In Pursuit | FULL EPISODE | The FBI Files

in the midwest the fugitive drug dealer will do anything to avoid capture [Music] his desperate run is fueled by drugs and punctuated by gunfights as he barrels across two states local and federal authorities are determined to fight back and to stay in pursuit [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] when law enforcement officers become targets no one is safe so when a crystal meth dealer on the run from the law began shooting cops it took more than police to stop him i'm jim caldstrom former head of the fbi's new york office with a fearless killer on the loose in the midwest residents had to help the fbi and state and local police bring down the dealer and deliver him to justice [Music] on february 2nd 2000 on the quiet back roads of lincoln county nebraska lincoln county sheriff's deputy stan mcknight was on routine patrol when he saw a vehicle rapidly approach from behind a maroon pickup truck sped past [Music] but knight spotted texas plates and pickup but he could not make out the numbers the deputy began cautious pursuit [Applause] recent weather conditions had created black ice on the roads without the benefit of street lights the roads appeared normal but were treacherously covered with patches of slick ice subject deputy mcknight radioed for assistance please alert all available units several nebraska state patrol troopers mobilized to try to intercept the pickup [Applause] whoever was in the truck seemed to have no regard for his own safety since the roads were free of other traffic no one else was in danger mcknight decided high-speed pursuit was not worth the risk it appeared as though he knew the area that he was in and due the fact that he would take more chances and drive faster than i would he was able to disappear eventually the truck vanished into the night i had called in for assistance from the department and all the deputies and state troopers were working and we combed the whole area and looking for that vehicle and it was to no avail nebraska police issued a be on the lookout bulletin for the maroon pickup with texas plates but that night no one spotted the vehicle or its driver a week later and 40 miles away in north platte nebraska deputies responded to a call from a farmer [Music] he hadn't used his barn in years [Music] so the farmer was surprised to discover someone had been working there recently leaving a strange workplace behind the deputies found chemicals and other items available in farm supply stores [Music] they'd often seen this combination of materials in the area before they were the ingredients needed to make methamphetamine an illegal drug the powerful stimulant meth is also known as crank or speed it's easy to make with materials commonly found on farms in recent years the midwestern countryside has seen an epidemic of methamphetamine production according to lincoln county nebraska sheriff's corporal casey nelms methamphetamine labs are a problem because it's such a rural area a lot of abandoned farm houses farmsteads where people don't live anymore gives opportunity for for these people to go in and and manufacture this drug pretty much undetected the drug is addictive and extremely dangerous users feel a temporary high then intense paranoia and a craving for more most users become aggressive and desperate when meth labs pop up in an area violent crime follows during their search of the meth lab in the north platte barn deputies found several pieces of mail they were addressed to charles moses jr of nacona texas deputies contacted texas authorities asking for information on they moses photos of moses and learned there were warrants for his arrest for the theft of several firearms nebraska investigators also learned moses drove a maroon pickup truck with texas plates the make and model of the truck matched the description of the one that had evaded deputy mcknight only a week earlier if charles moses was manufacturing methamphetamine there was a good chance he was using it too that might explain why moses drove so recklessly on the night of the chase the people that use this become very paranoid they have no pain threshold sometimes they're up for days and it's they're just a real problem they're hard to handle during their rounds in the tightly knit communities in the area police showed the photo of moses and asked if anyone had noticed an outsider fitting his description some residents reported seeing him in the past we were pretty sure that he was in the area but no one had seen him in several days and moses had no local address at 11 pm on february 12 2000 a week after the meth lab was discovered lincoln county corporal casey nelms was about to start his shift as was his routine he picked up a cup of coffee before hitting the road but that night would prove to be anything but routine through the window nelm spotted a vehicle that matched the description of charles moses's pickup truck oh goodnight you too but he needed to get a look at the driver when he got out of the pickup he resembled the individual that we were looking for the truck had texas plates seven to one six 1089 nelms headed out to check the man's id but the man spoke first with the roads like out there pretty slick where are you heading uh just it's kind of hanging out it's going out i approached him and asked him uh if he was where he was going what he was doing