High Speed Chase (2023) s02e01 Episode Script

1
All right, that car just sped off.
This guy was completely out of
control and needed to be stopped.
All right, slowing down at 18th.
He's coming to carjack a Corvette.
Driving on the wrong side of the road.
We gotta get this guy stopped.
He's crazy, man.
He's gonna kill somebody.
Adrenaline's up. Heart rate's up.
You feel like you're in a video game.
We gotta get back up and
make sure he doesn't kill somebody.
Permission to PIT?
Take them out!
On March 6th,
I was on shift at the flight unit.
About 4:30 p.m. we received a call
of an altercation between two males
that ended up in one of the males
stealing the other male's vehicle.
Southbound on Douglas
It's important for a quick response,
being that it was
a robbery call and in progress.
I got a possible name for the
subject Kenneth Lunford,
L-U-N-F-O-R-D.
Either white or mixed male.
Eagle, what's the make
and model of the car?
It's a Chevy Malibu, red.
All right, I copy.
Even several miles out,
with the equipment that we have,
I'm able to start looking on the ground.
There's a red car here. Stopped
in traffic. Thank you, Control.
- Oh, they must have turned.
- I saw one going North
Are you 100 percent sure on that ID?
I see couple of red cars,
but they're not Chevy Malibus.
It can be a bit like
finding a needle in a haystack.
That just adds to
the pressures that are involved.
Eagle break, I think I got your car,
Southbound Fort Harrison
I could see the driver's door
flapping open and closed.
I'm confident the vehicle
is the one that we're looking for.
- Continuing South on Myrtle.
- How's his driving?
Extremely signal 12,
driver doors flapping in the wind.
Almost signal four,
running red light through Fairmount
You're on.
Just ran, Marshall. Still
signal 12. High rate of speed.
Given his aggressive driving
without any officers
actually in pursuit of him,
I wonder if he knows that we're
actually tracking him from the sky.
The speed limit
is around 35 miles an hour.
Patrol to units.
He's going, baby. Yeah.
Driving at this high rate
of speed is dangerous
because the other
drivers aren't expecting it.
This was a Sunday afternoon,
the beginning of spring break.
I know that there's a lot of people
here, especially out on the beach.
The BOLO says two doors,
but it's four door, correct?
It's going to be a four door.
As I'm hearing this go out over the
radio, I look towards the computer
and try to get information
as the BOLO is coming out,
so I know what I'm looking for.
Any type of call like this has the ability
to transition locations very quickly.
All right, coming up to Drew Street
and ran the red light at Drew Street.
Cut between two cars.
Through Cleveland, driving
on the wrong side of the road,
almost caused a head-on signal four.
- We gotta get this guy stopped.
- Yeah.
We gotta get this guy
stopped no matter what.
He's, he's crazy, man.
Gonna kill somebody.
Yeah, Eagle, I would qualify
this as extremely dangerous driving.
I'm starting to get closer,
closing that gap with the suspects.
I can hear the helicopter continuing
to call out the behavior of the car.
I've listened to him
a thousand times on the radio.
He's obviously calm
and collected, but you just
You can tell the inflection
in his voice is a bit different,
and he's a little more worked up.
This guy has to be
driving absolutely crazy.
- He was close to that motorcycle.
- Oh, my gosh, yes.
We gotta get sticks ahead of this
guy. He's going to kill someone.
I start to wonder, how far
is this guy really gonna go?
He's over the wrong side of the road,
coming up to West Bay on Clearwater Largo.
He's got a red light.
He ran the red light. I think he
just signal 4'd into this van.
He's going to be heading to the beach.
I think the driver door keeps coming open.
It is, it's flapping open.
He's bobbing and weaving through traffic.
Driving in the median.
High rate of speed.
All right, passing Bluff
View Drive and Harbor View Lane.
So he's committed towards the beach.
In Pinellas County, all of the
beaches are barrier islands.
There's only a certain
number of bridges to get there.
So a suspect can easily
find themselves trapped
on an island with no way out.
Still Westbound.
Car 48 to Eagle. He's all out,
no-one's pushing him. Ten-four.
