Madera, California - An officer who has only been out of training for 2 weeks who had a civilian riding along attempts to pull over a vehicle that results in a wild pursuit.
Early this morning at exactly 0434 hours, a Madera police officer attempted to pull over a white Mazda SUV. The Mazda failed to stops and leads the officer on a vehicle pursuit that looks like something out of an action movie. In the video below you can hear the officer chatting with his female passenger as he goes to pull the SUV over. It appears that it may be pulling over, but then takes off.
The officer calmly tells dispatch that he is in pursuit and calls out his location at every intersection. Around one minute into the pursuit, you can hear the female passenger say "he has a gun!". About 10 seconds later, the passenger in the white SUV then fires 9 shots at the officers car from an "ar-15 style pistol", according to the City of Madera Police department.
The female passenger starts pleading with the officer to not chase the suspect, so he temporarily takes cover behind a parked vehicle. The officer then puts some distance between himself and the shooter, tries to continue the pursuit, but the patrol vehicle is too damaged to continue.
The Madena City officer was not injured and the civilian passenger was scratched up a little bit from broken glass, other than that, the patrol vehicle was the only casualty of the shooting. Police searched the area and found the white Mazda SUV abandoned and the gun used in the shooting nearby. The City of Madena Police Department is asking for any information related to the SUV or suspects involved; if you know anything about this incident, contact Detective Sergeant Johnny Smith at 559-675-4291.
The officer has only been out of training for 2 weeks. He remained calm, called out his location, protected his ride along and handled the situation extremely well.
Amazing job officer.
