Miami S W A T S01E04 Suicide by Cop

Miami is a tale of two cities: rich against poor. Parties 24 hours a day. Vice 24 hours a day. Famous beaches. Infamous ghettos. The Dade Police Department turned to its Special Response Team known as SRT SRT responds to any situation that regular units on the road can't handle when in trouble they call us we are the last line of defense like modern gladiators the team special response officer works every day to remain in peak physical condition so that officers can withstand the stress of tactical operations for hours on end working and building their strength so that not only their upper body but also their legs and hips make a big difference.

Melvin Gonzalez has one of the most dangerous jobs in the unit operating the shield, he is the first through the door when attacking the direction of his target, nothing in the gym can recreate the shape, weight and feel of the shield, as well I discovered that the best way to train using the shield is to actually use the shield. I came up with a couple of different exercises that help me. One of them is just a standard straight lunge where I hold the shield right in front of me here and I just do squats of course to make it more realistic.

I should wear my bulletproof vest and my helmet, and there are days when I do that. Also Hammerman, Larry Alemán, works tirelessly to improve his strength in an effort to knock down doors with a single blow. and maximize the surprise elements of your team this is a 16 pound mallet this is one of the ones we use on the team we have four we have a 12 to 14 to 16 and a 20. 20 is the heaviest we have there. I've used it with 20lbs on a few occasions and it's fantastic, but I seem to get better push with the 16lb hammer down, so it's all about your shoulders, your arms to hold the actual weight and then your legs to spin. through movement and towards the target through that door through that door at all times there are two types of exercises that I will do with this simulated staircase so this is slower and more methodical where I am just imitating going up the stairs and then just go back down.

I absolutely believe that these exercises and the level of intensity we put into our training can save our lives. The special response team is an elite SWAT unit, an acronym for special weapons and tactics, so each member of the team practices. In marksmanship to maintain accurate shooting skills, the best marksmen are trained to become snipers selected for their maturity, patience, and ability to make independent decisions over a long period of time. Today, snipers simulate a hostage rescue by shooting targets through three-inch glass. The most important thing is that the object you are attacking with should be as close to that glass as humanly possible after the other officers have left for the night.

One of srt's expert snipers, Sergeant Ray Malcolm, works on his one-shot skills to save lives. Never an option, the sniper rifle probably means precision, the absolute ultimate option, and the ability to eliminate the threat as precisely and surgically as possible. Four pounds of trigger pulls separating the end of someone's life. However, you also have to look. On the other hand, the reason we do it is to save someone's life. Most of srt's work involves combating Miami's most dangerous criminals, but they also handle other types of life-threatening situations that same night in the city of Homestead, 20 miles south of Miami Beach srt I have a call from emergency a young white man has attempted

suicide

after tracking the guy to his home the

miami

-dade police department has set up a command center a few blocks away my concern now with the plan is that no I don't want to make him feel like we would be squeezing it.

Sergeant Ray Malkin takes a team of officers to form a perimeter around the subject's house. Explain to me why these situations can be quite dangerous, obviously, due to the lack of specific information. Possibility of

suicide

by police officer. The concern is that we have had incidents like this where they are lying heavy because they don't have the courage to commit suicide and they could be precipitating a situation where we have to take that type of action, so that's never a good thing for us when someone don't care about their own lives they'll care a lot less about us yeah okay just wait we're looking at the house right now guys suicide by police is where a person deliberately threatens law enforcement officers with a lethal weapon, inciting them to shoot.

We have the provision to complement the sniper teams on side one, two and three. According to the FBI, more than a third of all police shootings are suspected suicide. Cop srt's main concern is whether they are about to be swept away another 20 miles south of Miami Beach. Srt has been called in to solve a possible suicide by cop in which an individual provokes the police into shooting him after having identified the subject. your house srt has arrived outside gene are you inside yes and your partner is inside yes okay tom we are ready to move forward, sergeant herrera's unit drives their Bearcat armored vehicles slowly up to the property to see if anyone is home after detecting a glimpse of what the suspect could have been srt asked the negotiators to try to start a dialogue with him from the protection of the armored bear frank my name is dan i'm with the police department do me a favor we're concerned for your safety if you can hear us turn on the light in your house, please or pick up the phone and call Frank, we're here to help you, we want to help you, come out and talk to us, we'll answer the phone, okay?