I can't see anybody around him,
but he is extremely dangerous.
The suspect is driving
erratically with no one around him.
So in my head,
the first thing I'm thinking is
either alcohol, or drugs.
He's probably going to come South.
I'll try to get ahead of him with sticks.
We work out a plan for
my partner to set up stop sticks,
right at the city line on Gulf Boulevard,
and for me to go to the end of the
bridge the vehicle is coming over.
With knowing that there's
more deputies responding
and that they're getting closer,
it's making me more confident
that this is gonna get ended soon.
Past 6th Street, through
3rd Street, still Southbound.
I see the vehicle coming over
the bridge and it passes me.
Extremely fast.
I'm thinking,
my partner's safety is in jeopardy.
Still Southbound.
Around the deputy.
Still continuing high rate of speed.
Unfortunately, the suspect saw and
he swerved into oncoming traffic
and really increased his speed
to avoid those stop sticks.
He's missed the spikes.
Adrenaline's up, heart rate's up.
Like, this is as crazy
as the helicopter was saying.
He's in the median.
High rate of speed.
He's taking risks to get ahead of
me that I'm just not willing to take.
I need to really focus,
pay attention to what I'm doing,
because one mistake could be fatal.
All right, slowing down at 18th.
Looks like he's gonna bail at 18th.
I thought that he was looking for
a place to jump out and run on foot.
He's coming to carjack a Corvette.
I zoom in on the suspect to see
if maybe he's got a weapon.
Black male, blue shirt, blue jeans.
Him being able to successfully
carjack a Corvette
is very dangerous for us.
They sit much lower to the ground,
they are much faster than us,
and they have way better handling.
It will be nearly impossible
for me to keep up with him.
Rocky, can you get up there?
He's coming to carjack a Corvette.
So the first thing in my head is,
"All right, I need to hammer down.
I need to speed up.
I need to get there."
Rocky, can you get up there?
All right, that car just sped off.
As I start to close the gap.
I'm thinking, I can try to ram into him.
Or PIT it.
And as I pull up,
he's able to get into the vehicle
right as I'm attempting
to PIT him.
You miss the PIT by a couple of seconds.
It's so frustrating.
Control, he just passed by me.
He is Southbound on the Gulf
Boulevard. High rate of speed.
12th Avenue.
We need to get this guy stopped.
1248. If anyone gets the chance
to PIT him or stop him, do it.
It's authorized.
The shift commander has
given us instructions
that we can stop this guy
any way we need to.
That's not as easy as people would think.
He's able to go around medians
by going in the wrong direction.
I'm just not able to do that.
I need to make sure
that I'm not gonna hit anyone,
I'm not gonna cause any more damage.
Through 7th,
on the sidewalk, passing the car.
Almost signal.
On the opposite lanes
of traffic, Southbound.
High rate of speed coming up to 5th.
Just ran the red light at 5th.
This guy has no regard
for anybody else on the road.
Now he's heading towards probably
one of the most densely populated
pedestrian areas in the city.
And at that point nobody is safe.
On the pedestrian path.
- Just signal.
- Just signal 4'd
in front of Crabby Bill's.
4th Avenue. Out of the car.
Running Southbound.
He's trying to carjack another
Mustang, a black Mustang.
My adrenaline
is starting to go a little bit.
I need to remind myself to calm back down,
so that I can give good information
to the deputies on the ground.
- Sorry, I'm getting amped up.
- No, you're good.
All right, he just carjacked this Mustang.
Taking off in a black convertible Mustang.
Southbound on Gulf Boulevard.
You feel like you're in a video game.
But
obviously, out in the real world,
people die and you can't
come back to life.
You just It's such a hard thing
to do, drive by an accident scene
not knowing if anybody's hurt.
I'm still the lead car
and I'm the only one behind him.
Can anybody end this?
Ram it if you have to.
Go!
Get out of the way, please.
I think the pressure of being
alone during a pursuit is
It's heavy, it weighs very heavy on you.
I'm right behind it.
Looked like that car
was involved in signal 4'd.