i asked him for his identification and when he handed it to me the name on the driver's license was charles moses [Music] you're under arrest i really expected that once i got a hold of him in the vehicle that i was going to be able to you know take him out of the vehicle without any problem and place him under arrest but he was just spectacularly strong i just couldn't do anything with him except just keep struggling with him to try to keep the weapon away from my face moses fired 1089 parking lot shots fired i was pretty sure two of my rounds hit the second round i saw it hit the back of the cab and the third round also hit the back of the cab nelms tried to follow moses but the fugitive drove with the recklessness of a man on methamphetamine and disappeared nebraska state patrol officers heard the shots fired call and joined the search for the would-be cop killer lincoln county sheriff's deputy stan mcknight who had chased the maroon truck before heard about the pursuit on the radio he needed to position himself in a place where he was likely to intercept moses there's an area that's commonly called the correction line it's an area where i could see the best i thought possible three different roads intersecting that area and that was the middle one i could watch a mile behind me that one and a mile in front of me mcknight waited in the dark hoping he was in the right place after about 10 or 15 minutes of sitting there a vehicle did come from the west at the very road intersection that i was at and as they got right to the front of my vehicle i turned my headlights on and i saw the vehicle that was the same identical vehicle that i'd seen less than two weeks before [Music] he was traveling in excess of 70 to 80 mile an hour and being nighttime conditions it was hard to see him and he was out of distance me quite rapidly deputy mcknight tried to maintain a visual on the pickup truck but the vehicle seemed to disappear yet again ignite change tactics at that point he had pretty much well got ahead of me at the same time i had to slow down and check driveways and intersecting road intersections to make sure he hadn't turned off on me [Music] then the deputy saw a vehicle's brake lights in the distance it was idling at an empty intersection [Music] deputy mcknight called for backup [Music] moses had already fired at one officer it was too dangerous for the deputy to advance alone he waited for the backup officers before they came moses made his move one bullet entered stan mcknight's head another ripped through his hand upon figuring out that i'd been hit by a bullet i was going to try to call to the rest of the officers around to let them know what was going on only when i reached for the mic i couldn't talk my mouth was all full of blood and i was starting to choke so i fell around and i found some napkins in the seat and i got them shoved up in my mouth to make the blood go out and i got it spit out and i could talk and let them know that i'd been hit and that the subject had went on to the left and was going to be chasing him despite his injuries deputy mcknight was not going to give up his pursuit the wind was coming through the holes in the windshield blowing glass all over my left eye was completely shut from blood my right eye was just blinking but i could still see enough of my headlights to keep going down the road based on the coordinates mcknight radioed several teams of nebraska state patrol troopers headed towards stakeout positions in the area they drove with their headlights and flashers off so they wouldn't alert moses troopers in two cars positioned themselves on a dark county road and waited minutes later headlights appeared it was moses one of the troopers spotted a gun [Music] after firing a full clip of moses the trooper realized a bullet had torn through his bulletproof vest he was losing blood fast the chest wound appeared to be life-threatening they called for an ambulance from a hospital dozens of miles away in the dark prairie the troopers hoped their fallen friend would survive in a frantic escape charles moses had shot both a sheriff's deputy and a state trooper though gravely injured deputy mcknight continued pursuit of moses a man willing to kill to stay on the run in february of 2000 nebraska authorities confronted charles moses a texas fugitive suspected of running a methamphetamine lab escaping he led police on a high-speed chase shooting one deputy in the head and a state trooper in the chest before vanishing into the night paramedics stabilized the wounded trooper then transported him to the nearest emergency room helping to process the crime scene was nebraska state patrol sergeant lynn williams we secured the area and then our major concern was obviously the gathering of evidence so we collected the trooper's service pistol his duty and gun belt spent shell casings that were still at the scene we took 35 millimeter photographs videotape the the scene moses had fired several bullets one struck the cruiser's reflective seal perhaps the only thing visible on the dark prairie the bullet had passed through the door of the trooper's patrol car had struck the trooper in the abdomen piercing his bulletproof vest as well as traveling through his body to get through that much protection the gun moses used against police had to be a powerful one it was obvious that this was a high-powered rifle we were