guns blazing. february 15th, 1997, wilmington, ohio. state police trooper john harker is on highway patrol. with 11 years on the force s drug interdiction unit, harker has been involved in some of the riskiest and most high-profile arrests in the state. we worked in southwestern ohio with the intention of apprehending folks engaged in criminal activities, felony activities, drugs, stolen property, that type of enforcement. trooper harker s day starts like any other, with a traffic stop. he pulls over a driver going under the speed limit and whose 1977 blue chevy suburban is missing a front license plate. so i had to call the patrol post in wilmington and have a dispatcher run that. the license plate did match, at least the appearance of that vehicle, but that it was expired. but for now, this seems like it will be nothing more than a routine traffic stop.
good afternoon, gentlemen. a visual scan of the vehicle as i walked up appeared that they were doing construction. there were soiled jackets, and, you know, heavy garments to wear outside in the weather. do you have i.d. with you? no, sir, i don t. an expired license plate and no driver s license, or any i.d. for that matter, harker knows these factors can indicate criminal activity. but still, he s not jumping to conclusions. there are a lot of folks who have suspended licenses or who let their license expired who are not criminals. they re just forgetful. you got any registration with you? no, sir, i don t. i didn t want to be real aggressive with the gentleman in case he had a driver s license and we were just going to give him a warning. do you have any i.d. with you at all?
without warning, the driver makes a run for it, heading straight to his car. he reached around his shoulder blades and tried to pull him back from the vehicle. the officers have only seconds to react. that s when i saw a weapon coming across the back of the seat. gun, gun! gave a quick glance over to trooper harker as he was moving around and preparing to return fire. and that s when i put fire on him from the front of the vehicle. the passenger runs and deputy gates takes off after him. i started to chase after the passenger, but i didn t run full bore yet because i didn t know trooper harker s condition. freeze! the driver jumps in the truck and speeds off with harker still hanging on. after taking about three or four step after i got disengaged from the vehicle, i did fire a round to flatten a tire to impede his escape. meanwhile, the passenger has
a visual scan of the vehicle as i walked up appeared that they were doing construction. there were soiled jackets and heavy garments to wear outside in the weather. do you have i.d. with you? no, sir, i don t. an expired license plate and no driver s license or any i.d. for that matter, harker knows these factors can indicate criminal activity. but still he s not jumping to conclusions. there are a lot of folks who have suspended licenses who are not criminals. they re just forgetful. you got any registration with you? no, sir, i don t. i didn t want to be real aggressive with the gentleman in case he had a driver s license and we were just going to give him a warning. do you have any i.d. with you at all? i asked them why they were there, they said they were doing construction. they had been at the gun show in the chillicothe area. now he s getting suspicious,
february 15th, 1997, wilmington, ohio. state police trooper john harker is on highway patrol. with 11 years on the force s drug interdiction unit, harker has been involved in some of the riskiest and most high profile arrests in the state. we worked in southwestern ohio with the intention of apprehending folks engaged in criminal activities, felony activities, drugs, stolen property, that type of enforcement. trooper harker s day starts like any other, he pulls over a driver going under the speed limit and whose 1977 blue chevy suburban is missing a front license plate. so i had to call the patrol post in wilmington and have a dispatcher run that. the license plate did match, at least the appearance of that vehicle, but that it was expired. but for now this seems like it will be nothing more than a routine traffic stop. good afternoon, gentlemen.