The back left tire is gone.
Now, he's not really able to drive
as fast, which is a benefit to us.
But, the driving becomes
a bit more erratic.
He has had so many
near misses. It's terrifying.
The road is getting more narrow.
The number of people are increasing,
which makes a PI
maneuver far more dangerous.
I'm in a tough spot.
I can't get a PIT in.
Headed down by JD's Tavern now.
Eagle, I'll call for you.
2nd Avenue. All right.
Going the wrong way on the
one-way street, on 1st Street.
He doesn't have that tire.
I think he just sideswiped
two more cars on the bike path.
A PIT is just going
to have to happen at some point.
Marine 21. We got two
trucks out here. We'll ram him.
I can see in the distance
lights coming at me.
So a couple more marked cars
and an unmarked car coming at me.
They're much bigger than me.
They have much better front bumpers.
Marine 21 to Car 48.
Permission to ram him?
10-4.
Mustang with stripes, right?
- Yeah, there's a deputy behind him.
- 10-4.
Right, just hit the marine unit.
Now he's fishtailing.
The suspect vehicle is able to get
closer to the wall, go off the road,
narrowly miss one
of the Marine unit pickup trucks.
Only clipping it.
I'm just so frustrated.
He's left a trail of destruction,
multiple car accidents,
and we just aren't catching a break.
Just sideswiped another car. I'm
not sure if that was a cruiser.
He's able to beat two PITs.
And he must just be feeling like
he can get away
with anything at this point.
What is it going to take to stop him?
On the sidewalk, past the car.
High rate of speed.
Over onto the bike lane, past the traffic.
He is now basically on a rim,
which has caused his vehicle
to start fishtailing and losing control.
I'm thinking, "You can't fail."
Adrenaline's running, heart rate's high.
I know that this could be
the only attempt we get.
As I move in for the PIT
and strike the rear of his vehicle.
It pushes him into a white vehicle.
Passing traffic.
What I couldn't see at the time
was that there were two pedestrians
on the sidewalk on
the other side of the white vehicle.
And there's a mom and a stroller
walking across the parking lot.
All right. He just signal 4'd.
It looks clear as day, like,
they're about to get crushed.
And all of my fears
that I've had the entire pursuit
just flash before me.
I thought he was gonna hit the people.
All right, he just signal 4'd.
By some miracle,
the white car never
struck the pedestrians.
It was that sigh of relief.
They were able to get out of the way.
Uninjured.
All right. He just signal 4'd
But the suspect narrowly missing
that mother and the baby stroller,
it really put into sharp contrast
of how reckless this guy was.
He's all over the place!
He's fitting the fence.
He's down 19925 Gulf Boulevard.
He's on the South side of the building.
He's around the back now, driving North.
As the suspect goes
towards the back of the apartment,
I knew that it was a dead end
and he had nowhere to go.
All right. Just hit the fence.
Going through another fence
to the next property to the North.
All right, he's out of the vehicle.
I think he's running Northbound.
Get the ♪♪♪down!
I don't know.
I got the fence.
Alright, he's Northbound in the mangroves
behind the next property to the North.
It's pretty dense foliage
that grows along the shoreline.
I lost sight of him for a second.
Don't ♪♪♪move!
I'm now in the mangroves,
running after somebody
with a whole new set of unique challenges.
The mud is up to my knees.
You don't know what kind
of animals are in there.
And you're trying to make your
way through small rooted trees.
I'm thinking, "Does he have a weapon?
Is he under the influence of drugs?"
His actions have already shown
us that he's willing to do anything.
He's heading kind of East,
Northeast through the mangroves.
Still heading East,
he's coming out to the Intercoastal.
I was relieved to see the suspect
reemerge from the foliage.
19931 Gulf Boulevard.
19931, he's in the mangroves all the
way out by the edge of the water.
I was listening,
so knew I was just North of him
so he was kind of running towards me.
And this guy was completely out of control
and needed to be stopped.
All right. Still heading East.
He's coming out to the Intercoastal.
19931 Gulf Boulevard. 19931.
He's in the mangroves all the way
out by the edge of the water.
