VIDEO: SAPD Dash Cam Reveals Officer's View in 2012 Chase

SAN ANGELO, TX — Michael Rosales picked up the cash register and hurled it across the shop at his girlfriend Melanie*, hitting her left forearm and leaving a reddish welt behind. For the second time that Tuesday morning the female pet groomer’s boyfriend approached her with a wild look in his eyes, grabbing at chunks of her hair and slapping her repeatedly. He was known to be violent.

Standing nearby in the mix of knocked-down products and scattered business supplies, Melanie’s coworker Trista dropped her hand to her side still clutching the telephone.

“I’ll kill you too!” Rosales turned to her, demanding that she hang up the phone. On the other end a San Angelo police dispatcher was providing information to an officer en route.

It was roughly 10:00 a.m. on Aug. 7, 2012 when the maroon passenger car first appeared in the parking lot in front of Canine Creations on Ave. L, and as Trista tried not to stare, her coworker Melanie was being assaulted inside the car. Minutes elapsed and Melanie walked through the front door, the car disappearing from the lot behind her. But he wouldn’t be gone for long.

He wanted to give Melanie her stuff back and he needed to talk to her, he told Trista, who had answered the business’ phone only after he’d blocked the number and the ID read “private”. Within minutes the car was back in the lot despite being told not to return and Rosales was unsuccessfully trying to lure his girlfriend out of the shop.

The incident couldn’t have lasted more than 15 minutes by all accounts given, but the time was just enough to do the damage. Broken and overturned chairs lay strewn about the shop, pet grooming products, utensils and business cards scattered in between. The cash register lay broken behind the counter and a puddle of spilled coffee was visible on the floor.

As officer Rick Tinsley approached the location around 10:33 a.m., dispatch read out a description of the male suspect and his vehicle. “Suspect’s going to be wearing a white shirt, white shorts, driving a red car,” a static radio voice announces inside the car.  Tinsley gives gas to approach the location, deactivating his lights and sirens as he nears the store parking lot.

Clothing and other personal effects lay strewn about the parking lot in front of the store as Tinsley approaches, and a male dressed all in white climbs hastily into a maroon vehicle, shuts the door and drives off. For the next several blocks he’ll not only evade police, but endanger countless San Angelo citizens as he blows through red lights and stop signs in town, eventually letting out a wail of alleged fear as he is placed in handcuffs. Rosales was scared, he said.

“I hate car chases,” Tinsley offered in a recent interview about the incident. “I’ll chase you on foot all day, but I don’t like car chases because they’re dangerous. Even if I do everything 100 percent correct, the bad guy is still putting people in danger.”

If you run into someone on foot, you may knock the person down and knock the wind out of them, Tinsley rationed, but if you hit someone with a car, the effects can be life threatening.

As he sped straight down Oakes St. on Aug. 7, 2012, Rosales blew through every red light and stop sign in his path, sometimes reaching speeds of 60 mph. During his flight he struck another occupied vehicle at Oakes and Harris, but continued on before coming to a stop in the 100 block of College St.

[[{"fid":"5268","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default"}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]

Tinsley knew why Rosales was running in this case—he’d just assaulted two women and virtually destroyed the inside of a business—but oftentimes for police officers the reason is unknown. Tinsley said that for him, the first thing that usually goes through his mind when a suspect flees is the why.

“What’s going through their mind is the first thing that I wonder about,” he said. “In this particular chase…I knew why the suspect was running. What was going through my mind was if this guy had already done that, I knew he was already combative, and I knew I was going to have to probably have a struggle with him to get him handcuffed and take him into custody.”

Tinsley explained that during a police chase the officers are supposed to follow certain steps to keep the flow of information going and hopefully bring the pursuit to an end. The San Angelo Police Department’s policy permits three police units to take part in a chase, the lead car being the initiator, the second car calling out the streets, direction of travel and speed, and the third car—ideally a K9 unit—providing additional support.

As soon as a chase begins, Tinsley said, the lead officer communicates the vehicle type, the number of occupants, the reason it’s being chased, the direction of travel and the speed.

