people do have a lot of questions,
"How did it happen? Was it quick?"
Just the basic questions of
trying to process how their loved one has passed.
And a lot of the times it takes them forever
to grip the reality that they're even dead.
[Chiamulera speaking]
[Megan speaking]
[Chiamulera speaking]
[Chiamulera] Early February I got a phone call.
An informant said a female that he had worked with
was attempting to find
someone to possibly kill her husband.
A murder for hire is serious someone's life is is jeopardy.
So we set up a time to meet with the informant the very next day.
All he knew was that her name was Megan
He knew her from work, he knew she had a husband and a couple of kids,
but other than Megan he didn't even know her last name.
The informant did show us text messages
that kind of show that she was talking about it.
There was talk of wanting to find somebody to kill her husband.
He stated that the reason that she wanted him dead wa
she wanted a divorce, but she couldn't afford to live on her own
'cause he was the breadwinne
So it seemed like it was financially motivated
One of the text messages
she said that she was 90% sure that she wanted this to happen.
That's a pretty high number.
So the next step was to actually have the informa meet with her in person.
Actually hear her
say that she wants to do this, that she wants her husband dead.
[narrator] The informant tells Megan, he can arrange a deal with a hit man.
He needs to discuss it with her in person.
[Chiamulera] Shortly later, we got the reply back
that Megan was willing to meet up.
So we went to a park
set up and waited for Megan to arrive.
[officer speaking]
[Parish] We provided the informant with
a recorder that we can listen into as things are happening,
and just kind of seeing how serious this really was,
whether they were willing to take steps
to further the conspiracy.
[narrator] Megan gets into her coworker's car
not knowing he's a confidential informan
[informant speaking]
[Megan speaking]
[informant speaking]
[Megan speaking]
[Chiamulera] It's difficult to listen to.
I cannot believe that,
that someone is thinking like this.
[informant speaking]
[Megan speaking]
I expected her to come back and say,
"No, I'm done. I'm kidding, right?
This is stupid I can't believe I'm thinking like this."
Within three days, Megan was reaching out
to the informant to say she had come up with it.
We knew Megan was serious she was coming up with mone
and moving things forward.
[narrator] Detectives arrang a meeting
between Megan and an undercover agent, posing as a hit man.
Going into undercover operations
you always try to prepare yourself for anything that can happen.
[Chiamulera] We were able to monitor live through the radio.
We have a video camera set up
in our unmarked vehicle.
We have another camera in Pendergast's car
so that we can monitor everything.
[phone ringing]
[Chiamulera speaking]
[Pendergast speaking]
[Megan speaking]
[Pendergast speaking]
She seemed as if we were meeting to conduct a transaction
for a used item she had listed in the classifieds.
[Pendergast] The arrangemen was for her to provide a down payment
and the remainder of the money to be provided...
...once he had been killed.
[Parish] We didn't realize i until actually we were well on our way
this is Valentine's Day that she's speaking to a hit man to kill her husband.
[Pendergast speaking]
[Pendergast] This was not some knee-jerk reaction from an argument.
This was something that has been on her mind for quite some time.
[Megan speaking]
[Pendergast] She suggested
perhaps the homicide could take place on the lake.
[Pendergast speaking]
[Megan speaking]
[Pendergast] One of the options Megan had given
regarding how to kill Nick
was for it to take place in his vehicle.
She did, however, mention she wanted to make sure
that the truck was totaled so that she could collect the insurance money.
[Pendergast speaking]
[Megan speaking]
[Pendergast] She was not bluffing
and this was going to take place whether we were involved
or she had found someone els
There was no doubt in my min
that Megan wanted her husband murdered.
[narrator] To ensure his safety, investigators find Megan's husband
and take him in to protective custody.
[officer speaking]
[sighs wearily]
[Nicholas Danielczak speaking]
[Chiamulera] Absolute disbelief from the husband.
Did not believe this conversation took place,
did not believe that his wif
who had just the night befor given him a Valentine's card
was hiring a hit man to kill him.
Okay.
[Chiamulera] After meeting with the husband
we immediately went over to Megan's work.
We wanted to see her reaction
when she found out that her husband
had actually been killed.
