As told by News 8's Jim Douglas
FORT WORTH -- It was a strange and troubling sight for anyone peeking through the blinds at a north Fort Worth apartment complex recently: A half-dozen members of the U.S. Marshals North Texas fugitive task force lined up on a stairway like a team of soldiers about to make entry.
Instead, they knocked. Loudly. Repeatedly.
They had tracked down a man wanted for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. No one answered.
"We are not going to go away," a task force officer shouted over and over.
That could be their motto.
Five years. 10. They don't go away. They keep looking.
So who are these guys? And how do they prepare to face potentially-violent takedowns, one after another? They often see several a day.
For the most part, they go after only violent, felony offenders.
They suited me up for training. Protective vest. Handgun with simulated ammo. Instructions on a fugitive named Andy, who I am supposed to arrest at his mother’s home.
The home is actually one of several rooms at a training facility that feels a little like a haunted house.
"Andy has a long history of violence, with weapons and contact with police,” explained Deputy US Marshal Keith Sieks. “He is a violent offender."
I find Andy sitting on a couch next to a pillow. He’s not happy to see me.
"Are you Andy?"
"Maybe."
"'Maybe' you're Andy?" My voice rises. I’m already off-balance.
My trainers are deputy U.S. Marshals. But most of the 40 or so North Texas task force officers are from 17 police and sheriff's departments.
Andy screams at me, "You don't understand. I can't go back to jail!"
He knocks the pillow to the floor, revealing a pistol lying on the sofa.
My voice and pulse keep climbing.
"Andy. Andy! Put your hands up. Get away from the gun."
It's more than role play. It's life-saving training.
I lean in and grab the gun, while my partner covers Andy. Trainers then tell me I probably made a critical error by getting too close to the fugitive.
"Real life, someone would probably grab the gun and shoot it out with you,” Keith Sieks tells me. “They would more than likely not let you take it."
In February, a fugitive armed robber raised his gun at a task force team, rather than return to jail. He died in a Fort Worth motel parking lot.
A few weeks later, a fugitive sped away from a task force team trying to arrest him. The pursuit ended with Fort Worth police in a gunfight.
An officer was badly wounded. Another fugitive dead.
“It’s more dangerous for the citizens,” said Dallas Police Sergeant Sheldon Smith, who is assigned to the task force. “If police officers aren’t the guys that get them off the streets, then who will?”
"You have to have that drive to want to catch the bad guy,” said task force officer Rick Bruner. “That's all we do every day."
That drive comes from the bottom up and the top down.
"We do this for the victims,” said Rick Taylor, acting U.S. Marshal for the northern district of Texas.
Taylor recalls one particular victim that drove him to track down a violent fugitive when he worked in California.
"A father had literally beaten to death his 4-year-old son," Taylor said.
He says the North Texas task force is one of 67 nationwide.
Officers have desks at the rand Prairie Police Department, but you'll rarely find them in a cubicle. Each works about 15 cases at any given time.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Van Bayless tracked a killer for seven years.
“This was known as the 'Halloween Massacre.' Happened in Escondido, California," Bayless recalled.
Bayless found the man in Mexico.
Marshals have tracked down fugitives as far away as Iraq. Rick Taylor says task force officers are relentless.
Delta team of the North Texas Task Force made three arrests while we rode with them. None was violent, but all were emotional.
Task force officers get yelled at a lot. If that’s all that happens, it’s a good day.
The armed robber in the apartment acted as if he might jump out a second story window and run for it. After seeing he was surrounded, he finally surrendered.
Task force members gathered to plan their next fugitive arrest.
