The Fence - Dick Lehr [62]
Mike knew the numbers favored the cops. “It was such a long, long chase, and I knew there were several officers behind us, so I felt pretty good about being able to catch these people.” For Mike, this was the moment—what being a cop was all about, split-second action, his life on the line and the public’s safety at stake. The men in the Lexus, he said, “had shot someone—that certainly makes you want to catch them.”
The four doors of the Lexus popped open even before the car came to a stop. Craig wanted to trap the driver inside, so he steered the Crown Victoria cruiser to the left side of the Lexus. Craig slammed on the brakes. Mike pushed open his door. It hit the Lexus. The two cars were that close. Tiny Evans jumped out from behind the steering wheel while the Lexus was still rolling. He ran around the front of Mike and Craig’s cruiser toward one of the housing units on the left side of the dead end.
Ian Daley began braking directly behind the Lexus, while Dave Williams went to the right to complete boxing the Lexus in. But he skidded on an ice patch and lost control of the car. The cruiser scraped the two open doors on the right side of the Lexus and then smashed into a steel pylon.
Boogie-Down jumped out from the right side. He’d taken only a few steps when he was knocked down by the skidding cruiser. In front of Boogie-Down, Marquis met the same fate. Marquis jumped out, but when he put his feet on the ground, “I was hit immediately.” The two, scraped and bruised, began crawling on their stomachs across the asphalt between their car and the police cruiser.
Behind them, Smut Brown had scrambled across the backseat to follow Boogie-Down out of the car when he saw the skidding cruiser hit his two friends. “They like disappeared,” he said. Boogie-Down and Marquis had been in front of him and then, in a flash, they were gone. “My mind was racing so fast that I know I seen them there, then after that I didn’t see them anymore.” Smut was on his own. “I thought Boogie-Down was dead, to tell you the truth.” He eyed the fence erected along the right side of the cul-desac. He hit the ground running. “I ran straight towards the fence.”
Mike pushed the car door hard into the Lexus, trying to make enough room to get out. He’d seen Craig leap out of the car and race after the driver off to the left, but lost sight of them. The security guard in the backseat, Charles Bullard, also headed that way. Craig, in a matter of seconds, caught up to Tiny Evans. Tiny had stopped and raised his hands. Craig hit him in the face with his fist. “I ran up to him, I punched him. And I grabbed him by his arm, turned him around, twisted his arm behind his back.”
In the other direction, Mike saw the front and back doors of the Lexus pop open. He watched the other suspects scrambling out of the passenger side. He thought he saw two of them heading toward the fence off to the right. He twisted his body, thickened by his clothing—the black sweatshirt and the three-quarter-length black parka.
Squeezing his way out, Mike ran behind the Lexus. The sound of screeching wheels caught his attention. He hesitated and looked back to see police cruisers braking to a halt. “I kind of glanced up to make sure it wasn’t going to hit me.” One cruiser skidded along the right side of the Lexus. Police sirens blasted and cruiser lights sliced up the night, and Mike thought the sight of the cruisers flooding into the dead end was a good thing. “There was more help coming.”
As he ran behind the Lexus, he looked inside. “I could see the doors to the Lexus were wide open and I could see inside the car