February 7,2006, I was working evenings that day as we are scheduled to work evenings every six weeks. I grabbed some cases and headed out of the office to see what I could find to get into. Lt. Keough was my on call Supervisor and I loved working with him and for him. I told him as I walked out that if he needed me, just call me. As I drove through the west part of the county I heard on the radio as I scanned all the channels that they had an Aggravated Domestic Assault on the east side of the county. The suspect had fled on foot when the first deputy arrived and they were setting a perimeter to use the k-9 dog to track. I slowly headed that way just incase they needed some extra help. I was dressed in nice dress pants a long sleeve shirt and a tie. I always tried to dress nice while at work because it just looked professional. Some guys in the office refused to wear a shirt and tie unless they had too, but not me I loved it.
When I got to the area where the crime happened and the suspect had ran from it had been almost thirty minutes. I saw a slick top (car with no light bar) parked in an old abandoned store parking lot. I pulled up in my beautiful Blue Chevy Impala that screamed cop car all over it. Sgt. Joel Perez was sitting there in his slick top just listening to his guys run around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. Joel and I were zone partners when I worked E30 in patrol as he was the day shift unit that I relieved. Joel was a great man, but kind of lost his mind when he got promoted but that happens a lot. After listening to Joel and what had happened I told him that the suspect was outside of the perimeter that they had set up. I told him he needed to expand the perimeter, but he insisted that the perimeter was fine. I told Joel to have a good evening and I drove off.
Now I had taught perimeter control at agency specifics to the new deputies and I could clearly tell if thirty minutes had passed and K-9 hadn’t located him he’s either outside the perimeter or in a car way far away. I sat at the intersection of 45th street east and SR 70 which was the eastern part of their perimeter. I saw that there was a lot of cars at the softball fields so I had a description of the guy so I thought I would drive through and see if I saw anyone suspicious. As I drove through the park and the fields I didn’t have my lights on or anything. I saw this guy come running toward my car he was one of the players from the game and he was waiving his arms at me. I got out of the car and walked to the fence. He asked me if we were looking for a white male wearing blue jean shorts and no shirt and bald. Well it was exactly what we were looking for except the shirt he had taken it off I guess while he ran. The guy told me he saw him about 5 minutes ago running along the wood line towards the river. I thanked the guy and got back into my car and slowly drove that way.
I didn’t call anything in on the radio yet I just wanted to see for myself if I could see him and give a location myself. This way I could set the perimeter on top of this guy. As I sat at the intersection of Natalie Way and SR 70 the river was about two hundred yards to my left. I sat there with my window down listening because it was all thick brush and palmetto brush through there. Sure enough wouldn’t you know it I heard a lot of commotion coming from the wooded area, and it was coming at me. The only problem was there was an eight foot high chain linked fence between where I was at and where he may be at. Out of the thickness of the brush he appeared right at the fence line. As soon as I saw him I called in my location to dispatch. I knew it was a far shot but when he saw my car he stopped. I exited the car and challenged him at gun point to get on the ground knowing he wasn’t going to listen. Sure enough I was right he took off and I went right over the fence after him. The only down fall was the top of the fence when I put my hand on it to get over went about an inch into my hand.
My adrenaline was rushing so much that I didn’t even feel it except for a pinch. I ran into the bushes seeing that there were paths back there I could see brush moving ahead of me and I knew we were getting close to the river I started to walk incase he was expecting me to run in and try to ambush me. Just about that time I heard a big splash. I turned around and ran back to my car calling it out over the radio that the suspect had jumped in the river. When I got to my car I drove over to the bridge that crossed the river where there were around 6 deputies just standing up there watching the suspect swim down the river. I asked them if they were just going to stand there and watch him swim away and they all just looked at me. I ran down the embankment under the bridge and started walking the shore line until I had no choice to get in the water myself. I had a gun radio and hand cuff on me and my badge that was it. I radioed to dispatch that I was in the river with the suspect. I could hear a K-9 officer to my right yelling to me that he was coming to me but couldn’t get over the fence with his dog. The water was starting to get deeper as it was over my knees and coming up to my waist. I kept walking and the suspect was in the middle of the river swimming and I could tell he was getting tired and he started swimming toward the bank. Soon I was waist deep and only fifty yards from the suspect. I took my gun and radio off and threw it on the bank in a little opening patch. I then pulled my cuffs out and started walking down the suspect. When I got about twenty yards from the suspect he stopped and faced me and started punching his fist into his hand and was begging me to come after him.
I started telling the suspect that when I got to him I was going to drown him if he tried to fight with me. I must of had the sincere look of doing so on my face because he changed his demeanor. When I was telling him to turn away from me and put his hands behind his back the most beautiful noise came from the woods. It was a barking 100 lb Sheppard with sharp teeth and his owner. I handcuffed the suspect in the river and he started running his mouth as they usually did. As I was walking him out of the river I tripped on something and the suspect fell forward under the water for about five seconds. I stood him back on his feet and asked him if he was ok? He started screaming that I was trying to kill him. I looked up on the bank and the K-9 handler was just smiling shaking his head. I walked him out to where everyone else was at and they just stood there looking at me Captains, Lieutenants, Sergeants, and deputies. I just looked at them and said “I’m glad CID could catch your suspect for you”
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