copboy
12-16-2001, 12:12
First, let me tell you all last night was probably one of the worst and best experiences of my life to date. I was riding with one of the other security officers who was taking me to lock down the mall doors. On the way to one of our service courts I saw a group of kids just hanging around our parking lot and since the mall was no longer open we were going to explain to them they had to leave because of a no loitering policy. When me and the other officer were driving up we saw a man running up a hill that joins a cemetary we patrol daily. To men then tell us they had been robbed. I do not know why I did but I jumped out of our unit and took off up the 70 degree angle hill after the suspect. When I got to the top of the hill I noticed a man who at first I thought was the suspect but then came to the realization that he did not have the clothing of the other individual. I proceeded to ask him to stay were he was and called the police officer that works with us to come up to the hill. I noticed a vehicle at the end of the drive thru of the cemetary asked the man that I saw in the cemetary if it belonged to him wich he replied yes too. By that time our officer had just arrived. When I raised my flashlight to look towards the vehicle I saw the suspect jump out of the vehicle and start running like crazy cross a four lane highway. I relayed to the police officer that the suspect had just ran across the highway and the chase began. The Lt. that works with us took off to the houses where I saw the suspect run. After a few minutes the suspect started running back towards the cemetary then down the road. I was able to relay this information to the Lt. who called additional units after a fellow security officer found out from the victum that the suspect had a gun. WE then had three units rush the hill I was on because they thought the guys with me had a weapon and after they were on the ground and found out that they were not the suspects we were chasing go we let them up off the ground. I then got a lecture from an arriving police officer about how I should have told them that in the first place when they got there. The thing is when you here a cop telling some guy to get on the ground and another guy come running with his gun pointed at another guy the only thing I could do is keep my mouth shut. Anyways after a period off time the suspect was appreahendd just downt he road. It turns out that all people involved including the one that I initially saw in the cemetary all worked for the store whose deposit was stolen. So this was very much a badly planned theft. All in all I got a pretty good lecture from my supervisor then the mall manager from running up a hill after someone that I had not clue was armed or not but I was not thinking at the time. The Lt. who is a very well known officer at the force made me feel a lot better though when he told me that I did a great job and was telling the other officers that we would not have caught him if he was not on that hill. It all made up for everything else especially since I will be applying wiht this department after graduation. I think I may have made a few points. I just wanted to share with you what happend to me the other night. I am thankful I am still here to share it with you. No gun was ever recovered and the money is still missing.