The suspects know.
The officers know.
Dispatch knows.
The person pulling out of a driveway does not.
A woman crossing the street does not.
A driver approaching an intersection on a green light does not.
They are participating in normal traffic while another vehicle has abandoned every expectation of normal driving.
For police, the shooting changed the pursuit calculation significantly.
Many police departments have restrictive chase policies.
A vehicle fleeing because of a minor traffic violation may not justify a long pursuit through crowded streets.
The risk created by the chase can become greater than the original reason for the stop.
But this was not a minor violation.
Police were potentially chasing people who had just participated in a shooting that left an elderly woman with a gunshot wound to the neck.
If the suspects escaped, officers had to consider what could happen next.
Were they still armed?
Could they shoot at police?
Could they shoot at someone else?
Would they abandon the car and disappear into a neighborhood?
Would they commit another carjacking?
Would they take hostages?
No officer could know.
The stolen vehicle moved faster.
Police vehicles followed at a distance that allowed officers to react but still maintain visual contact.
Radio traffic became constant.
Location.
Direction.
Speed.
Turns.
Other units moving into position.
This is a part of police pursuits civilians rarely appreciate.
The officer behind the suspect cannot simply stare at the fleeing car.
He has to drive at high speed while processing information continuously.
Watch the suspect.
Watch cross traffic.
Watch pedestrians.
Monitor the radio.
Tell dispatch where you are.
Remember what road is coming next.
Look for other police vehicles entering the chase.
Anticipate whether the suspect will turn.
Listen for information about weapons.
And prepare for what will happen if the vehicle suddenly stops.
All of that is happening while the landscape moves past at highway speed.
The driver of the stolen car had fewer responsibilities.
His objective was simply escape.
That imbalance makes a desperate suspect extremely dangerous.
He can devote his attention to running.
The police have to run after him without becoming another source of danger.
The chase continued.
At some point officers decided the situation justified more aggressive intervention.
A PIT maneuver became an option.
A PIT, or Precision Immobilization Technique, is designed to turn a fleeing vehicle and force it to stop.
It can be extremely effective.
It can also be dangerous.
Not every department allows it.
Some departments limit the speeds at which officers can attempt it.
Some restrict where it can be performed.
Traffic.
Road width.
Pedestrians.
Vehicle type.
All of those matter.
But police were not dealing with people suspected of stealing a bag from a store.
They believed they could be dealing with the people responsible for a major shooting.
The longer the pursuit continued, the more chances the suspects had to crash into an innocent driver.
At some point, officers have to balance the danger of intervention against the danger of doing nothing.
The source indicates a PIT maneuver was used.
The stolen car lost control.
The pursuit on four wheels was ending.
But the suspects were not finished running.
As the vehicle stopped near a bridge, doors opened.
People bailed out.
Officers shouted.
Then something happened that transformed an already unusual chase into an even more difficult search.
Two of the suspects jumped from the bridge.
Straight toward the water below.
There are moments during police pursuits when the decisions made by fleeing suspects stop looking strategic and become pure desperation.
Jumping from a bridge is one of those moments.
A suspect has no guarantee of what is beneath him.
Water depth can be deceptive.
Currents can be stronger than they appear.
There may be rocks.
Pylons.
Debris.
The fall itself can cause serious injury.
Even if the suspect reaches the water safely, wet clothing becomes heavy.
Shoes make swimming harder.
Adrenaline can disappear quickly.
And the police do not vanish because the suspect touched water.
Now the officers simply have a different problem.
They need a boat.
On the bridge, police tried to track where the men had gone.
Below, water and vegetation made visual contact difficult.
One suspect disappeared toward brush near the pylons.
Another was believed to be somewhere in or near the water.
Officers shouted directions.
They tried to keep a bird's-eye view from above.
But a patrol cruiser cannot chase someone through a river.
The search had to adapt immediately.
One officer found a solution.
Use a civilian boat.
The source footage shows what appears to be law enforcement effectively obtaining help from a civilian boat operator so officers can get onto the water.
There is something almost surreal about the transition.
Minutes earlier, the officer is participating in a vehicle pursuit.
Now he is climbing into someone else's boat because an armed felony suspect has jumped off a bridge.
That is police work in its most improvised form.
Training provides procedures.
Reality still creates situations no manual can predict exactly.
If the suspect is in the water, get onto the water.
The boat launched.
Officers on the bridge directed the search team.
Go toward the pylons.
Check the brush.
Move between those supports.
The water became shallow.
Navigation became difficult.
Vegetation provided hiding places.
The suspect had gained a temporary advantage again.
A person can disappear astonishingly well in reeds, brush, shadows and bridge infrastructure.
From above, he may be visible for one second and gone the next.
The officers knew something else.
They could not assume the suspect was unarmed simply because he had jumped into water.
A firearm can survive getting wet.
A weapon could be inside clothing.
It could have been thrown nearby.
It could be hidden in the brush.
Officers had to approach as though the suspect might still have the ability to shoot.
They began calling to him.
Come out.
Walk toward us.
Show your hands.
At one point, officers threatened to deploy a police dog if the suspect refused.
That threat matters because a hiding suspect may believe the vegetation protects him from officers.
A K9 changes the calculation.
The suspect can hide from human eyes.
A trained dog's nose can still locate him.
And once a police dog is released during the apprehension of a serious felony suspect, hiding in brush becomes a very bad strategy.
The source narrator initially wonders whether the officers actually have a dog on the boat or are simply using the threat.
Then the footage makes it clear.
There really is a K9 involved.
Police continue calling out.
Stand up.
Walk out.
Hands where we can see them.
Do not make officers send the dog.