Do me a favor, pick up the phone or turn on the light in the house so that we know that you are okay and can hear us. The negotiators try for an hour and a half to contact the subject but there is no response. Meanwhile, Srt tried to be patient and alert us to the problem. with these protected calls where we're trying to get through and we can't respond if you start to develop a pause and it's human nature to start letting our guard down so I prefer to rotate my staff to have the leadership so they can have maximum attention at the same time.

This allows my guys to not necessarily take a break physically, but mentally and then rotate them again, you know, 15 to 20 minutes. 30 minute intervals, anything happens at any time. Right now it's quiet. This guy decides he's had enough. A couple rounds in the truck and then, you know, we go from zero to ten, so we have to be ready for that earlier in the night. The suicidal man was involved in a hit-and-run incident. Research has shown that an individual attempting to be killed by police often injures or kills innocent people to attract a quick and deadly response.

The latest intelligence information reveals that the subject is also armed. I just received additional information from the father, apparently the negotiators informed him that the guy definitely has possession of a shotgun with a laser sight attached, a 45, but that he has been practicing a lot of shooting in the last few months and has shown it to his father . his accuracy ability and it is known that he has approximately 500 bullets inside the house three hours after arriving at the subject's house. He decides to gently advance the procedure by bringing in the robots. Frank, we don't want to hurt you, we want to help you.

We will be breaking a window to put a phone in so we can talk to you right now. We are using two robots, one is main for breaking purpose and the other is designed to open a phone and try to place it in the area. In case you couldn't get it through on your phone, they were offering a hotline to negotiators. The second robot takes the phone to the property, as the srt are reluctant at this stage to enter the subject's house if he is there. a suicide by a police candidate, you will expect the elite police unit to confront it with all guns blazing at the robot in this particular situation, it is useful because it is an inanimate object that we do not have to expose to our live officers and operators , simply for the sake of trying to probe and get a view of the inside of the structure, we try to leave the final option of engaging our staff to make an entry.

It is a very aggressive and offensive move no matter how you look at it, although our intention is merely to make contact and make sure the subject is okay, but considering the things happening with this particular individual or the suicide situation on the part of a police officer every time you press him or all we end up doing is rushing the guy not to pick up the phone, but they think they can see the silhouette of a man in the front room, there is a figure that they can't, they can't decide if Is it the guy against the wall or is it a figure or some kind of statue right there in the front left.

Just clear, keep tilting and forward so you can start tilting it forward. Sergeant Herrera decides to put an end to the uncertainty by taking a closer look. He picks up the phone so we can talk. We just want to talk. We don't want to hurt. hold the point in this window on the right side over here give me points in this window real quick I'm just going to take a look here and see if I can see what the hell this negative thing is uh contact on the topic to land after four hours of trying to negotiate with a suicidal man, temporarily suspend the process while they consider their next step during the calm ray reflects on their first experience trying to save someone from the brink of death.

I can remember very vividly one of my first calls. My first year as a police officer involved a child drowning and ironically I was very close and I had just had a child so it was very close to my heart when I got home I was able to make contact with the grandparents. and and they saw the child appear lifeless, so I did everything I could working on a child and performing CPR. The happy ending was a couple of months later. They called me to the reception and there is a family I barely recognize. cookies and gifts to give me because the child she basically had was able to be revived and made a 100% recovery and that made my career prepare for the gas, another 20 minutes passed and then I decided to up the ante, let's prepare for the chemical agents. deploying some chemicals inside the structure in hopes that will prompt it to make contact or exit.

Nobody is here to hurt you. We want to talk to you, Frank, please pick up the phone. The team then used the robots to pour a chemical agent. inside the house that should expel the suicidal man outside, officers then use multiple launchers to ensure that the chemical agent has reached all parts of the exterior of the house. Now put your hands in the air 15 minutes later, to conclude that the guy is unlikely to show up, so you prepare to enter the house and find him. The plan is that if all this fails and we have to commit to going in, I will drive this bear and this truck through the fence, getting as close to that back as possible. door as much as possible to have a secondary entry point, George, let me set it up so that it can rest your entrance in the back, we are going to move the truck into position so we can enter the backyard, first we will use your truck to ram the fence so that Ray and his men can move to surround the rear of the property while Sergeant Herrera's entry team assaults the outside front when Srt enters the kitchen they discover a dead body, a gun and a gunshot wound to the head that The entry team was able to identify and locate the potential subject in the kitchen apparently the seeds of a self-inflicted gunshot wound however homicide investigators are going to do a follow up investigation to verify the veracity of that is going to be an unfortunate outcome for the family an unfortunate outcome for the An individual, recently, a fire rescue team verified that the subject has passed away and unfortunately leaves a lot of sadness in his wake.

