One Saturday morning, Lt. Cain and I were working a day shift. We rarely worked daylight hours.  During my 8 consecutive years of working nights on both task forces, day shifts were rare. This was on the D.U.I. Task Force, which would have been 1988 to about 1992 for me. I believe it was Spring, because little league baseball had just started up. I was near Thornton Road in Zone 2 when I heard, “105 Radio…”, I replied, “go ahead, 105…” “105 10-80 (car chase) South on Thornton towards I-20”. I heard his 4-barrel kick in as he transmitted. Lt. Cain’s next transmission was the description of the type of vehicle, color, tag, etcetera. It was a pickup truck in this case. A radio transmission, such as a chase, would result in an adrenaline dump of massive proportions. I believe adrenaline dumps were one of the causes of my P.T.S.D. The excitement of the fight or flight thing, Cop Candy. You young, baby blue cops know what I mean. I was young then. Now… therapy.

“105 radio… 10-80 south bound on Thornton Road towards I-20”. I was on I-20 E bound and happened to be approaching Thornton Road at that time. I was exiting onto the Thornton Road ramp as Sgt. Cain called his chase. I was right in the middle of it.

Sometimes I would have a shift where it seemed like I was close to nearly every call I was given. All shift long, I would be right there when a call went out. You LEO’s know what I mean, they do occur. The shift would be impressed, but would still joke about how lucky I was. But things like quick arrival times would impress the supervisors.

My cockles went up and the dump occurred. I went blue light and siren north bound on Thornton Road. Headed straight on towards the teeth of the chase. As I approached Skyview Drive on my left, I saw the violator make a right turn onto Skyview Drive, with Lt. Cain’s blue lights close behind. I was still too far away to be the second car. 1^st car means the chase car. They would concentrate on driving. The 2^nd car would be responsible for calling locations, directions, number of occupants, etcetera… As I turned west onto Skyview, I lost contact with the chase. Lt. Cain went silent and did not answer his radio when called. It may have been only 60 seconds since his transmission, but a 10-80 causes concern about car wrecks for us as well as the runner. And when a chase car goes silent. Well, that’s concerning. When I was a rookie, I would say to a chase, “Come on baby, please come my way.” That would be a young LEOs response. It was fun when I was a baby blue, but later scary.

Finally, the Lieutenant radioed. “105… turning right onto Mt. Vernon”. I was just about a ¼ mile behind now. During Lieutenant Cain’s transmission, no audible siren could be heard. Georgia had a law requiring all law enforcement vehicles to have blue lights and siren activated during emergencies. Visual as well as audible. The State of Georgia would have something to say later about this chase.

The truck tag came back to some Austell apartment complex. The truck sped down Mt. Vernon Road towards the Woodrow Wilson ballpark and the little league baseball fields. While I did not see the accident occur, I was close enough to be involved with the State’s investigation.  Lieutenant Cain’s fleeing truck sped around a tight curve right behind home plate of one of the ballfields. I mean figuratively behind the backstop. It was there where a massive accident killed a man. I arrived with my lights and siren to see people running from the bleachers towards the accident. Smoke and steam was still hissing upwards from both vehicles as I arrived. Some parents were covering their children’s eyes as they shuffled them away. I saw Lieutenant Cain already out of his car. I called for the Fire Department and EMS as I rolled to a stop. I ran to the mangled cars and started to clear the crime scene and move the crowd back. Parents claiming to be physicians and nurses were attending to the dead man. Little league baseball parents and kids were all trying to get a peek of the tragedy. The creator of the deadly accident looked to be in his late 20s. Neither driver was moving. As I got to the scene, I saw the victim driver badly torn inside his car. The victim’s car was small, like an MG, as I can remember. It was obvious to me that he was dead. Lt. Cain appeared to be in shock and went to his cruiser and sat down. I extracted the man from the truck and arrested that slightly injured drunk driver. The stories about drunks not getting as badly injured in car wrecks is true. Lived it. Day shift deputies and troopers began to arrive as backup. I pulled my car closer to the accident scene and tried to protect evidence while watching the drunk in my back seat. I turned over what I had collected to the Georgia State Patrol when they arrived.

I remember that at the scene of the accident I heard grumblings from the crowd. A woman mumbled aloud, “Why didn’t he have his siren on?” “I didn’t hear them coming!” she said. A large crowd of about 50 had gathered behind the backstop of field number 1. It was maybe five yards from where the hissing vehicles lay, only 5 yards. I’ll remind you that it was the opening day of Little League Baseball. Hundreds of people were in the park watching their kids playing baseball on several ball fields. Many in the crowd of parents rushed to the dead man in the car. The best that I could do was pull gawkers away from the scene. “If you are not a doctor or nurse, please keep away.”  Zone deputies began to arrive and detoured the traffic around the accident scene through the ballpark’s parking lots.

E.M.S. covered the victim’s body with a white sheet, where the blood immediately began soaking through. I attempted to contain the crowd. About 30 parents and many more kids were watching, as all 3 ball fields had stopped play. Everyone tried to push closer. Lt. R.C. was sitting in his patrol car just staring at his steering wheel. Before Troop arrived and after EMS clearance, I arrested the drunk driver. I read the violator his Miranda Rights and Implied Consent. He agreed to the State breath test. Troop arrived to start his official investigation. I gave him the pertinent information and evidence that I had gathered.

I took the trooper’s prisoner to the jail and administered the State intox breath test. And yes, he was DUI on that early Saturday morning. The driver registered over the legal limit for driving. While the trooper was still at the scene, I started my own investigation about ownership of the truck for the State Trooper.

Looking for the conclusion?

(10-80, 10-50) I & D stood for “Injury or Death” — Part 2