Um, and more importantly, get it on film
so that, you know, a possible jury
could look at her reaction, her emotion,
and compare it to the other videos that we had of her
when she's sitting in the car with the hit man.
[Chiamulera speaking]
[Chiamulera] And to be hones she knows the information
that we are about to tell her.
She is expecting this, she's paid for this,
and now she gets to see the end of the show.
[Chiamulera speaking]
[sobbing]
[Chiamulera speaking]
[Chiamulera] In my opinion, she was sitting there waitin
for us to just give her this news,
and then walk out the door,
and her life to continue on from there.
[Chiamulera speaking]
[Chiamulera] It wasn't until I asked her to stand u
and put her hands behind her back that we saw
that we saw the true emotion come from Megan.
[Parish] It seemed like she was defeated.
She knew she had lost
and she just, kind of, resigned to the fact that she lost.
Have a seat, ma'am.
At that point, I would have probably been hysterical if I would have been her.
Um, but, it was, she was stone-cold
that coldness was still ther
It was just an odd feeling.
[narrator] Megan Wanty is charged with first-degre intentional homicide.
In February 2019, she pleads no contest.
The judge takes her clean record into accoun
and she is sentenced to two years in prison.
Megan is now divorced
and is not allowed any conta with her ex-husband.
[Chiamulera] If that informa had not come forward and mentioned something.
I truly believe she would have figured out
a way on her own to make it happen.
Her husband would have been killed some way, shape, or form.
[Parish] So to be able to save the husband's life
made us feel pretty good about what we had done.
[Chiamulera] I am proud of the Rhinelander Police Department.
In six days, from start to finish,
we were able to get
all of the necessary information
to make it a successful case
Megan went to prison, no one did get hurt,
her kids are still happy and healthy,
and so is the husband.
[narrator] In Colorado,
70 miles northeast of Denver
is Fort Morgan.
[dispatcher speaking]
[caller speaking]
[narrator] Logan County Sheriff's Department, Sergeant Clay Rockwell,
is in the city of Sterling
where the semi is headed.
[Sergeant Clay Rockwell] I heard the call come out over the radio.
I started heading to the direction where the semi was travelling.
[Rockwell speaking]
Found the semi out on Highway 14.
He was coming into Sterling
[siren wailing]
[Rockwell speaking]
The semi was driving at a high rate of speed and all over the road.
Definitely going way too fast and putting people
...lives in danger.
[sirens blaring]
[dispatcher]
[narrator] The semi crosses the Morgan County line
and is now heading toward the city of Brush.
Morgan County issues a Be On the Look Out bulleti
to all on-duty officers.
[Griggs] I hear the BOLO come out
that the semitruck is comin
into Morgan County from the Sterling-Logan area.
[narrator] The truck has no forced several vehicles off the road.
[Griggs] We have the Fort Morgan Police Department,
Brush Police Department,
Log Lane Marshal's Office,
Colorado State Patrol.
All of those agencies become involved.
[narrator] One of the responders is Corporal Ross Blank
from the Brush Police Department.
[Blank]
[Griggs] Corporal Blank had already called out
that this driver was actively trying to hit civilians.
This is a lethal force encounter.
[gun firing]
Corporal Blank fires through his windshield,
aiming at the tires.
[gun firing]
[narrator] Corporal Blank attempts to puncture the tir
which would slow the semi do or bring it to a stop.
[Blank]
When you think about the sidewall of a semi tire,
you're talking about very dense rubber
and steel belting.
[gun fires]
The ultimate result was that it was ineffective.
At that point, I've got another officer in an active pursuit.
As both a supervisor and also just as a fellow officer,
I'm not gonna leave an offic hanging out there.
We're gonna go and help right now.
As I'm responding from Fort Morgan,
I am now eastbound on Highway 34...
[dispatcher]
...and I ended up directly behind the semitruck.
This situation is deadly.
This is an 80,000-pound missile
barreling down the road.
There's the potential for people pulling out of their driveways
that go right onto this highway.
The potential for civilian casualties was very real.
This night had just become
a once in a lifetime sort of shift.
[sirens blaring]
About half a mile ahead of m
I can see the red and blue lights
of Deputy Steve Berlanga.
[dispatcher]
[Griggs]
[sirens blaring]
All the sudden, he just shot off the road.