The positive thing that comes out of this is that we can go back home, hurt our families, and appreciate the things we do. I have and uh and I never give up on the things that we have accomplished based on the evidence found by investigators, it appears to have been a suicide in the United States. One person commits suicide every 17 minutes. Miami is the fourth richest city in the United States, but 30 percent of its population lives below it. the poverty line Fisher Island in Miami Beach is the richest zip code in the country where the average home costs five million dollars twenty miles south Sergeant George Herrera is in West Parish one of the poorest areas in the United States where crime drug related have become an epidemic today we are in a police car so this area is so used to seeing police officers they will think we are patrolling the streets ahead, yeahIf you look up you will see that there are two of two uniforms. officers coming in on a call right now, guys, okay, all good, stay safe, they're handling some kind of call and now everyone in the area probably thinks we're responding to that call, so now we're going to pivot.

We turn around and will start driving on opposite blocks near the house we are actually going to go to. We get to this house before we even have a stopwatch. We absolutely get to this house before we hit that house before we get to that house before we get to this house before this house on the corner here the one that says it's for rent we hit that on the back of this house you go let's see there's a fence we someone threw a bunch of narcotics, crack rocks in a the baby's diaper ran out the back door that's right in the back there this is another house we've hit several times george is driving by an intelligence gathering mission for upcoming srt high risk drug warrant your team arrived at the target address two weeks ago but no one was there we found a small amount of narcotics inside the royal house.

Further investigation since that date, investigators have now told me that not only is the subject selling narcotics within the area, but he has now returned. in the same house and selling even larger quantities than we were originally looking for, for that reason we will go back verifying the house information and making sure there are no changes so we can deliver the order tomorrow and, in my opinion, lock a guy who needs to go to jail immediately in the distance the suspect continues doing business without realizing what awaits him having graduated at the top of his class at the srt training academy rookie dave rivera has begun his test with the three special response team units good job david good job if dave becomes a member of this elite police unit it will be a dream come true for a kid who was once bullied and is overweight i hate that i'm always known as a nerd dave has been put under extreme pressure What don't you like to eat with the 30 guys?

What is the problem at this moment? The guys just don't trust him. He's a new guy. He's the outsider, so he has to prove himself. He made mistakes. The rookie almost passed but he has also proven his worth. in real combat situations he is now entering the final phase to become a full member of srt we arrived at this house two weeks ago apparently the guy got a little nervous he found out from his lookouts that there was a lot of rivera police activity and Phil Rivera already has the information box in the back after having driven the troop transport and then the armored bear cat.

Dave, the rookie, has now been trusted to work the perimeter of a drug warrant in the West Parish area that Dave is going to establish. up the safe pace and he's going to take a point above you are there specifically for containment, okay guys, let's get out of here, let's go, today is Friday the 13th and I'm not superstitious, but I'll tell you what they are. The subjects will be a little unlucky today. Dave works closely with his field training officer, Phil Frazen, who has become his mentor. He's doing well, he's progressing well and he's getting a lot of pressure from the guys, so all the pressure it's putting on him.

Even someone like me has been there for a while, sometimes we can't handle it, so the pressure on him is incredible, cool, I'll guide him, just load the ladder on the fan. He has been with the department for 27 years, so he is a very experienced operator. The officer and I definitely look up to him and he cares about me like a big brother, Phil, give him a little smile, what, give him a little smile, little smile, brother, here we go, off, off, keep the light on when he jumps, give to me. a second so I can take out the ladder here we go up very clear clear clear clear right get on the ground get on the ground get on the ground get on the ground get on the ground get on the ground get on the floor get on the floor door are you ready, how is that download? of adrenaline when your foot hits the pavement?

It's like going on one of those rides at a carnival where they lift you high in the air and suddenly they let you go and you fall and you fall but you know you'll be okay because you have that safety ladder, that's how I feel when I get off the ride. Bearcat with these guys, these guys are like my safety line, basically, while Dave covers the back of the house in his field. The training officer covers it. He doesn't have to like the guy you separate your personal relationships with at work. He and I get along well so it's a little easier, but sometimes that can get in the way when you have to cancel. or get a little nervous, you know, that might get in the way a little, but you still have to take it like a man, if you mess up, you'll do better next time and I'll let you know while the rookie hangs in there.

