Cross-county police chase, with a body in the bed of a Ford F-150, is ‘just like a movie’
Possible plot synopsis: A man and a woman shoot a man and are seen trying to drag his body into a canal. The couple don’t count on someone seeing it all go down. After the witness contacts sheriffs to tell them the pair are now loading the body into the bed of a pickup truck the suspects speed off. Minutes later, sheriffs spot the truck — and a body part of the dead man in the rear bed of the pickup — as the chase crosses counties and comes to an end under a major interstate.
“This is just like a movie I just watched on Netflix,” read a post on the Florida sheriff department’s Facebook post.
Tonight’s TV listing?
Nope. Netflix may be on to true crime stories out of the Sunshine State of late with documentaries on Cocaine Cowboys and Jeffrey Epstein currently in rotation on the streaming service. But Netflix hasn’t latched on to this one yet.
Rather, this story comes straight from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
Scene of the crime
Here’s what happened, according to deputies:
Palm Beach County sheriff’s spokeswoman Teri Barbera told WPTV5 that the department was called about 9 p.m. Friday from someone who said they saw a shooting and two people were attempting to drag the victim’s body into a canal near Lake Worth.
“As deputies were en route to the scene the caller advised the suspects were now loading the victim’s body into a pickup truck, a gray Ford F-150,” sheriffs posted to their Facebook and Twitter social media accounts.
Before deputies arrived, the man and woman sped off with the the deceased victim’s body in the bed of the truck, deputies said.
Minutes later, Palm Beach County road patrol deputies saw the Ford pickup at Sixth Avenue and Congress Avenue — “with a body part of the deceased visible in the rear bed area.”
Then, like Burt “The Bandit” Reynolds with Jackie “Smokey Bear” Gleason on his tail from an old favorite ‘70s chase flick, a pursuit across two counties roars east on Sixth Avenue to I-95 then north on 95 to Martin Highway in Martin County.
Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told WPTV the suspects were traveling at least 100 mph.
The pit maneuver
Palm Beach and Martin County sheriffs executed a “pit maneuver” to end the chase, stopping the pickup on Martin Highway under I-95. Both suspects were taken into custody and the dead man’s body was found in the bed of the truck, according to Palm Beach deputies.
A pit maneuver, aka The PIT for Precision Immobilization Technique Maneuver, “is a technique used by law enforcement personnel to force a fleeing vehicle to abruptly turn 180 degrees, causing the vehicle to stall and stop,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Every chase ends in Martin County, they just don’t mess around! Sounds like a scene from a movie. Crazy! Congratulations to [law enforcement] agencies,” read another post in the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Facebook thread.
Both departments are still investigating and have not released names yet.