looking for some sort of an assault rifle something large bore high powered the state police brought the spent rifle slugs to their ballistics lab for analysis technicians there examined the size weight and metal composition of the slugs they determined they were high velocity rounds most likely fired from a 762 sks military assault rifle deadly weaponry designed for trained military personnel something else entirely in the hands of a criminal after the multiple cop shooting the fbi joined the effort to capture moses special agent ron rawal took the call at the normally quiet north platte nebraska fbi resident agency our caseload primarily is in the area of white-collar crime and it's not very common that we get called in to assist in investigations of violent criminal activity agent ray walt gathered information to obtain an unlawful flight to avoid prosecution warrant against moses in this particular case we anticipated that moses would leave the state of nebraska after he fled his arrest and that the fbi could assist in locating him hoping to catch moses before he left nebraska authorities set up a command center at a state police barracks officers from virtually every law enforcement agency in the state shared intelligence on moses [Music] several had had run-ins with him usually in connection with clandestine meth labs he had a history of using abandoned farm farmsteads farm places not only for the manufacturer methamphetamine but for hiding and living as well so we knew that we needed to be aware of this and target those areas for a search hundreds of police vehicles across the state mobilized with officers looking for any sign of charles moses or his maroon pickup truck in the sprawling rural landscape finding moses would not be easy was last seen wearing a light colored investigators also hope the public would assist in the search media bulletins urged citizens to avoid moses and to call the police if they a special spotted him [Music] in the small town of dickens nebraska 30 miles south of where the two officers were shot a young farmer found tire tracks leading to a garage his parents car was usually inside instead there was a maroon pickup truck his parents car was gone recognizing the truck from media reports the farmer called police the nebraska state patrol confirmed that the truck belonged to charles moses and that officers had hit the vehicle when returning fire the license plate that we were looking for was still displayed on the truck which was registered to mr moses it had evidence that it had been shot at with a firearm the bullet holes were in the back portion of the cab they had shattered the back window of the cab some had lodged in the dash of the cab and some had passed out through the front windshield make sure you get this wheel investigators also found evidence the suspect was wounded by at least one of the many shots fired at the vehicle we located human blood in the in the cab the interior of the pickup that led us to believe that possibly when the lincoln county deputy had fired it at moses early on during the incident that possibly had been struck but if moses was injured he had the perfect drug to stay alert pain-free and aggressive to keep running without sleep there was a tremendous amount of paraphernalia located in his pickup that deals with cooking or the manufacturer methamphetamine he virtually had a had a lab present in the back of the truck investigators also found survivalist gear police radios and weapons in the truck what they didn't find was the high-powered assault rifle moses used to shoot two police officers an hour after the pickup was found and 60 miles northwest in ogallala nebraska the nebraska state patrol responded to a call from a man who said he was an acquaintance of charles moses he was in a car i was wondering about you haven't seen you for a while yeah the man said he had seen moses 15 minutes earlier moses spoke to him at a truck stop he was in a car that matched the description of the vehicle missing from the dickens farm moses heard a radio bulletin that said police were looking for the vehicle if you see this vehicle call station he panicked and took off the man said he had waited 15 minutes to call police because he was afraid at first the dangerous fugitive knew where his family lived police worried moses would change vehicles again to throw them off his trail two hours after the last sight and 20 miles south of the truck stop in paxton nebraska a farmer noticed fresh tire tracks outside a house on his family's farmstead a house that was closed up and unused he called his family to ask if anyone had been to the house they hadn't but they told him about the bulletins warning of a dangerous fugitive in the area they said he should leave the place immediately [Music] a relative on the line heard the farmer talking to someone police would soon learn that charles moses had just claimed his first murder victim [Music] the deadly fugitive was still on the run now more desperate than ever [Music] on february 14 2000 36 hours after fugitive charles moses seriously wounded two nebraska law enforcement officers a murder investigation began in paxton nebraska the victim was a local farmer killed while talking to a relative on his cell phone the investigative team had to piece together the murder from crime scene clues the circumstances indicated charles moses was involved to