He's in the water.
He's swimming Eastbound.
I've got all this gear.
All of it is going to become
useless if I get in the water.
And he's going to have the upper hand.
He's bigger than me.
He's erratic. He's unpredictable.
- Hey, get on the
- Don't move!
Hey, let me see your hand!
My concern was, you know,
does he have a weapon?
We had a few guys that had less
lethal out, which was our tasers.
And then we had a few guys
with their service weapon out also.
We've got deputies
challenging from the dock.
He's eating drugs. Eating drugs.
I observed the suspect
pulling something out of his pocket.
And then he started ingesting
whatever the substance was.
Generally, people do that with drugs
that they're trying to get rid of.
Yeah, he's out of it.
He's whacked out of his mind.
I don't think he had any comprehension
of what he was really doing.
Yeah, Marine units 97.
Guys, use caution. He's got
his right hand down by his side.
Not sure if he is trying
to pull up his pants,
- or to reach for something.
- He had something white there.
I think he still has it in his left hand.
- He just pointed like he had a gun.
- Yeah.
That's another thought
that you have to really process
as you're coming up
to take somebody into custody.
That last unknown risk
that you've not been able to quell.
I'm getting a ride, that's all.
He almost seemed defeated, like he knew
he was just going
to be taken into custody.
Marine units have got him
on the boat. They're going 10-15.
He was punching at us.
He was kicking at us.
He was grabbing different deputies.
Just nonstop fighting.
Stop resisting! Give us your hand!
Now your says me hold on.
Unfortunately,
in a boat, it's very unstable.
It's like a fish out of water.
Guys, need backup! They need
to get another unit on board.
Yeah, he's fighting with them.
Get handcuffs on his arm.
- Stop pulling, dude!
- This is the PCSD!
Good cover. Great form.
All right. And that is cut.
- That's 64. We're 10-15.
- Alright.
It was a great feeling that this
whole chaos was over with finally.
28 copy. 10-15 on the vessel.
10-5 Eagle, great job!
Thanks. Good job by you guys too.
I cannot believe
all of that just happened.
And you have that sigh of relief.
He was speaking to one of the deputies,
and he did admit to consuming cocaine
and marijuana at some point in time.
Whether that was before the chase,
during the chase,
we weren't 100 percent sure.
Once the Marine unit was able to get
the suspect back to their dock,
search service person found
nothing. No drugs, no guns.
Eagle, do we need to check
anything else out from the air?
I might just travel the path again,
just so we can get good
aerial visuals and everything.
This incident is probably
one of the longest
and most involved in my career.
The amount of crimes
that he committed, damage that he caused,
and other people that he affected
was definitely more
than anything else I've seen.
I've seen hundreds of thousands
of dollars worth of damages.
It clearly reminded me of something
that you would see on a video game.
But this was not a video game.
These are real people's lives.
It's a miracle that nobody got hurt.
Once I was finally able
to look at the Mustang,
get a good look, with a clear mind,
and it was completely destroyed.
Damaged in every way. Every
part of that vehicle had a dent.
He's lucky to even be alive.
A man faces more than 30 charges
after a wild police
chase in Pinellas County.
The sheriff's office says
that Kenneth Lunford
led them on a chase in multiple
stolen vehicles on Sunday.
Investigators say it started
when Lunford stole
a man's keys following a drug deal.
Authorities were able to catch him
after he crashed into
an Indian Shores parking lot
and then ran into the water.
No one was seriously hurt.
This is hands down the most
wild and chaotic pursuit
I've ever been a part of.
- He's in the water.
- The goal of any pursuit is
to end it peacefully
and without anyone being injured.
And that's exactly what we did.
Fairburn is a metro Atlanta area.
You got a lot of highways
that goes through Fairburn.
It's busy all throughout the day.
My name is Dennis. I'm a Corporal
at Fairburn Police Department.
What I would typically
do in Fairburn on shift
is I would look for traffic stops,
look for anything that's been
broken into over the night.
One of my favorite things is,
honestly, the adrenaline.
I'm an adrenaline junkie.
