Sergeant Randy Baker Case Study

In this case, Sergeant Randy Baker from Tulia, Texas Police Department attempted to make to arrest an individual that he knew had an arrest warrant out for him. The individual Sergeant Baker was trying to arrest was Israel Leija, Jr. When Leija was confronted by Sergeant Baker he took off in his vehicle. Sgt. Baker, Trp. Gabriel Rodriguez chased Leija on I-27 for approximately 18 minutes reaching speeds of 85 to 110 miles per hour. While they were pursuing, Officer Troy Ducheneaux went ahead of the chase to place spike strips under the overpass at Cemetery Rd. Officer Ducheneaux had been to training about the proper use of and safety with spike strips. Trp. Chadrin Mullenix also went to the Cemetery overpass with Officer Ducheneaux. Trp. Mullenix was going to set up spike strips at that location but decided not to when he heard about the other spike strip locations. Instead, Trp. Mullenix decided that he was going to shoot at the fleeing

There were other ways to end the chase and although there were threats I did not see Leija’s current actions rising to the degree of officers using deadly force. I understand his concern about the officers laying the spike strips but those officers were trained in the application and were also at an overpass that was able to provide them solid cover from the oncoming vehicles. In the end I can understand the officer’s thought process but do not believe he should be using a tactic he was not trained in or never used before. I think this serves as a reminder to recruits and other officers that we should employ other options before deadly force unless it is currently apparent that there are no other options available other than deadly force. I do not want officers to hesitate in deadly force situations but in this situation they already had another option deployed and ready and he should have used that option