nebraska state police sergeant lynn williams we had learned that the victim had drove in the abandoned farmstead to check on tire tracks that he observed we believe that he surprised moses and moses reacted with that surprise and shot the victim killing him moses then drugged the victim from the victim's pickup placed him on the ground and moses then got back in the victim's pickup and left the scene troopers found tracks consistent with those on the model of truck the farmer drove as well as broken glass from the truck on one side of the driveway the position of the glass suggested the vehicle's driver's side window had been blown out fbi special agent ron raywalt knew the glass was an important clue i anticipated that moses would try and use a defense of self-defense stating that he was returning fire from someone shooting at him i knew that i could determine how many shots were fired and the direction that the shots originated from when a high-speed projectile hits a piece of glass and the glass breaks physical characteristics are left in the glass this answers questions for the crime scene investigator it tells them which bullet hit first and the direction of travel of the bullet the glass would be examined later in the lab behind a barn property investigators found the stolen car that moses was last seen driving the car seemed hastily abandoned in the back seat troopers found chemicals knives and several firearms [Music] it appeared that moses had switched vehicles after he heard a radio report that police were looking for this car it was very obvious that mr moses had been attempting to hide or camouflage concealed the vehicle it had a tarp over it and moses was in the process of covering the vehicle with broken and dead branches tree branches and that that sort of stuff investigators found the victim's identification they couldn't find the cell phone he was using when he was murdered they believed moses had the phone with him in the farmer's blue pickup truck they issued an apb for the vehicle and contacted cell phone companies to begin tracking the cell phone signal while powered on cell phones are constantly in search of the nearest tower to be ready for use police can flag a specific phone number and learn which tower is serving it [Music] two hours after the farmer's murder was discovered a cell phone tower in oshkosh nebraska picked up the signal from the missing phone but before police could respond to the location the cell phone signal disappeared the fbi also studied the glass fragments from the farmstead crime scene [Music] i was able to determine that one bullet had been fired from outside the truck into the truck and that the bullet thereafter passed through the truck my examination further disclosed that no shots were fired from inside the truck this was not self-defense this was murder take a look at this with the farmer's murder the theft of his pickup truck the fbi issued another federal warrant against charles moses the facts of the case had changed significantly and i was able to change the warrant application process to charge mr moses with the federal carjacking statute with a homicide lock their doors with charles moses crisscrossing the state armed and out of control nebraska governor mike johanns held a news conference to warn the public this is a situation that we need to get through police are seeking charles it was clear the fugitive was ready to kill civilians to get what he wanted he's considered armed and dangerous that evening 80 miles to the west near the nebraska wyoming border an elderly woman was enjoying a quiet evening [Music] she heard someone breaking in through a door she could hear an intruder walking through the house [Music] then approaching her bedroom it was too late to escape so she did her best to hide the evening news it said moses killed the last resident he surprised [Music] it sounded like he was looking for something and then left the woman was unharmed and called police from a neighbor's house she explained that she never saw the man's face but deputies from the scotsbluff nebraska sheriff's department found tire tracks consistent with those on the pickup truck stolen from the murdered farmer they also recovered automotive glass near the left tire track [Music] its position suggested it came from the driver's side window the window investigators believe moses shot out while killing the farmer local officers contacted the fbi about the new development from the facts of the case and the type of glass left at that crime scene it was obvious that moses had been involved in that burglary and that he was traveling in a westerly direction with charles moses believed to be near nebraska's western border the fbi notified wyoming law agencies that a killer might be headed their way [Music] the small town of lusk wyoming is 20 miles from the nebraska border [Music] at the lusk police department chief gary gill received the fbi bulletin that morning we heard about charles moses from our dispatch we knew that he was driving a nebraska pickup truck blue in color and that he could be headed in any direction the wyoming media warned the public about the fugitive [Music] around 1 pm that afternoon the media alerts paid off we heard about the call from a truck driver who had called in to dispatch and was relayed to our office that possibly that pickup truck charles moses was driving was at the