Abstract
This paper describes the reconstruction of a police-pursuit incident involving the visual perceptions of two individuals for the purposes of determining whether the resulting arrest and charge of Attempted Murder could be substantiated. “Mens Rea”; that is, whether the defendant in this case had the intention to threaten or severely injure or murder a police officer. A Deputy Sheriff (we will refer to him as PO, short for police officer) attempted to use “Stop Sticks” to disable the vehicle of the driver (referred here as DR) who was described as leading police on a “high-speed” chase. The driver evaded the maneuver and in the process, threatened the life of PO, by the PO’s accounting of events. Multiple sources of data were reviewed, interviews, and a reconstruction of events was conducted. We provided a version of events that did not support the Attempted Murder charge. The charge was later dropped. DR and PO are used for de-identification purposes to preserve the anonymity of the individuals involved.
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