At the perimeter, the entry team finished securing their targets and found large amounts of marijuana, cocaine and cash. The suspects are then charged with drug-related crimes. Officer Rivera did an outstanding job. He immediately took the position I needed to take and held off any potential runners. the backyard based on the short time he has been here his short tenure at srt the expectations for him are very high the type of behavior he portrays and the professionalism he brings to this job will make him phenomenal as a srt Operator the offering of the Rookies to become a member of SRT began on a trial day, an evaluation of Miami-Dade police officers who are interested in joining the elite police unit.

Well, this was an experience I went through about a year ago, so what's going on? His minds are extremely stressed They have all these eyes looking at them He has a good pace, yes, long, just dope, you really need to make the maximum effort possible because the selection process starts from the first day this year. Another 25 hopefuls undergo a rigorous physical exam and will qualify for the srt academy, which lasts three weeks and is even more difficult. I see good potential here. There are people here that I have really had the privilege of training at the academy. and even back then you could see they had a fire inside them, if an officer fails in one discipline they cannot move on to the next after only two tasks, many candidates are already struggling and some have found it to be too much. right yeah you're okay you're here for a reason yeah okay let's get out let's go push build this one before yeah start the next one officers must stay afloat for 15 minutes a prerequisite for the future training in the water, what we try and What we do is test where they are physically before they come in, even to school, to know what kind of shape they are in, strength-wise, because obviously we carry additional equipment with us , but I think that is the most important aspect of the test. it allows you to get into the applicant's head, their way of thinking, you know how much they want to be here and you will find that inevitably, you know one or two people will just leave it, martínez, open your eyes, open it, I'm talking to you.

I think you're going to enter school you don't know why you're here Martinez these are the perfect conditions you're in a pool can you imagine if there are waves the purpose of this is not to see if you can float it's where you can? step into the water and you don't have to have any equipment on, so if you're struggling so much in this water you're going to drown there, you're fine after 10 minutes, a candidate seems to be sinking here, oh oh, do it. Again, he's got you, man, you better do it again. Now it's time to test the nerves of the candidates at the shooting range.

The test requires an accuracy of 90 within the central part of the target known as the peanut. After the first round, many of the officers are already disqualified. the reason this particular candidate was disqualified just because he missed too many rounds of the peanut, okay, it's a 48 round course out of 48, you have 12 rounds of the peanut, so you have to do a second try, unless let him pull a miracle that is not going to do well, the guys have passed, go ahead, congratulations on trying out for srt48, congratulations now that's the good side, the bad side is, um, some of you barely made it, very well, just a part of you and you know who you are, it's probably okay and some of you know me.

I'm a sniper. I'm going to tell you how things are. I'm not going to sugarcoat things right now. I've seen that there are probably three of you who are pretty close to being physically ready, the rest of you have no idea what you're getting into, there aren't enough candidates for the course, srt school is only postponed until later in the anus. The top one percent of the Miami-Dade Police Department has the strength, stamina, and stamina to make it onto the Special Response Team. Dave, the rookie, continues his training with George Herrera's 20 unit. The tough love we give to new recruits or better yet rookies. uh, it gives them a little bit more extra pressure, it puts more on their shoulders and basically what we're trying to do is see how they're going to react under pressure, the team is piling more responsibility on Dave's shoulders, today he's got to throw his first stun grenade aka flashbang when you can see through the house when you see the bear cat stop when we go through the fence give us about five seconds after the bear cat stops and deploy the automatic explosion okay good you look good today thank you you look very smart feel calm extend your hand are you ready to go i'm actually wearing gloves i mean it's a stress test stress test that's just coffee chills man oh that's coffee it has an extra increase in responsibility and that with that responsibility also comes trust, so obviously one with the other positive correlation you will see that they trust me more, that's why they gave me a little more first, a responsibility, this is the In the first one we will have windows, doors and everything, so we'll be fine there, but that's the one where they're going to have to hit the pool.

Yeah, look for a sliding door or something, unless like always. Phil Frazen, the rookie field training officer, will be watching your every move. If I hear bravo bravo, if I'm not looking at you, that means I know you're on target and I don't have to worry about you, right? agreement? Let's get to a house first after finishing our side quest. We turned it over to narcotics detectives. We go to a secondary house a block away. Entry equipment in both court orders in both rooms. It will be the same shield. It will be Roman Kenny Acevedo a Quesada two.

