Some fugitives are their own worst enemies. One wanted man in Washington thought that he had outrun the police, not knowing that he was already being tracked. But even the cops couldn’t believe what happened to the fugitive when they finally caught up with him that turned their pursuit into a rescue mission.
Car chase turned into a rescue mission fast
On the morning of August 16, Cpl. Stuver pursued an unnamed fugitive who decided to flee in his vehicle, prompting the officer to do some quick thinking instead of chasing the man throughout the streets, according to a post by the Marysville WA Police on its official Facebook page.
Cpl. Stuver decided to fire a Starchase tracking dart, which is a GPS-enabled projectile that law enforcement uses to track fleeing vehicles, and waited for the fugitive to stop on his own. That turned out to be a great idea, because Stuver monitored the vehicle speeding away at over 100 miles per hour as he tracked the man to a residence on the Tulalip Reservation.
After finding the vehicle parked, the officer followed a trail through the foliage and found the fugitive in a precarious situation. The man had gone over a cliff side, injuring himself and unable to get himself out. At that point, the officer had to switch gears.
Bodycam footage shows multiple personnel, from two law enforcement agencies and three fire departments, arriving on the scene to rescue the fugitive. The officer had to repel down the wooded cliffside and navigate the steep paths to reach the injured man. It took nearly three hours for first responders to bring him to the top of the cliff.
While the video doesn’t reveal the name or identity of the fugitive, it ends with personnel carrying the fugitive to a stretcher. The fugitive received medical treatment before being taken into custody and booked at the Snohomish County Jail.
