As I put the round Kojak-type blue light up on my dashboard so anyone approaching my blue Ford Taurus would know it was a police vehicle I continued to watch the subject intently. He still hadn’t seen me but I wasn’t about to take my eyes off of him. I reached down with my right hand and slowly turned off my vehicle’s motor and I hoped this sudden quiet would not somehow alert the suspect to my presence. I opened the driver’s door, pocketed my car keys and then as stealthily as I could I exited my vehicle. I took my keys with me because if the suspect should manage to get by me the last thing I wanted was for him to jump into my vehicle and make his escape that way. I’d seen this happen before at F.L.P.D. and I wasn’t about to let it happen to me now. I quietly closed the driver’s door behind me but I made certain not to shut it all the way. The suspect still hadn’t looked to his left where I was located but I knew if he heard a car door slam shut that would definitely change. As I carefully made my way to the rear trunk area of my Taurus, so I could keep my vehicle between me and the subject for as long as possible, I unholstered my 9mm automatic and held it at my side. I quickly but quietly headed in a straight line towards the white male subject in the woods. I brought my right arm up and extended it out in front of me so my weapon was now pointed at the suspect. I didn’t know if he was armed, in fact I still didn’t even know what this guy had done, but if he did anything at all to threaten me I was ready.

When I got closer to the subject’s concealed position in the woods I observed that he was holding a brown leather-looking duffle bag in front of him. I could clearly see his left hand on the outside of the bag but his right hand was still hidden underneath it. I also noted that the ground he was standing on was not level and it sloped downward away from the tree line where the grassy area began. It turned out the subject was not actually kneeling or squatting as I had originally thought and he was standing erect, but because of this sharp downward slope initially I couldn’t see anything from his chest down. Once I got really close to him however, I saw the difficult position he apparently was in. He seemed to be winded and maybe even tired. I suspected the climb up the incline to the tree line, especially while he was carrying the large duffle bag, which looked like it was definitely full of something, probably had taxed him just a little. I thought this was very good because maybe now he’d be less eager to resist when he finally spotted me. The time had finally come for me to make my move. I was now almost close enough to the subject to touch him but I had no intention of doing this. I figured if I totally surprised him he might just be so shocked he’d give up without any real trouble. I pointed my automatic right at his head.
“Halt, police!” I suddenly yelled. “You’re under arrest!”

The suspect’s head quickly snapped back to his left in my direction. In the blink of an eye the suspect went from thinking he had eluded the sheriff’s department car to suddenly realizing he had indeed been spotted after all. There was a look of surprise, panic and uncertainty clearly evident in his expression but he also looked grim and desperate too. He didn’t immediately respond to my command and this worried me. There was no question that he had heard me and I assumed he definitely knew that I was a police officer. Besides loudly announcing this fact, the badge on my belt, the handcuffs sticking out of my pants, and the Sig Saur Automatic in my hand should have helped convince him. He started to move around a little and at first it looked as if he might try to climb up to the level ground I was on. Would this be to surrender or to charge me? I wondered. But the incline was so steep I think he quickly realized this would be very difficult for him to do. He also may have concluded that I’d shoot him if he came charging at me. He was right, I would have! I wasn’t about to get into a wrestling match with a suspected bank robber and take the chance he might be able to take my own gun away from me. That was not going to happen.

When he finally realized he couldn’t go forward he took a firm hold on the duffle bag and he reversed his direction. As he suddenly ran away from me back down the steep slope deeper into the wooded area I was the one who was now a little bit surprised. This definitely wasn’t the response I had expected. I thought he might try to fight it out or if he had a gun he might try to shoot me but I never really thought he’d totally ignore me and then turn around and run away from me.
“Stop or I’ll shoot!” I yelled out loudly as I brought my 9mm down and placed its sights right in the middle of the subject’s back. I knew if I fired there was very little chance I’d miss him. There were still only a few precious feet separating the two of us and I was aiming at the point just below his neck and right between his shoulders. At this range I knew I couldn’t miss and I began to gently squeeze the trigger.