A newly released police bodycam video shows the nerve-racking moment when an officer from Iowa was clinging to the roof of a car driven by a wanted man during a high-speed chase.
The Carroll Police Department released gripping bodycam video this week of a routine traffic stop that resulted in a cop being flung from the roof of a runaway vehicle.
Around 1 p.m. on March 5, 2021, Carroll police officer Patrick McCarty stopped a vehicle with a female driver and a male passenger. The officer discovered that the passenger, Dennis Guider Jr., had a warrant out for his arrest for forgery in Illinois.
“I hate to be the one to tell you this, but it sounds like you’ve got a warrant out of Illinois,” McCarty is heard saying in the video.
The officer asked Guider to step out of the car, but he refused. Instead, he shoved the female out of the vehicle, slid into the driver’s seat, and attempted a brazen escape attempt. McCarty stepped in front of the car, drew his firearm, and instructed Guider to “stop the f***ing car!”
Guider continued to accelerate toward the police officer, at which point McCarty stepped on the hood of the car.
Heart-stopping dashcam footage from a police cruiser captured the wild scene of the officer on his knees, riding on the hood of the moving vehicle with his gun pointed at the windshield.
A police SUV attempted to nudge the fugitive’s vehicle off the road, but Guider hit the gas and sped away. After the vehicle started accelerating at a high speed, McCarty was forced to drop his firearm and retreat to the roof of the car, where he tried to hold on for dear life. During the police chase, the vehicle quickly reached speeds of more than 50 mph.
Dramatic dashcam video shows McCarty clinging to the roof of the car as the chase went from the road to a dirt surface behind an industrial building. Suddenly, the car careened into a ditch. The impact caused McCarty to be thrown from the vehicle. The police officer smashed to the ground, breaking McCarty’s back.
Despite breaking his back, McCarty told a fellow officer attempting to come to his aid, “I’m OK, man, go get him. I’m all right. Go get him.”
McCarty suffered broken vertebrae in his lower back, which took nearly a year to recover from fully.
The Des Moines Register reported, “The case was pending for nearly two years before Guider wrote to the clerk of court in February. He said he was incarcerated at an Illinois prison and wanted to ‘take care of my case matter right away.'”
In a letter to the Carroll County clerk, the 29-year-old native of Chicago Heights in Illinois claimed, “I feared for my life after the officer pull[ed] out his gun and jump[ed] on the hood of my car.”
In March, Guider pleaded guilty to serious injury by vehicle, a felony. This week, he was sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison.
