Читать книгу The Ultimate Pursuit - Carl D. Smith - Страница 13

My position as a security policeman was also just about to take a blow. While trying to track down someone who was committing crimes on the base, my division officer, the security officer for the base, had told me that if I ever encountered a situation that was threatening my life, I had orders to shoot to kill. That made me a little bit more nervous than I already was. I did not want to kill anyone, but at the same time, I realized that I could potentially encounter a criminal, a spy or some military violence at any time.

Shortly after those orders were given, I was driving a Navy truck to a checkpoint; I had to go two miles off base then back onto Navy property. I had a passenger that day whom I was taking with me to “the place.” He had some pie and snacks he was eating as I drove. We passed a man working on the side of the road; he was trimming a tree or something. I heard my rider laugh and thought he threw some wrapper out the window. A minute later, I looked into my rear view mirror and saw a Toyota truck quickly pull up alongside us. We then heard a loud noise as the window behind our heads shattered. I said to my rider, “Get down, he is shooting at us!” I could feel the adrenaline racing through my body and the pulse-beat of my heart as a thousand things flooded my mind. Just then, the road for the military base was coming up and I turned into it hoping he would not follow us in there—but he did. When I looked in the rear view mirror and saw he was coming after me, I felt both anger and fear rise up in me.

Who was this man and why was he after me? I was driving a Chevy half-ton truck, faster and heavier than his, so I revved the engine and tried to outrun him. He stayed with me and I figured I had better get him before he got me. I put a little distance between us, then I made a quick U-turn and told my rider to hold on—we were going to ram him! He looked at me like I had to be kidding or crazy or both. I was not kidding. I figured I would take him out before he took another shot at us. As we got closer, I saw the horrified look on his face. It was a Guamanian; I hit him head-on at about 35 or 40 mph. The collision totaled his truck, and did a lot of damage to ours.

Miraculously, we were not injured except for some cuts from the flying glass. A woman who lived in a house nearby was standing outside her home and witnessed me turning around and ramming him. She ran inside and called the Guam police and they were there in seconds. They arrested me for assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder. A vehicle is a deadly weapon when used that way.

My passenger and I were handcuffed and put in the back of the police cruiser. I remember wondering how in the blue blazes I had gotten myself in this mess. Going to jail in a strange and remote place for assault and attempted murder against one of the locals was not a good thing. I asked my friend sitting next to me if he had any idea why that guy shot at us. He said that as we were going down the road, he had thrown a piece of the pie he was eating out the window and it hit the guy behind us in the face. “So that’s why you were laughing,” I replied. Then the police officer spoke up saying that the man involved in the accident with us was continually in trouble with the police. The police arrested him also and he was being taken to jail in another police car.