south end parking lot of the truck stop here in lusk assistant chief dusty chrisman responded to the scene along with chief guild several vehicles in the parking lot fit the description officers knew one of them might hold a murderer who also tried to kill two policemen we were looking at license plates we spotted a blue pickup that matched the description the plates matched it was the truck [Music] we decided to try to block him in if we could the officers approached from opposite directions someone was inside but the officers couldn't tell if it was moses the truck's driver's side window appeared to be missing if it was moses he might have finally come down off a long and haggard methamphetamine binge chief gill called for backup and waited for more units then the driver woke up he's waking up but assistant chief chrisman couldn't risk firing because from his perspective he did not get a good enough look to be absolutely sure it was moses it meant another chase our biggest fears during the chase is when moses turned onto main street and headed north we knew he was going to be traveling through our business district and more than likely a high rate of speed and also the fear of maybe losing him once he got through the city limits and head north on highway 85. weeks after charles moses's violent spree began law enforcement once again had him in their sights after eluding nebraska authorities in the fbi suspected murderer charles moses had crossed into lust wyoming plus police were in pursuit but moses had a lead on and never hesitated for a moment mr moses finally got away from us off highway 85 onto our ranch road the road was very rudded up our small vehicles with two-wheel drive could not keep up with him in four-wheel drive in the pickup he had he went down to a ranch place and across a old dam and up into the pastures through fences and things where we couldn't chase him authorities lost him again so lust police teamed with the niobrara county sheriff's department sheriff samuel reed helped devise a 10-mile perimeter to contain moses the perimeter was a very large area we were fortunate in one way it set kind of in the middle of the three major highways and and with we had another county road that dissected it basically in the middle but they couldn't rush in we were unsure what his actions were going to be so we we stayed back away knowing that he had a hyper rifle [Music] every law enforcement officer in the area including fish and game wardens manned roadblocks to look for moses and warned travelers to stay away from it [Music] they also met with residents living in the 10-mile perimeter asking them to stay vigilant and call police at the first sign of any suspicious activity i had a very deep concern that if we did not apprehend moses before it got dark that we would have a terrible terrible time finding him i knew the ranch people that were there i was very very concerned for their safety of him entering the house at gunpoint taking him hostage and shooting them and taking a vehicle and leaving the area although moses was somewhere within the 10-mile perimeter the terrain made it too dangerous for deputies to go in on foot without body armor and tactical training they would be vulnerable to ambush or a sniper attack for officers to go in there would have been extremely difficult there are a lot of deep drawers pine trees ravines that he could get down in it would have been very very very difficult to go in there and find him thanks special agent ron raywald helped wyoming authorities with the fbi's federal resources the wyoming office of the fbi brought in two aircraft to assist in the search on the state highways and the rural roads trying to locate the vehicle moses was in flying a grid pattern over the area one of the aircraft spotted the truck moses was last seen driving [Music] it looked like it was stuck in a ravine a swat team from the nebraska state patrol was airlifted to the area moses was armed with a high-powered rifle the swat team had to move cautiously man by man an aggressive fugitive on powerful drugs could be behind any tree ready to kill they positioned themselves above the pickup but they had no visual of charles moses he might be watching them waiting for a clean shot they had to start their search from the truck to stun and distract anyone near it they fired a flashbang percussion grenade he wasn't there they found footprints in the mud by the truck and began following them but in the trees the trail went cold he had eluded us the the people that were right on the scene he had eluded a swat team that had been flown in out of nebraska that night moses would surface again at 8 30 p.m rancher jim cramer's and his son justin heard their dog barking at something behind the house they knew about moses yeah so justin went out on someone was out there i've got a gun don't go any further from the brief look they believed it was moses the gunman had to be stopped justin take your rifle go around back you know on the backside of him then you do what you have to do okay [Music] cramers was unarmed in a standoff with a desperate fugitive who had never hesitated to use violence the rancher had a plan and hoped it would work in eastern wyoming a rancher and his son found fugitive charles moses on their property from media reports rancher jim cramer's knew moses was wanted for shooting several police officers and