All I could see was just red and blue lights
and then, gone.
Then all I saw was the headlights of a semi.
I didn't know exactly what had happened.
But at that point, I'm like
"I just have a deputy that at a minimum just wrecked his car,
and worst case scenario, may be injured or killed."
[Berlanga]
[Griggs] Deputy Berlanga ha actually just yanked the whe
and he was able to get out of the way of that truck
and actually ended up out in a cornfield.
He managed to get turned around and ended up back in the pursuit with us.
We're driving down the interstate.
I'm behind this truck.
We're doing 75, 80 miles per hour.
The feelings of helplessness
"What can I do to stop this thing?"
The stop sticks that we hav
are designed to be used on passenger cars.
They are not designed to work on heavy-duty truck tires.
[dispatcher 1]
[dispatcher 2]
[Griggs] The next intersecti is Barlow Road and Riverview
[radio chatter]
[Griggs]
At that intersection, there was a Fort Morgan Police Sergeant
in a marked patrol car with lights on
to keep people from getting onto Barlow Road.
The semi actually swerved to essentially aim for that patrol car.
[dispatcher]
[Griggs] He T-boned the Fort Morgan Police Department car
and actually pushed that ca
quite a ways out into the intersection.
The sergeant actually put i in drive and give it some ga
and he was able to pull off the front of the semi
as he's being pushed sideway
Seeing these horrific thing going on,
you know, there is that moment of,
"Wow," you know, like, "Did that, that really just happened."
That cemented in my mind,
"This guy's trying to kill people."
[dispatcher]
[Griggs] I continued in the pursuit at that point
and Corporal Blank stopped to check on Sergeant Miller
make sure that he was all right.
[dispatcher]
He crosses over the median into oncoming traffic.
We now have an 80,000-pound semi
going the wrong way, head o to unsuspecting motorists.
I have seen numerous crashe on that interstate.
I know that that is a very deadly situation.
I'm starting to get on the g a little bit, thinking,
"Maybe if I could get in front of him,
I can shoot backwards."
As I start to actually accelerate,
the semitruck driver realize
"Oh, that cop is trying to get in front of me,"
then goes through the grassy median
and cuts me off.
We now have the longest eight or nine minutes of my life.
Brush is a small community, about 6,000 people.
That's where I live.
That's where my house is.
That's where my kids were at home that night.
There were people that I love and care about personally
that were in the way of this truck.
[Griggs]
[dispatcher]
I was really hoping that we would have
a barricade, a roadblock set up,
something keeping him on that interstate.
I realized that there is no barricade
and that there is no roadblo
and that he is taking this exit.
[dispatcher]
[Griggs] Instead of making the right-hand turn,
he jumps the curb, cuts through the grass,
and ends up in a semi parking lot.
The next thing that I see beyond the truck
are the diesel pumps.
I had that thought in my min
of him striking those fuel pumps
and just this explosion.
I'm watching him head for the diesel pumps.
He had probably 45, 50 miles per hour.
He threads the needle between two pumps,
which are a foot or so wider that the width of the truck.
I follow him.
[dispatcher]
[Griggs]
A pedestrian walking back to his truck looks at m
and, like, throws his hands up like, "What the hell?"
This is my job to protect that man,
and he's looking at me going
"Why aren't you doing something?"
At that point, there's just nothing I could do
other than try and get people out of the way.
[Berlanga]
[radio chatter]
[Griggs] He makes a turn to the right
and is heading back towards the roadway.
The semi makes a hard left turn
and is now going east on Mil
We're all now doing 60 miles per hour
on this narrow, residential street,
passing the hardware store that I shop at
and, um, the cemetery where my grandparents are buried.
You know, this is where I live.
[Blank]
[Griggs] Corporal Blank had positioned himself
right along Mill Street
in the parking lot of the middle school.
[Blank]
[Griggs] At that point, his body camera had actuall fallen off his uniform.
[gun firing]
The semi actually swerves into the parking lot
to hit Ross' car
and Ross was firing rounds
into the cab of this truck.
[gun firing]
Again, just through...
...I guess, luck,
this guy is not directly hit
by any of those bullets.
[gun firing]
He strikes Ross' car.
Corporal Blank's car is completely demolished,
so he's out of the pursuit.