You never know what kind of call
you're going to go to, you never
know what you're going to get into.
Around 11:30 a.m. I received a alert
of a stolen vehicle
in the city of Fairburn.
I remember hearing
the call come out over the radio.
All the patrol officers that were
with me in the police department
were running out the door
because we wanted to get in on the action.
It's gonna be a Nissan Rogue
vehicle, silver color SUV.
I was hauling butt to get there.
Just to get to the area, I was doing 100.
As I approached the intersection,
I looked to my left and to my right.
As I looked to my left
I located the vehicle
that matched what the alert said.
I could see that there was two people
in there that I knew of for sure.
I didn't want them to know that
I knew that their car was stolen.
So, what I did was I went to the
next street and I turned around.
Sierra Victor 2154.
It's the stolen vehicle
here on West Campbellton
I made sure that
I kept eyes on the vehicle
and letting my colleagues know where
I was and where the vehicle was.
It was relatively close
to the police department.
We came out of the parking lot.
We had made a left
onto a four lane highway and started
to go through downtown area.
Where is it located?
The vehicle is going
to be the first one in line
to go on this green light.
It is occupied three times.
There's always strength in numbers
and that was the game plan there.
The more officers we could
have there to trap the car in,
a better chance we had
of stopping a pursuit.
Pacheco was approaching
Northbound on highway 29
and then Captain Israel was
on West Campbellton facing East.
And Vanloo,
he actually came on Highway 29.
Turn up.
- You wanna box him in?
- Yeah, go ahead.
Vanloo pulled forward
in front of the vehicle
to which then I pulled forward as well.
I thought for sure we had him.
The car started going
in reverse. I said, "Here we go."
Go PIT them in.
Officer Pacheco immediately
put his vehicle back in drive
trying to make sure the driver
couldn't go forward again.
But the suspect pushed
his car out of the way
and went up onto the sidewalk.
The passenger was
on the rear passenger side.
I saw him get out of the vehicle.
He took off running.
Any pursuit,
there's a certain level of danger.
You just never know
what dangers are there.
I'm clear. I'm catching up.
We're going Southbound.
About miles an hour.
If there is any units
just around the downtown area,
the passenger
bush-bonded. Black male.
Black shirt with some designs on it.
Last seen running towards the stage.
So I jumped the sidewalk
with the patrol vehicle.
I wasn't quick enough
and he got down by me
and the driver continued to
accelerate at a high rate of speed.
My main concern,
of course, was public safety.
Got to get back up to him and make
sure he doesn't kill somebody.
The dangers that you
can run into is obviously
hitting another citizen's vehicle.
You have to pay attention,
in trying to assure
that I'm not going to hurt anybody.
Honestly, you just have
to rely on your sirens.
Southbound. 122 miles an hour.
Going South on Highway 29,
our speeds were well above 100.
If you hit another
vehicle going that fast,
the likelihood
of a fatality is, it's there.
It's a very real possibility.
There was so much risk involved.
I'm catching up with him,
going Southbound.
While I was attempting
to catch up to the vehicle,
I just breathed and I told
myself to calm down, relax,
look around me,
be aware of my surroundings.
Sometimes they do try
to drive very recklessly
to try to get us to cancel chasing them.
We have to stop this driver
before they strike somebody head on.
The vehicle already had damage to it.
There are things falling off
of the car, so I had to avoid those.
There was a lot of dust.
We have a landfill
in our small country town,
and the trucks were
coming out at that time of day,
and there was a lot of dust.
And at one point, we were doing good
just to see each other's vehicles.
Pesting a bishop road,
vehicle's driving at medium
oncoming lanes.
The cars had to duck and weave
and go into opposite lanes
of travel themselves
to avoid being struck.
I got radio traffic.
Report, heading North, correction,
heading S outh on Roosevelt.
His speeds are going to be 139 mph.
I think the driver was honestly just
trying to get me to cancel the chase
and be very reckless.
But due to how clear
the roadway was and the traffic,
I was able to continue.
7176. Permission to PIT?
PIT maneuver is causing
a car accident to end a pursuit.
