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When performing any tactical vehicle intervention, law enforcement has to be on high alert. These types of situations carry an extreme amount of risk, not just because things can go wrong with a PIT but also because the suspect(s) might open fire or do something else incredibly dangerous. That’s exactly what happened in this situation in New Mexico from 2020.
Watch a suspect in a Dodge Charger speed right through a DUI checkpoint, leading police on a chase.
The dashcam footage, which was released this year, shows state police chasing down a black Honda Civic that’s displaying a stolen license plate. We jump into the video after one chase was called off due to risky conditions, then another chase began and one officer successfully spiked one of the passenger-side tires.
Even partially disabled, the suspect pushes the Civic to 83 mph as chunks of the deflated tire fly and hit the lead pursuit car. Police back off some and see what happens, but the suspect keeps on trucking like nothing is wrong.
That’s when the lead state officer goes in for a PIT, which at high speeds is even riskier. The suspect starts swerving, probably in an attempt to frustrate the PIT maneuver, but it seems he only made the outcome worse as the Civic rolls.
Upside down and cornered, the guy sticks a handgun out of the driver’s window and fires a round at the officer who returns fire several times. Why the suspect didn’t shoot more isn’t explained, but they do see blood coming from the car, indicating he was likely hit by the return fire.
Getting the guy out of the overturned car is extra dangerous since he might be waiting to ambush anyone foolish enough to help him. Being a cop sure seems like a great job, especially with people blaming you for everything criminals do wrong.
They were able to get the guy out and arrest him. He was 31-year-old Jeramiah Medina and had violated his parole, which was probably why he decided to run instead of pulling over. Apparently, he didn’t want to go back to jail so badly he was willing to die instead. Even though he was taken to a hospital, he got that wish.
This is why cops are on edge a lot of the time. While this was a high-risk situation, even when things are calm someone might start shooting at them or do something else crazy.
Unfortunately, YouTube decided to age restrict the video, meaning you have to watch it on YouTube after going through the consent script. Normally we’d embed it but you can’t do that with age restricted videos.
If you want to see this PIT and gunfight play out, click here.
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