[Berlanga]
[radio chatter]
[Berlanga]
[Griggs] I go up to the corner.
I make the hard right-hand turn
to try and get in front of him,
but the semitruck was able to cut me off.
I see a civilian car stoppe at the next intersection.
I watch the car get hit
and kind of come off the side of the truck.
I know there's people inside
I know that there is the potential that I just watched someone die.
Undersheriff Martin was behind me.
He stopped to render aid
and we continued in the pursuit.
We are, at this point, less than a block away from my house.
I can literally see my backyard.
We are that close to my home.
My children are there.
We continue on Colorado Avenue.
[radio chatter]
[Griggs] The semitruck made a hard right turn.
The tires on the trailer actually lock up.
This driver literally drifte an 80,000-pound semitruck.
He spun that truck,
went into the Bank of Colora parking lot.
[radio chatter]
This was one of those moments in this
where we got lucky.
There is a very tall curb
between the Bank of Colorad parking lot
and the neighboring property
As the semi leaves the stree
he hits that curb.
I'm hearing pop, pop,
like, two very distinct pops.
My first instinct was, "Ooh, did he just shoot at me?"
And then, my next thought wa
"He just popped his tires."
Both front tires on that tru were deflated.
His speeds go from 55, 75 miles per hour
to about 15 miles per hour.
[dispatcher]
[Griggs] It's kind of weavin back and forth.
It's taking out power poles
It's hitting cars.
He makes a left-hand turn and hits another car head on.
If this truck decides to just plow into a house,
the potential for mass casualties is huge.
[Griggs] I realize that every time
he makes a left-hand turn,
the driver's door of the tru is fully exposed.
He's literally presenting m a target.
If I can just wait for him to make a left-hand turn,
I can take out this threat.
My first instinct was to reach for my rifle.
However, my rifle has falle into the floor board
on the passenger side of my patrol car.
My back-up is my pistol.
[radio chatter]
[gun firing]
[Griggs] I fired four round into the side of the truck
through my windshield.
[gun firing]
The problem was I came in a little bit low.
He makes a few more turns through the neighborhood
and comes into, like, the driveway area of this house.
[radio chatter]
Plain as day, I saw him jump out the driver's door of that truck.
And I call out on the radio.
[Rockwell] Time I rolled up on scene and the time I got out of my vehicle,
it was unsure if he was still in the semi or if he ran.
It was chaotic.
There was people talking, trying to figure out what was going on.
[Griggs]
[Rockwell]
Some of the residents came outside that house
and said he was inside trying to get a firearm.
At that point, I thought it was gonna be a hostage situation
where he was gonna barricad himself inside that house.
My worst fear at that time
is it was gonna be essentially a shootout.
[Griggs]
[officer shouting]
[Griggs]
I heard Deputy Berlanga calling out
and, you know, having someone at gunpoint.
[Berlanga]
[Griggs]
[Berlanga]
[Griggs]
[Berlanga]
[man]
[narrator] The police identi the driver of the semitruck
as 29-year-old Christopher Luedtke
from Morgan County.
[Griggs] There were several people that were injured.
There were two teenagers,
who actually go to school with my children,
that were injured
that were in a car that he had hit.
There was a couple that wer in the car that he had hit
that were severely injured.
Amazingly...
...no one was killed.
Our crime scene was the county.
We had a crime scene
that was miles, and miles, and miles, and miles long..
...with a trail of destruction throughout.
Every single law enforcemen agency in the county
started calling people in,
because we did not have enough officers
to handle something of this magnitude.
[narrator] In July 2018,
Christopher Luedtke pleads guilty
to vehicle theft and first-degree attempted murder.
He is sentenced to 20 years in prison.
This situation was life-altering for me
in several ways.
I do a dangerous job.
But this, to me, felt like the closest I had ever come
to my own mortality.
And what really hit home for me was...
...life is not infinite,
and that I only get one shot at this.
I've known since I was a chi
that I, I'm gay,
and I was closeted
and never allowed myself
to be who I knew that I actually was.
And I couldn't do that anymore.
I am proudly the first openly-gay officer in Morgan County,
and the response has been great.
You know what? We can be gay and we can still be cops.
It works out fine.
That's what I have taken from this events
and what it has led me to be