I was very excited to do the PI
because it was going to be my first one.
But I also had to assure
that I didn't hurt anybody else.
Take him out.
Set up the pit, right side.
Due to the suspect being
erratic and very reckless
I was not able to safely
do a successful PIT.
I wasn't upset or anything.
It just has to be right,
because I don't want
to mess up or injure anybody else.
He went on the opposite side of the road
and was traveling head-on into traffic.
The driver clearly does not care
about anyone or anything.
He's just trying
to get away from the police.
Radio, vehicle's gone off road
on the railroad tracks.
The vehicle's going up and down
causing extensive damage.
I thought the vehicle
was going to be disabled,
to which the driver
was going to be running on foot.
It's gonna be two occupied,
one male, one female.
At the moment, the only people in danger
are the people inside that stolen vehicle.
So I took the opportunity to shoot ahead
and block off traffic so no other
citizens would be in danger.
I'm over on the track.
- We need to drive over on the track.
- Over what?
How many units are there?
We got three on the road.
Left, turned left. They're
going to be 20 miles per hour.
And it's now going left.
Speed's at 85.
When the vehicle got back
on the roadway, I was stunned.
I did not think the vehicle
would be able to continue to drive.
It looked like at any
moment it could fall apart.
The next goal to stop the pursuit
was just wait for an opportunity
to safely conduct a PIT maneuver.
When you're going down a road like that,
it is very hard to set up a PIT maneuver
due to the windiness
of it, the narrowness of it.
Heading South on Gullatt.
Speeds are going to be 74 mph.
Speeds on those country roads
in those 35 miles per hour zones
would have been dangerous,
you wouldn't be able to see
oncoming traffic around those curves
while trying to execute that maneuver.
When you're going through a narrow road,
really at that moment, because
your reaction time is slimmer,
you really just try to keep
eyes on the suspect vehicle.
Any pursuit, we always
want to weigh the risk
compared to what you would call,
quote unquote, the reward.
Is this pursuit going to go
through school zones
or heavily traveled areas?
What's the traffic
situation like? Is it raining?
All that affects driving conditions
and will put not only the driver
or the general public in danger,
but it can put the officer
in danger as well.
Traffic is light.
Passing the road at the moment.
There was certainly
less traffic to worry about.
But now in place of the traffic,
we had to worry about sharp
curves and bends in the roadway,
slowing down our vehicles.
Obviously, they weren't slowing down.
They were still trying to get away.
So they were maintaining
a constant high rate of speed
while, us officers,
using due regard to make sure
we don't hurt ourselves or others
or lose control of our vehicles,
are having to slow down
while at the same time
trying to keep that line of sight on
them down these narrow roads.
When you're traveling at
approximately 70, 80 miles per hour,
you approach things
very quickly on the back roads.
Even with no traffic on those curves,
the slightest mistake in his driving,
he would have went off-road and could
have very well taken his own life.
And I was in the back.
I was in a Ford Explorer,
and they're a little bit slower
compared to the Dodge Chargers.
And my main thought at that time
was just keep them in sight.
Heading south on Gullatt. Speeds
are going to be 74 miles per hour.
Speeds are going to be 46.
Traffic is light.
I was going to attempt a PIT maneuver.
I thought the driver
was going to turn left.
Right, right on Thomas.
Right on Thomas, sir.
However, the driver
decided to take a right,
so I was unable to make contact.
- Copy. A right on Collinsworth.
- Take the pit.
Not successful. Continuing.
The initial contact
on the vehicle, it was not enough.
Unsuccessful.
West on Collinsworth.
Prepare for PIT!
I made contact with
the vehicle, spun the vehicle out.
The vehicle went into the ditch.
PIT successful!
Our goal is to make sure
they don't jump out
and take off running and get away on foot.
Give me your
fucking hands! Get out!
We know they were doing anything
to run away, so now you don't know
if they're going
to continue to fight with you.
Are they done? Are they
in need of medical assistance?
They're in custody.
I felt relieved. I felt good because
we got a suspect in custody.
Nobody harmed. Nobody hurt.
You can't get any better than that.