Things they are a happening in our neck of the woods, and in our sons’ neck of the woods.

Ken will be bringing up the fruits of his summer and fall labor and sharing it with us – we buy it, we don’t expect them to give it to us.

Steven, Celinda and CeeCee will be visiting a small church on Sunday to meet the congregation.  Prayers will be much appreciated that the Lord will guide all concerned.

The day was nice today, sunshine and not too cold for a fall day.

I don’t hunt any longer, but I do remember the enjoyment of hunting with friends and sharing the splendor of God’s forests as we tracked the deer.

It has been a while since I could do some hiking in the forests, but I think my body is getting there!

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Chapter 12

SECOND CHASE

          Sunday nights in The Dalles are normally very quiet and uneventful.  That is just the way that night started.  There were four of us on duty, I was the PFC and in charge of the shift.  Danny was working the town area, driving a Ford Torino, a marked patrol unit with overhead lights.  Jim was working the east hill also driving a marked Torino with overhead lights and I had a two week probationer, with me.  The new officer and I had the west hill area; I was driving the supervisor’s car, an unmarked Ford LTD with a slick top. 

    There were very few vehicles out and around.  All three units were doing security checks of businesses, schools and churches and for the most part had checked all within our areas.

    It was sop to be in the downtown area near the bars at around 0230.  It tended to keep things quiet and most drunks would look for another way home.  If there were fights, and that did happen frequently, at least we had backup to break them up.  However, this night was quiet and we headed out to our areas to spot check them early on.

    It was shortly after 0230 when Dennis stopped a Washington plated car.  He called it in and his location was on 3^rd St (one way east bound) near the First National Bank.  The Rookie and I were on the east end, about two miles away.  We started that way to back him up and assist if it was a DUII. 

    As Danny walked up to the driver, the driver waited until he got to the door and then took off, east on 3^rd, heading our way and out of town.  3^rd street merges back onto 2^nd street a few blocks from the stop.  Danny immediately hopped into his vehicle and radioed it in.  There were three people in the front seat of a mid-60’s Chevy and they were running hard.  The dispatcher had run a check on the tags when Dennis stopped the car, she told him it was not in the computer as stolen.  It belonged to someone in the Vancouver, WA area, about 80 miles west of us. 

    Rookie and I came in on 2^nd Street heading west.  We were in a curve when the car came around at a high speed and almost nailed us head on.  Danny was hot on their tail.

    I whipped the patrol car around and started following them.  They headed south on 197 towards South County.  At the intersection of 2^nd St and Highway 197, about mile post 1, I pulled over and dropped The Rookie off, Jim was not too far behind us and I told him to pick Scott up and to stay in town.  I didn’t want to leave the town unprotected, and Rookie had proven to have good instincts and would be a good backup.  It was not unusual to have family beefs after bar closing and I didn’t want Jim to be by himself.

    I then floor boarded it and headed south.  I told the dispatcher that we would be heading south and would be going onto County’s Frequency.  I then told Danny to switch over to county and I would do the radio work, he could concentrate on driving and keeping both hands on the wheel. 

The suspect slowed down somewhat and Danny tried to pass him, as he did so the suspect swerved the car over trying to hit him.   Danny had to swerve and back off. 

This was a dangerous driver, but, one who obviously didn’t know anything about the territory.  I told Danny to back off and just keep him going, we would run him out of gas.

    Meanwhile, I told the dispatcher to call the Assistant Chief and let him know what we were doing; to contact the Sheriff’s Office and let them know what was happening; and when she had time call the registered owner to see if the car was stolen. 

I also wanted a location on the Sheriff’s deputy.  Both Danny and I then switched over to county’s frequency and headed south.  Between The Dalles and Madras – 100 miles south of us – there are only a couple of small communities, neither of which had any gas stations or any other business open.

There are several side roads, but, these guys were keeping to the highway.  There was basically nothing but highway ahead of us, a highway with a lot of curves and hills.

    The deputy on duty was in South County.  He was south of Maupin, one of the two communities and about 45 miles south of The Dalles.  The south county resident deputy was contacted by the Sheriff’s Dispatcher. 

He lived in Wamic, about 8 miles from Highway 197.  The intersection he would be coming on was about 35 miles south of The Dalles.  He had been off duty and asleep, but, was out the door in a matter of a very few minutes.

    It was the first of March.  We had had a heavy snowfall early in the year, but, there was no snow on the road.  There was however, a lot of sand, particularly in the center of the road. 

The suspect would drive over this, sending a sand storm behind him.  He was trying everything from going slow to get Danny to come up alongside him, to this tactic, to going as fast as any of our cars could go, well over 100 – 120 miles an hour.  We just stayed behind and let him run.

