leaping nearly four feet in the air, thomas attacks officer whit. mr. thomas clearly resecures his pants and moves back to get himself in position go over the counter. so it was clearly thought about. it wasn t like it was something that just happened. officer whitt fends off his assailant and slams him down on the floor. he pushes his hands forward to try to stop the attack. there s a pretty intense struggle. there s absolutely no way i would want to encounter officer whit. just his size alone, his stature is intimidating. officer whit is probably the biggest officer we have on the department. he s around 6 6, at least 300 pounds. at first anthony thomas, 6 2, 180 pounds, seems outmatched, but it s only a matter of seconds before he springs up and overpowers the officer. thomas was trying to get officer whit in it looks like a choke hold. officer whit is able to push away from that. you see officer whit go to the phone trying to call for help.
kind of medical distress. she immediately got on the radio and said an officer needs help in the jail. meanwhile, thomas pours on the pressure. he grabs the officer s neck and applies a stranglehold. i am sure to officer whit it seemed like a lifetime for backup to arrive. because that s what it is. seconds seem like hours. when you fight somebody straight for 30 seconds, it takes all your energy away. officer whit fought this guy for a minute and five seconds straight. just when it seems like thomas might suffocate him, officer whit summons a reserve of strength. officer whit s hands are on thomas neck. you can see thomas slowly starting to lose the fight. in a situation where a policeman or anybody is fighting for their life, deadly force is justified. after whit regains control, almost 30 seconds pass before backup finally arrives. the officer lets go, but thomas continues to struggle. once on the ground, mr. thomas didn t give up. trying to handcuff somebody who
police are called to the house of 29-year-old anthony thomas whose girlfriend calls 911 after a fight. officer william whit arrests thomas when he realizes he has an outstanding warrant for contempt of court. thomas doesn t resist, and the drive back to the station is uneventful, except for one brief exchange. at some point in that time frame, mr. thomas made the comment, i can smell the fear in you. officer whit s reply was something like i m not afraid of you. whit, a 17-year veteran with the p.d. doesn t think much of the comment. it s not uncommon for somebody that we re going to arrest to act tough and want to say things while they re in handcuffs. when you take the handcuffs off them like you would do in the booking area, they rarely ever follow through with anything. after removing the cuffs, officer whit moves behind the counter to finish booking the suspect. what happens next catches whit off guard. he jumped over the counter right at officer whit.
myer walks the defeated captive back to the courthouse. but nobody at the sheriff s office seems to notice their missing prisoners. they were surprised. i said, you guys want your prisoner back? and they looked at me like they didn t know what was going on. they didn t know there was an attempted escape. at the same time officer morris chases mobley across a busy street and corners her at the edge of the freeway where she s hiding in the bushes. i m not sure what she was trying to do because from this point on there s nowhere to go. it takes 15 minutes for sheriff s deputies to show up to reclaim their prisoner whose back is broken from the failed escape. for his efforts terry myer receives an award. while morris gets a thrill from the chase. i had been a homicide detective for about 15 years and i had not had to chase anybody for at least ten years. this was almost like being a young officer again.
vicious attack on an officer. this guy believed that if he went out those doors, he was going to be killed. pinal county, arizona. just 70 miles from the u.s.-mexico border, in addition to combatting local crimes, pinal county and its sheriff paul babeu face a growing and deadly threat. cocaine, black tar heroin, and black amphetamine, very dangerous drugs. me and my deputies and all the local officers are on the front lines of this drug war. and on april 17th, 2011, babeu says the ripple effects of that drug war find their way to the front steps of his jail in florence. 26-year-old alejandro guerrero is about to be released after being arrested for an outstanding warrant. he has been in and out of arizona correctional facilities for about four years. he is a violent offender. this is a guy who has been convicted of aggravated assault,