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Sunday, May 27, 2007

A Death, A Chase, A Baby Saved!

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posted by Bob at Sunday, May 27, 2007

3 Comments:

Blogger Bob said...

An Amber Alert was issued for the Brooklyn Center girl after her mother was found dead.

By Herón Márquez Estrada and Jackie Crosby, Star Tribune staff writers

Last update: May 26, 2007 – 11:53 PM

Brooklyn Center police chief Scott Bechthold addressed the press at the police station. Police were holding a 24 year-old man on suspicion that he killed his girlfriend and then fled the scene with their two-year old daughter. The man surrendered to authorities on the I-694 bridge over the Mississippi River.

joles, Star Tribune

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For a few tense moments Saturday afternoon, Sgt. Frank Roth wasn't sure what the man dangling his feet -- and his baby -- over the Mississippi River highway bridge was going to do.
Jermaine Dickerson, 24, was already being sought in connection with the stabbing death of his girlfriend earlier that day at her Brooklyn Center apartment.

Now, six hours later, Dickerson was holding Roth and Brooklyn Center officers at bay by threatening to throw himself and his 2-year-old daughter, Tiana Stevens, into the river more than 40 feet below. "I was telling him a lot of people cared about him and his child," Roth, a crisis negotiator, said Saturday after talking Dickerson into freeing Tiana and giving himself up.

The rescue of the 2-year-old ended a dramatic day of police activity with domestic abuse, at least one kidnapping, an Amber Alert, a police chase and the standoff on the Interstate Hwy. 694 bridge near Fridley.

"Never in my 28 years of law enforcement have I been involved in such a tragic situation with so many twists and turns and intensity," Brooklyn Center Police Chief Scott Bechthold said. "Although one person died, we were able to prevent further tragedy."

Bechthold said Tiana is now in protective custody, as is an older sister, who was not home at the time of the stabbing.

He did not give a motive for the killing.

He said police had been called to the apartment two other times in the last week on domestic calls. After the second occasion, Dickerson was removed from the apartment, police said.

There were no orders for protection against Dickerson, Bechthold said.

'Violent domestic dispute'

The events began around 11:15 a.m., when Brooklyn Center officers were called to Sterling Square Apartments to investigate what Bechthold called a "violent domestic dispute."

Bechthold said officers found Tiana's mother -- whose name was not released -- critically injured from various stab wounds. He said she later died at North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale.

Almost immediately police were told that, following the stabbing, Dickerson had abducted the couple's 2-year-old daughter. Police said he later stole a truck, which he used to try to escape.

Also in the truck was Dickerson's mother, the girl's grandmother. Police would not say how the grandmother ended up in the truck. Late Saturday investigators were questioning her, Bechthold said. "There is no indication that she was taken against her will," he said.

During the day, police were concerned for everyone's safety because, Bechthold said, there were indications Dickerson was contemplating suicide.

An Amber Alert was issued by police shortly before 5 p.m. and police quickly received dozens of calls, including one from a motorist who was following Dickerson's truck down Brooklyn Center streets.

Brooklyn Center police quickly caught up with the truck, which began racing from the officers.

The chase ended with Dickerson slamming on the brakes and running out of the truck. Police said he grabbed his daughter, ran to the bridge and climbed on the guardrail.

Almost immediately the freeway was closed in both directions, and Roth was called.

"When I got to the scene he had both of his legs on the river side and the baby in his lap," said Roth, a crisis negotiator for 14 years. "The only thing sitting on the guardrail was his butt."

Roth said he worked to develop a trust with Dickerson, telling him "it was our main intention to make sure the child was safe."I was trying to bring him into reality," Roth said.

Bechthold said the entire incident was over within 10 or 15 minutes. "It was a very short, intense situation," he said.

"The intensity on that bridge with the environment of the freeway and to shut it down so quickly, it was one heck of a job," Bechthold said.


hme@startribune.com • 651-298-1554 jcrosby@startribune.com • 612-673-7335

10:39 AM  
Blogger Bob said...

Another domestic abuse case. The cases are piling up one after another.

IS THIS THE STATE OF THE ECONOMY DOING THIS? People do fight more when they have financial troubles.

11:06 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't think it is the state of the economy as much as it is the state of everyone's attitude toward other people. Everyone is out to screw everyone, and there is no remedy anywhere in sight. The government won't help you. They say they will and they have all their marvelous programs and courts, and politicians with their failed policies etc, but nothing works for the common person any longer. When you have policies that move people toward desperation and they feel they have nothing to lose or have already lost it all, you have one nasty problem and that is just exactly what we are starting to see. Don't expect it to end anytime soone either, wht we have seen the past month or so is just the beginning.

2:29 PM  

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