    Just as we were going past Dufur, at about mile post 15, the resident deputy radioed that he was leaving his house and would be at 197 in 5 – 7 minutes.  

There is a steep and curvy hill between his house and the highway; the curves were 25 mph and there would be frost on the road, he would have to be very careful coming down the hill to 197.  

We knew that in a few miles/minutes we would lose radio contact for about 4 miles.  Couldn’t help it.  We would be going down Tygh Grade and out of radio range. 

We would pick it up again at the bottom.  Just as we reached the bottom, the dispatcher radioed that they had contact with the registered owner, the car was stolen.  The deputy radioed that he was entering the intersection and could see our lights. 

He then headed south on 197, flooring it, with red and blue lights a flashing.  He radioed that he would try a rolling road block.  A tactic seldom used, but, on narrow streets or roads it can be effective.  Basically the Deputy would straddle the center line and then start slowing down, not allowing the suspect to pass. 

Eventually the theory is to get the suspect stopped by blocking them in between cars and the edge of the highway.  However, at the point the deputy would encounter the suspect the road was three lanes wide (center lane is a turn lane) with wide shoulders.

    We were moving.  We were doing at least 120 mph coming down that hill.  I told the deputy to “watch out and be careful”, if the suspect car rear ended him at that speed we would have dead suspects and worse a dead or seriously injured deputy. 

Later the deputy told us he figured he was doing about 80 miles an hour when they passed him.  He saw them coming on and stayed in his own lane.  As they passed him they veered over a bit and side swiped him in an attempt to force him off the road.  They didn’t even slow down. 

Both cars careened a bit, but, the deputy was well in control and the suspect, who almost lost it, just kept a running.  The driver was actually pretty good.  We found out later that he had done this several times, and he was only 16.

    The second deputy was still south of Maupin heading north.  The suspect vehicle just ran all out now.  We headed up the other side of Tygh Grade and somehow continue to make it around the 40 and 45 mph curves without incident.  Our intention was still to run them out of gas.  I told both Danny and the deputy to stay back, we didn’t need an accident.*     

We headed across Juniper Flats, a straight stretch of about 3 miles still running well in excess of 100 mph.  We were getting to the top of the hill that leads down to Maupin.  The curves on the downhill side were 25 and 30 mph curves.

The driver of the stolen car had no idea what was about to happen and he continued well in excess of 100 mph.

On the left side was the side of the hill the road was cut out of, on the right side was the ravine that went down several hundred feet.  We slowed down, the suspect didn’t. 

The first curve was a 25 mph one.  He didn’t make it.  He headed straight out; off the pavement through the air, landing several yards downhill.  The car rolled at least three times. 

    The highway was slick from frost forming and from the sand.  We all managed to get to the side of the road safely.  The first deputy radioed, “Art, you better get down there, you are the EMT.”  We all figured we had a serious injury or two or three, if not a fatality. 

As I headed down I kept thinking that I wish I had the book with me.  While I had been taking EMT training, we were still IN training and I had not as of yet encountered anything like this accident would be. 

I gotta admit I was a bit nervous about what I would find.

Fortunately, I knew Maupin had a good crew of ambulance volunteers, and we had a call out to them.  I was taking EMT classes with many of them, but, they had a lot more experience and were very dedicated. 

I said for years after I took the class with them, full-time firemen from The Dalles Fire Dept. as well as several other volunteers from local communities – that if I was ever injured, person for person I would rather have it happen in Maupin.  EVERY ONE of those volunteers was serious about the job.  As opposed to just some from the other units.

    I was the first to the car.  There was NO ONE in the car.  All three occupants were gone.  We started looking, figuring they had been thrown out, but, couldn’t find anyone.  We were still a couple of miles from Maupin and there were no lights.

We had been on the road for 23 minutes…..you do the math, it is 45 miles.  The only thing the suspects could look forward to was the rocks, sagebrush and sand of the desert.  And they didn’t know where they were – however, there were plenty of hiding places. 

From experience we knew that most suspects run a short distance and then go to ground.  We did not know if anyone was injured, and if they were how badly they might be hurt.  I didn’t see any blood in the car.

 We looked for quite a while.  He had a deputy go to the east end of the ravine these guys had wrecked into, had the local volunteer ambulance standing by and we broadcast over the PA system that they should come up and get assistance.  After about an hour I decided to head back to The Dalles. 

Danny asked if he could stay.  I got permission from the Assistant Chief.  They had a parameter set up between the three law enforcement officers, where any movement, once it got light, could be detected.