When other units join the chase, the second officer “calls” it, alerting other officers via radio of street names, speed and other information so that the first officer can focus on driving safely and maintain a visual on the suspect.

“The first car is the one that’s got everything going on,” Tinsley explained. “They’re going to usually be the first officer to contact them (the suspect) when they crash or bail out or whatever. The second car can back off a little bit and has a little bit more time so the first officer can then concentrate strictly on driving.”

According to the police incident report, Rosales left the Canine Creations parking lot headed north on Oakes St., ignoring ’s lights and sirens and running through red lights at Washington, Concho, Twohig, Beaureagard and Harris, where he then struck another occupied vehicle before continuing on.[[{"fid":"5257","view_mode":"default","fields":{"alt":"The route Rosales followed evading police on Aug. 7, 2012. (Image/Google Maps)","title":"The route Rosales followed evading police on Aug. 7, 2012. (Image/Google Maps)","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"2","format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"The route Rosales followed evading police on Aug. 7, 2012. (Image/Google Maps)","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"The route Rosales followed evading police on Aug. 7, 2012. (Image/Google Maps)"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"alt":"The route Rosales followed evading police on Aug. 7, 2012. (Image/Google Maps)","title":"The route Rosales followed evading police on Aug. 7, 2012. (Image/Google Maps)","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"2","format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"The route Rosales followed evading police on Aug. 7, 2012. (Image/Google Maps)","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"The route Rosales followed evading police on Aug. 7, 2012. (Image/Google Maps)"}},"attributes":{"alt":"The route Rosales followed evading police on Aug. 7, 2012. (Image/Google Maps)","title":"The route Rosales followed evading police on Aug. 7, 2012. (Image/Google Maps)","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"2"}}]]

“[When he hit the vehicle] I knew there were other officers close by, so I knew that they would stay with him and I could keep going,” Tinsley recalled. “I could tell that where the other vehicle got hit was not likely to have real bad injuries, so I knew that one wasn’t a bad one. But you always wonder if the person that they just hit is going to be hurt.”

At College St. Rosales hung a right and came to a stop, exited the vehicle and yelled something unintelligible at police, before running off alongside Shannon Medical Center. Secondary officer in the chase A.J. Rios then exited the vehicle and brought Rosales down in the bushes, and following a brief struggle was able to put him into handcuffs.

No longer in the presence of women, Rosales began to cry hysterically and swear how scared he had been, this clearly being the reason he ran. The statement is not uncommon to police, who often hear an untrustworthy mix of excuses from suspects who flee.

“In my opinion, most of the time, they’re running because they know they’re going back to jail,” Tinsley said. “I’ve heard of people say that they didn’t know that we were the police, they didn’t know why we were chasing them…”

Indeed the “I was scared” excuse tends to be among the favorites perpetrators will use after being busted, but Tinsley makes his point clear in the chase video when speaking to Rosales. “When you run from the police, you go to jail,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what you did before that. When you run from the police, you go to jail.”

Evading arrest in a motor vehicle is a state jail felony punishable by probation or 180 days to 2 years in jail for a first-time offender and an optional fine not to exceed $10,000. Ultimately charged with assault causes bodily injury, criminal mischief, evading arrest, disregarding a red light and failure to stop and leave information, Rosales entered plea bargains and several charges were dropped.

Assault causing bodily injury for a first-time offender is a class a misdemeanor and is punishable by up to one year in jail or a fine up to $4000, or both. Rosales plead nolo contendre to the charge. For the assault he received a $400 fine and one year deferred probation. As part of the plea bargain, the charges for disregarding a red light and for failure to stop and leave information, as well as a failure to appear to court on the assault charge were dismissed.

Rosales plead guilty to criminal mischief greater than $1,500 but less than $20k, a state jail felony punishable by up to 180 days to 2 years in state jail and fines reaching $10,000. Rosales was was sentenced to four years of probation and a $1,000 fine plus $1,850 restitution. Should he violate his probation in that time span, he faces a maximum punishment of two years in jail. The evading arrest charge was dismissed.