News Releases

Police Investigate Officer Discharging Weapon

Dec 1st, 2009

File Number M-09-12-Police Investigate Officer Discharging Weapon

On Saturday, November 21, 2009 at approximately 4:25 AM, Mobile police were servicing a complaint in the 600 block of Michigan Avenue when they were approached by a Mobile Fire/ Rescue paramedic. The paramedic advised the officer that while they were servicing an unrelated and separate complaint at a residence located in the 1500 block of Forrest Circle, an unknown subject drove away in their Rescue 5, Advance Life Support truck without authorization.

Officers immediately placed a BOLO out for the Rescue Unit. Minutes later, officers observed the Rescue Unit traveling on Broad Street, near Tennessee Street. The emergency lights were still activated on the vehicle. Officers attempted to stop the Rescue Unit by initiating lights and sirens, but the driver refused to adhere and accelerated the vehicle attempting to elude officers.

The driver of the Rescue Unit continued to travel south on Broad Street onto westbound Interstate 10 with speeds reaching 90 mph. The suspect then exited Interstate 10 onto southbound Dauphin Island Parkway, then immediately reversed course northbound. The pursuit continued northbound on Dauphin Island Parkway onto eastbound Dublin Street. While traveling eastbound on Dublin Street, the driver of the Rescue Unit attempted to navigate a traffic circle at the intersection of Rickarby Street. The oversized tires of the Rescue Unit became wedged between the curb on the south side of Dublin Street and the edge of the traffic circle bringing the vehicle to a stop.

Officer Christopher Hallford drove his patrol vehicle around the north side of the traffic circle and stopped roughly parallel with the front of the stuck Rescue Unit several feet away from the driver's door.
Officer Hallford exited his patrol vehicle with his service weapon drawn and rushed to the driver's door of the Rescue Unit in an effort to apprehend the suspect. As he reached the door and grabbed the handle, the Rescue Unit was rocking back and forth as the suspect driver continuously depressed and released the accelerator in an attempt to free the stuck vehicle. Officer Hallford was unable to open the locked driver's door. As he pulled on the handle, the Rescue Unit suddenly lurched free, forcibly throwing Officer Hallford against the fender of his patrol car nearly crushing him against his vehicle. As the rear tires of the Rescue Unit came past him, Officer Hallford discharged four rounds at the driver's side rear tires in an attempt to disable the stolen vehicle. The tires did not deflate and the suspect driver again accelerated eastbound on Dublin Street.

Officer Hallford and other responding officers resumed pursuing the stolen Rescue Unit. The suspect driver continued eastbound on Dublin Street, then attempted to navigate a turn onto northbound Tuttle Avenue; however, the large and extremely heavy Rescue Unit was apparently traveling too fast to negotiate the turn. The Rescue Unit left the roadway and struck a fire hydrant, crushing the passenger side front end and flattening the passenger side's front tire, subsequently disabling the vehicle.

As officers approached the Rescue Unit on foot, the suspect driver continued to depress the accelerator of the vehicle in an effort to maneuver the vehicle despite its disabled condition. Unable to open the locked doors of the Rescue Unit, Officer Hallford shattered the driver's side window of the vehicle with his baton and he and other officers were able to extract and secure the driver identified as Josephine Armistead. Armistead had a strong smell of alcohol about her person and appeared to be heavily intoxicated.

A subsequent administrative investigation was conducted by the Internal Affairs Unit of the Mobile Police Department. The results of the investigation have determined that Officer Hallford was justified in utilizing his service weapon in an attempt to disable the stolen vehicle. The evidence gathered throughout the course of the investigation suggests that at the time Officer Hallford discharged his weapon, he was in immediate danger of being crushed between the fleeing Rescue Unit and his own patrol vehicle, with no readily available avenue of escape.


Reported By: Interim Chief Lester Hargrove


Corporal Charles D. Bagsby Jr.
Public Information Office
Office: 208-1715
Fax: 208-1758
E-mail: charles.bagsby@cityofmobile.org