    Danny said his car wasn’t running very well; as a matter of fact he couldn’t keep it running unless he kept it at a high RPM.  When the suspect hit the sand, it blew it back onto the car. 

There was no paint left on the front of the car – it had to be repainted.  The window was pitted and had to be replaced.  The overhead light bar was also pitted.  We decided I would take it back and leave him with the unmarked unit.

    As I started to get into the car, I noticed an apple across the highway on the shoulder of the road.  I walked over and picked it up.  It had frost on top of it and dry ground under it.  I was sick. 

I called over to Danny and told him we had been looking in the wrong direction.  Somehow they got around us and ran back across the road.  Danny got a sheepish look on his face. 

He said, “That’s my apple.”  It was such a dead night he figured we would probably get together in the office for a while.  So, he stopped off at his house and got four apples for all of us.  He said he had placed them on the front seat and had to fight them the entire way as they bounced around under his feet.  When he got out of the car he must have kicked it and it went across the road.

    I left the deputies, Danny and the ambulance and headed north.  Danny was right, RPM’s had to be up or the car wouldn’t run.  I couldn’t keep it running below 15 mph.  When I got into The Dalles I just coasted it to a parking space in front of the Police Building.  Turned out we had an air filter full of sand; fortunately we didn’t do any damage to the car.

    It started getting light about 0600 - 0630.  Danny was sitting in the car with the engine running when he saw three young men coming up out of the ravine, up from the wreck. 

The young men headed towards his car….they didn’t realize it was a police car; they saw it and were going to try and get a ride.  Danny called to the deputies on the radio and then drew down on the suspects.  They got their ride, back to The Dalles to the Wasco County Juvenile Facility.

    The EMT’s were still on the scene and checked them out.  There were no serious injuries.  All three were very cold, stiff and banged up. 

When they were fleeing they hadn’t been wearing seat belts, but, were pretty well locked in, shoulder to shoulder, when they went over – we figured being packed in like that probably helped keep them “safe.” 

After the car settled, they had climbed out and ran down the hill a piece and hid behind some rocks.  

They had escaped from a boys’ home up near Seattle, WA Sunday night, stolen a car and headed to Vancouver.  The stolen car was low on gas, so they went into a neighborhood, one of them was familiar with, and stole the Chevy.

    They came off the freeway into The Dalles needing gas.  Not knowing the area they didn’t find the service stations that were open yet, but, were still looking when Danny pulled them over.

    We turned in our reports.  I wrote mine after getting back to The Dalles and Danny wrote part of his while waiting at the top of the curves.  He finished it the next shift.

    It was an exciting night after all.  We got the bad guys.  None of us got hurt.  However, while we did not know it then, this was just the second of three chases we were to have in that one week.  The next one was very different…..sort of…..there were some similarities.

    Just a few comments on Police chases:

The officers in the immediate cars in a chase can get consumed by adrenalin….the red lights and sirens, excitement of the chase, not to mention the speed just naturally is exciting, add to this the fact they are ticked off that this jerk is running from THEM, a law enforcement officer. 

They get themselves more excited by having to shout into the mike over the siren.  Because they are in a high speed pursuit, even though they know the hazards and are concerned about other factors, they can have tunnel vision, focusing on the suspect vehicle and not rationally considering the other factors….they don’t have the physical time to do that. 

They WANT that suspect and are bound and determined the suspect does not get away.  In addition, in this pursuit, this suspect had actually tried to injure the deputy and officer in his attempt to elude them. 

I found early on (both by experience and training,) and through the years most departments have developed policies that reflect this thought, that a person not as close to the eluding vehicle is more able to evaluate the total circumstances (why is the car eluding, how fast they are traveling, where is the chase – city streets vs county roads, what the road surface is like, what other traffic is on the road, the time of the day, etc.)  – and can make better decisions concerning the continuing of the pursuit and other safety measures. 

That person can also help calm down the pursuing officers by calmly talking on the radio (but NOT interfering with the need for the pursuing officers to use the radio to keep others informed of their location, etc.)  A calm voice over the radio can be like a hand gently laid on the shoulder of an excited person, letting them know that all is okay.  Someone is in charge.  They can focus on the driving.

It is important to keep as calm as possible in these situations.  Some last only seconds, others can last several minutes, even hours.

Copyright November 17, 2017 Art Labrousse

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Psalm 119:105  KJV  “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”

We have an amazing God.  His Word is so uplifting and so soothing that even in difficult times, it helps us.

We may read a scripture several times, but when we need that verse(s) the most He brings it to our attention, and it takes on a whole new meaning.

It becomes just the right verse at the right time.

Later, Art (-: