Intervening in a police chase

[Shawn Christ]

Last night after work I was walking out of a local big box store and noticed two police officers standing outside near the door, just waiting. I assumed they were on a call for theft. As I was leaving I drove my car toward them and a young man walked out of the store entrance, saw the officers, and without hesitation took off running right at me. The "alleged" ran behind my car and the officers had to go around me as I was rolling to a stop. Unfortunately I was blocking their path and slowed them down as they took chase. The guy was fast, ran across the parking lot and the officers couldn't catch up. Extremely curious, and feeling guilty for getting in the way, I drove to the end of the parking lot to watch. Soon six squad cars were on the scene but the guy was still running, crossed a 4-lane expressway, and was out of sight.

I posted what I saw on Facebook and three other friends chimed in, they also witnessed the altercation. It seems the guy ran quite some distance, crossed another street and, oddly enough, ran up to my friend's window at a credit union where he was surrounded by officers and arrested. Thankfully they caught him.

As I saw the guy running and the officers unable to catch him, I had this feeling I should have intervened. Or still had an opportunity to intervene. But I know I shouldn't and I'm glad I didn't. I'm curious if anyone else has been involved in a similar incident and if you actually intervened to help the police, either by choice or by coincidence.

[David Falkner]

Haven't been in that situation - yet. Sounds like that young man's running skills could have been put to better use in sports, though.

[Pat Barry]

What were you planning on doing, running him down with your car? I think your natural instincts to leave the situation alone makes the most sense. Who knows what danger you might've place yourself into.

[glenn bradley]

Real life moves a lot faster than T.V. I get that you have thoughts about what you could have done to help or how you might have gotten out of the way faster. I think you did just right; slowed to a stop and remained as predictable as possible so that the officers could get past safely. Hindsight is always interesting and can occupy us in different ways but, I think ya done good ;-)

[Erik Loza]

My brother, who is a deputy sherriff, would probably say, "Be a good witness".

Erik Loza
Minimax

[Wade Lippman]

I have been in similar situations and find it takes 2 seconds to really understand what is going on. By then it is way too late to react, even if you wanted to. And actually helping would have been the wrong move, unless you were trained for it.

[Dan Hunkele]

If you ran him down with the car you would have been sued for his injuries.

[Myk Rian]

Intervening? Heck no. Where did you get that idea?

[Phil Thien]

I agree w/ what has been said above, which is basically to stay out of the way as much as possible.

I think the exception is if you find a police officer actually in distress. In that case, I think stepping-in is the thing to do, until the office has gained the advantage.

[Rich Engelhardt]

My brother, who is a deputy sherriff, would probably say, "Be a good witness".

There's your answer.

[Shawn Christ]

I completely agree with everything that has been said. I should also clarify I'm not questioning or second-guessing my decision to not act. I'm wondering what other stories are out there. Who else has found themselves in the middle of a chase and what happened?

[Pat Barry]

About a year ago, maybe two (bad memory), the car ahead of me in the left lane made a quick move into the right lane just before the intersection to pass a car who was waiting for oncoming traffic in order to turn. Before I really new what was happening, although I was conscious enough to slow down, the car that pulled over into my lane was hit in the drivers door by an oncoming car that turned into our lanes (crossing in front of us left to right). I stopped because of the accident to make sure everyone was alright. The guy who got hit asked me to wait for the cops to tell them what I saw. I felt so stupid because in my own mind I don't know who was at fault here, if anyone. It was an accident. I felt like I really should have seen this coming, maybe thats why I slowed down a bit, but nothing really registered with me. Now I can see why people are really poor eyewitnesses.

[Phil Thien]

I completely agree with everything that has been said. I should also clarify I'm not questioning or second-guessing my decision to not act. I'm wondering what other stories are out there. Who else has found themselves in the middle of a chase and what happened?

When I as attending college I was leaving the bookstore one day and saw that the security guard (just another college student) had a guy in a wrestling hold. Probably a shoplifter, I figured. An accomplice was punching the security guard in the back. It didn't look pleasant.

I figured some other male employee of the bookstore would come to the rescue, so I just sort of watched as I finished my transaction. And during that time the only other male employee I could see actually walked at high speed in the opposite direction.

So after buying whatever it was that I wanted, I pulled the accomplice off the security guard and tossed him up against some lockers. He tried to get to the guard a couple more times and I just pulled him off. I didn't hit him or anything, though the 2nd time I pushed him into the lockers it was pretty hard and he fell.

After a minute or two of this, the accomplice started to run but by that time, the campus police were descending on the place and got the guy and brought him back in.

I quietly excused myself and went home. Later that day my brother returned home and I was explaining what happened and my brother laughed and told me the security guard was a friend of his from high school and had also related the story, but had no idea who I was or why I helped.

What a small world.

[Lee Schierer]

It doesn't sound like you gave the police your contact information. They may need you at a future date to identify the guy that they eventually arrest as the one you saw running from the store. If they don't have your information you should give it to them. We all are responsible to stop crime by being willing witnesses.

[Shawn Christ]

It doesn't sound like you gave the police your contact information. They may need you at a future date to identify the guy that they eventually arrest as the one you saw running from the store. If they don't have your information you should give it to them. We all are responsible to stop crime by being willing witnesses.

They got him. He was caught and arrested after a long pursuit .