killing a farmer for his truck justin you know on the back side justin kramers went to cover moses from the back the father risked his life hoping to end the fugitives rampage without more violence i was totally unarmed um moses had a rifle and a large caliber pistol in his hands hoping his son could protect him if his plan failed jim cramer's offered moses a deal he knew the fugitive had been exposed to the day's cold rain showers if moses put down the guns and came inside the rancher would give him a hot meal and throw his clothes in the dryer this was a plan in my head that if i got him in the house i had nothing to fear from him because we would know that he had no weapons it was too cold and and if he ran out of the house without any of his clothes with him why he was not going to be in good shape i very seldom invite someone into my house that i don't ask him to eat so i knew he was hungry so i said let's have something to eat if they got him inside they would try to call the police without him knowing by this time justin cramer's had moses in his sights it looked like moses was going for it then he tensed all right i put my rifle down now where's the other guy you're with right behind you jim cramer's hoped moses would not draw his son into his violence my greatest concern throughout the the ordeal was that my son would not have to shoot someone i didn't want him you know justly or unjustly i did not want him to have to go through life knowing that he had killed a person if it did turn violent justin could not waver justin one of the fears i had was if i did have to shoot at him that i might miss i only had one shot while he had up to six in his pistol where i had a single shot rifle after weeks of a methamphetamine-induced rampage charles moses finally slowed down all right let's go on into the house we'll get you food he left his weapons outside i never actually lowered my rifle i i brought it down a small ways but within quick enough time enough that i could have brought it back up to put on him if i needed to inside the warm house and out of his wet clothes moses concentrated on his first hot meal in days i was able to go out the front door of the house and was gone for around five minutes while i called the sheriff from my brother's house and then i was able to come back in the same door while he never realized i was going what's going on a lusk police officer and a wyoming game warden were there in minutes [Music] [Music] the wild deadly fugitive had nothing to fight with after a staggering chase across hundreds of miles filled with burglary carjacking gun fights and murder charles moses jr was finally in police custody as they theorized moses had been wounded by nebraska deputies at a cheyenne wyoming hospital moses was treated for a bullet wound to his shoulder dehydration and exhaustion the drugs he had taken and the police relentlessly on his trail had run him into the ground fbi special agent ron raywald arranged for moses to be transported back to nebraska the morning after the arrest when i drove to cheyenne wyoming i took a lieutenant with the nebraska state patrol with me and i took deputy casey nelms with me the individual that it attempted to initiate the arrest originally the purpose of taking these two individuals with me was so that when i returned to nebraska with moses both individuals could affect the respective warrants that they were carrying the lieutenant from the patrol arrested moses for the violation of shooting a nebraska state patrol trooper and casey nelms arrested moses for the murder of the farmer as well as the assault by shooting of the two deputies from lincoln county moses initially fought the charges against him but when confronted with ballistics and other forensic evidence he plea bargained to avoid the death penalty charles moses jr pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and two counts of assault on a police officer he was sentenced to 190 years in prison the state trooper moses shot returned to light duty in june of 2000. moses had also shot lincoln county sheriff's deputy stan mcknight in the head in hand [Music] he spent nearly two months in the hospital never willing to give up mcknight was determined to return to his regular patrol i had to go back for several different operations with a total of nine operations and 23 months of continuing therapy after the doctors had stated that they had done all that they could for me i was checked and we went through all the physical dexterity and i was able to go back to work and maintain and do what i was doing before methamphetamine has become the biggest drug problem in the midwest law enforcement there are dedicated to fight it whatever the cost [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The FBI Files

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Keywords: FBI, FBI Files, FBI Documentary, Documentary, Crime, Crime Documentary, Crime Patrol, True Crime, True crime daily, Unsolved, Crime Stories, Crime Documentaries Full Episodes, Full Episode, unsolved true crime, fbi files full episodes, we got him, mystery, solved, investigation, police, criminal, prison, jail, in persuit, in persuit with police, in persuit with the police, true drug dealer, nebraska drug dealer, high speed persuit, high-speed chase

Id: tQGxHn9Ey8A

Length: 49min 36sec (2976 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 06 2021