The action in the video below took place around Christmass 2012, but the police have only now decided to release the footage. What you see is the way a high-speed pursuit ended in the state of Texas, but the story is way more complex.
According to the media, Steven Gaydos, the guy riding a Suzuki motorcycle ran a red light and was spotted by the State Troopers. He figured out he could lose the cops and therefore fled, with the police cruiser following him.
Reportedly, the chase reached speeds of up to 130 mph (201 km/h) and lasted for a good 38 miles (61 km). At a certain point, the cops made the decision to put an end to the chase, which apparently was becoming more and more dangerous.
No less than four shots were fired in an attempt to puncture the bike's rear tire. One of the shots hit the rider in the leg, and he decided to stop and surrender.
Will a rider really surrender, or take off again?
The footage from the police cruiser shows Gaydos raising his left arm and slowing down to a complete halt near an intersection. Apparently he can't use his left foot to kick the side stand of the bike and is trying to move it with his hand.
Meanwhile, a police officer, identified as trooper Abraham Martinez, gets out of the car and kicks both rider and bike to the ground. Now, the necessity of this maneuver is questionable. Some say that kicking the rider as he was preparing to dismount his motorcycle was completely unnecessary and should have been severely punished.
On the other hand, there are people who claim that the officer's action was entirely justifiable. They say that it's been more than once when fugitive riders only pretended they intend to surrender, luring the cop from his car, only to take off again. This way, they hoped to benefit from the time the driver needed to get back in the car, lose the pursuers.
Fact is that after lengthy investigations, Martinez got a two-day leave without payment. With such a penalty it's really hard to figure out to what degree the investigators found him guilty.
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