This drug warrant is a little different as the team will attack two directions, one around the corner from the other, on the second objective the rookie will deploy his automatic flashbang on all three sides when you start to see us lose the foot and you hear the chain, the wire fence open, you can drop it here, okay, anything else, okay guys, let's close the gate, go ahead, go ahead, phil and dave quickly surround the back of the target to make sure there are no suspects. Try to escape You're good You're good Entry team Arrest your targets and find two Ak-47s The most feared weapon on the streets of America One of the suspects is later charged with firearms possession by a convicted felon Hey Kenny Are You Sure, we're ready to hand them over to the detectives and then jump the bear back to its next target before the lookouts can warn the suspects.

Dave prepares to launch the flashbang, a device used to divert attention from the suspect. from the entry team phil and rivera this is her open lot this is her open lot the white house behind her the rookie is left at the back of the target to deploy his flashbang while the rest of the team surrounds the front and climbs to the ground , to the ground, the suspects have been successfully apprehended, but the rookie has some searching to do right now, we're looking for a deployed, uh bang, flash bang, the body is somewhere in this mess, so before we go, let's go . to try to give him 100 find him so we can recover the body from the flash bang.

All flash bangs must be recovered as they are reusable and, more importantly, evidence. uh, David Rivera made a rookie mistake. You know there was an open area and there was a cluttered area and he, in the heat of the moment, through the distraction device in a cluttered area, so it's become difficult to find him now, Dave couldn't find the flash grenade in the floor, so they ordered him to look higher, hey, I didn't. I close my eyes rookie I saw the flash guy fly in the air and go boom and I go check the ceiling well the flash bang ended up appearing on the ceiling so we had to look a little more to find out if this is a error, how.

Have the guys been treating you for this? It is actually a mistakebackground. I can not wait. The man who reports despite having made another rookie mistake. You can't hold back a good man no matter what even the worst day is still the best. and I love coming to work every day pull pull pull three intense months srt rookie dave rivera finally completes his srt training I got you, sit down, just sit down, I got you as his test progresses, Dave gets has given more and more responsibility to examine how they cope in combat situations my job is the perimeter point in the front area, so I will be in front if something happens, whatever issue, it is my job to handle them, take them down and, with a body Bonus, I'll be able to secure them on a highly successful drug warrant, Dave finally has the opportunity to enter his first target address and search for suspects and evidence as to rookie Rivera, he's, uh, he's slowly rising up the srt ladder uh in this. scenario since I was pretty sure we didn't have anyone in the attic, I gave him a chance to go up there and search the attic, clean out the attic so you know he's slowly starting to move up at the end, even Sgt.

Manny Malgore has been impressed with the rookie's progress. We've shown that over the years, the more stress you put on these guys, if they can, if they can get through it, if they survive at the end of the day and they still want to be. Here then that's the guy you're looking for to celebrate becoming the latest member. Srt Dave's superior officers took him to a Florida Panthers ice hockey game. The tower just graduated from his second phase of srt training, so we decided to take him out. Normally I wouldn't go out with him. He's a bit of a geek, but you.

I know we are making an exception today, they have been kind enough to acknowledge the fact that I was able to successfully pass my second phase, so no, the rookie is doing very well, but I like him, he will do well, he will grow. and learn to be a good team guy, he's my replacement, well if he's my replacement and he's not doing a good job, but if he's not my replacement he'll hold up just fine, I like him, I'm a direct reflection of him. teachings so you're a direct reflection of me you're going to be good bro trust me stop for an hour and then obviously I'll do well in this unit while Dave tests his cheerleading skills his colleagues revealed that his true talent resides in srt our The unit is so small that there is no room to have anyone in this unit and we cannot take the war with it, so even if it is in its learning phases, I would have no hesitation in going to a room with this man and be able to take care of my life just as I would take care of his.

He is, bar none, probably one of the best guys to ever come out of the last surveillance school and that's why he's in this unit now. Are you sure you made the right decision? I know. I made the right decision to have the camaraderie, the teamwork, the ability to exercise and train regularly and just have that trust in your fellow man. I know I made the right decision by joining these Bander brothers, The Rocky. Soon again under pressure, stadium officials asked him to throw a T-shirt into the crowd. Let's hope he does a better job than he did with his flashbang.