We’ve said it many times before, but it bears repeating: so many cops think they’re car experts, but they can’t correctly identify vehicle makes and models. We see this play out over and over. Sometimes these mix-ups result in huge mistakes.
A crabbing Dodge Charger has completely freaked people out.
This incident in New Mexico started when a plate reader got a hit on a murder suspect out of Colorado. The guy apparently shot several of his neighbors over a property line dispute, then took off in his Dodge Ram with a camper shell.
New Mexico State Police and the US Marshals Service teamed up to tail the suspect in unmarked vehicles. They also set up several Stop Stick traps on the interstate. But a few problems crop up, with the first set of cops not springing the trap because of miscommunication about the suspect’s location and the location of the Stop Sticks.
It gets even worse when the suspect swerves around the second trap – or was that an innocent bystander? Police start to argue about whether the murder suspect is in a Dodge Ram or a Chevy Silverado. It’s intense and a moment when we just facepalmed and also laughed. We’ve seen this sort of thing before.
Thankfully they sort that out before the third Stop Stick attempt, which turns out to be successful. They could’ve spiked the wrong truck’s tires and maybe even held an innocent driver at gunpoint – we’ve seen that kind of mistake many times before.
Instead, they get a good stick on the murder suspect’s tires and perform the traffic stop without incident. That’s incredible considering the guy allegedly murdered three people in cold blood and left his fourth victim in critical condition.
Check out the footage for yourself.
Image via Midwest Safety/YouTube
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