You’ve probably seen news stories about semi-trucks, tow trucks, and other people in big commercial vehicles helping police end a hot pursuit. We’re thinking this guy behind the wheel of a semi in Florida had also seen those news reports and decided he was going to be the hero as Florida Highway Patrol chased down a suspect in a Lexus IS. The only problem was he kind of made a mess of the situation.
Watch a Camaro use traffic against a pursuing cop.
The chase started after the suspect, Joshua McCray, and the woman who was initially driving the Lexus, Jennifer Odely, got into an argument while driving down the Florida Turnpike. Allegedly, McCray grabbed the steering wheel during the argument, swerving the car so hard that Odely hit her head and neck. She pulled over and tried running away from the Lexus with her backpack, which contained the key and her phone, but McCray wouldn’t let her, using a knife to get the backpack before he drove away. She suffered a cut to one of her fingers.
When FHP got the call about this, they knew they had a gun on the run who had a knife, maybe other weapons, stole a car, assaulted the woman he was with, and probably was willing to hurt other people to get away. So you can imagine troopers were ready to take this guy down hard, but he wasn’t giving up without a fight.
In the beginning of the dashcam footage, the Lexus isn’t going too fast and troopers are essentially tailing the suspect. More units join in the pursuit and they try boxing the suspect in, a technique we see FHP use often. Seeing the setup, the guy slips out at the last minute by driving onto the shoulder. Then the chase is really on.
Before troopers can set up a PIT, the chase happens upon a string of traffic. The suspect uses the other cars and drivers’ unwillingness to pull to the right immediately against FHP, amping up troopers’ frustration.
That’s when a semi-truck driver decides to help out as the Lexus passes his vehicle. Swerving to the left, he tries cutting off the path for the suspect but instead halts the progress of at least one trooper who has some choice words for the driver who should’ve remained a bystander.
Fortunately, other troopers blast around the rolling roadblock and are able to finally PIT the Lexus, bringing the pursuit to a close. We like that the truck driver was willing to help law enforcement, but for anyone who drives a commercial vehicle like this you need to remember one thing: if police are right up on a suspect, you need to just back off and let them do their job. He’s lucky no cruisers hit his truck since someone could’ve been seriously injured or worse.
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