on December 19th 2023 officers in
Arkansas pursued an individual wanted on
several felony warrants across multiple
States what they didn't know is that the
day would end in tragedy their suspect
Mario denell pagee was wanted by a drug
task force originating out of Memphis
Tennessee we had been trying to catch
Mario for several months he's fled from
us several months I had a snitch call me
or a CI however you choose to put that
call me and tell me Sunday that she had
him trying to come and pick up money
from her he he buy stolen cars okay the
girl said hey I got three grand can you
get me a decent car you know and it was
a setup right the all of the charges on
Mr Paige are he will come to try to sell
you his car he just hits you in the head
takes your money and flee while local
officers and bail bondsmen waited for
Mario to arrive on scene they called for
the Arkansas State Police to assist as
Mario was considered a Flight Risk two
officers were on Route he pulled up on
us we tried to get him out of the car he
rolled down the window the minute he saw
me and I took my hood off you know I
have a hoodie on I took my hood down and
had my credentials hanging on my chest
he sped off and went past your trooper
and a detective Mario page almost hit
the trooper when he shot out cuz he
never let off the gas spun around went
code three and took off after him okay
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go
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ahead M4 uh we're trying to catch up to
is running excessive speed on Mount City
running South toward the
interstate I'm not sure I'm with a DPS
guy just me and him
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on
location still South on Mount
City headed
Northwest just m city
limit it's a wide Chevy andal with
tenant windows it's a
Tennessee paper H tag
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25 Street get on
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coming up to the railroad tracks on
Mount City
South more City I'm trying to catch up
to the these little ways ahead
of we're probably about to get on the
interstate
that
truck I had to stopped for a truck I
didn't think it was going to stop he's
got further ahead of me he's about to
get on eastbound on the interstate up
281 21
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he's passing on the shoulder 282
eastbound still about a/4 mile ahead of
me
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I'm 383
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do there now
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DVI R out
284 DV
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284 there's multiple units on scene we
doing take down a response right now not
response 10 Le First Responders in the
MS according to police reports trailing
officers pulled over and quickly ordered
Mario at gunpoint to leave the vehicle
after they continually received no
response officers approached the
secondary officer details this scene in
a post incident interview uh came along
the driver's side of the car cuz it was
resting on its roof was able to bust the
driver side rear window of course it had
the side curtain airbag at which time I
took a knife cut the airbag so that we
could see into the vehicle at which time
I found a black male lower half of his
body was in the front driver's seat in
between the pasture and driver's seat
with his upper torso in the back his
arms were crossed his chest wasn't
responsive kind of gasing for air eyes
were not open it was just like
a in my 30 years I call it a death
rattle okay it's that last gas breath
this time EMS arrived he actually went
in the vehicle and I believe he was was
the one that checked to see if he had a
pulse and all that he advised he did not
have a
pulse he don't have a p Mario was
pronounced dead at the scene shortly
after by Emergency Medical Services
outside of the vehicle rolling numerous
times it is likely that he was not
wearing his seat belt based on his
placement lowering his chances of
survival even more an investigation was
opened to determine if any wrongdoing
resulted in Mario's passing according to
news sources this investigation placed
Trooper Garrett James Bird on paid
administrat of leave until the
investigation was resolved in a press
release by the department they
attributed the cause of the crash to
Mario hitting the brakes at 140 mph
prior to Trooper Bird's pit or tvi
maneuver attempt using dash cam and
Google Earth references we found their
speed estimation to be fairly accurate
we calculated that the officer's average
speed 5 Seconds prior to the Collision
was 136 m per hour typically pit or tvi
Maneuvers at these speeds are limited to
deadly force situations at many agencies
across the United States one example
policy from the state of Minnesota
discourages pit Maneuvers at over 40 mph
and in certain situations at over 25 mph
however the Arkansas state police are a
rare agency that allows pit Maneuvers
for most Pursuits as their policy
doesn't list any speed recommendations
for them nor does it correlate speed as
a prerequisite for use of deadly force
in these Maneuvers in the pursuit report
submitted by Trooper bird it lists there
were no methods of forcible stops
utilized and that the primary reason the
pursuit ended was due to Mario hitting
the guard rail Trooper bird shared what
he recalled during an investigative
interview all right it's Friday December
22nd 2023 and I'm at the I'm kitney
County Sheriff's Office dispatch center
with Trooper James bird and his attorney
uh Russell wood I went back in over
towards the left lane which he was still
in to attempt to perform a tactical
vehicle intervention or tvi and I don't
know if he anticipated what was coming
and was just trying to get me off of him
or he was in intentionally trying to
wreck me but he the suspect slammed on
the brakes and it's like when he did the
vehicle veered right and it you know I
was still kind of right there beside him
it collected me and we just we both it
caused a collision we both veered right
made sure that we had fire an EMS and
route to assist the suspect um they
informed me that they weren't getting
any response out of him you know there
was plenty of help there waiting on
fireing EMS and I went to check on the
uh the truck driver make sure he was
okay the day after the in ENT various
news organizations obtained this highway
camera footage pertaining to the crash
and criticized the police department's
telling of the events indicating that
the crash was caused by a tvi attempt
and not by Mario hitting the brakes
however in the dash cam footage we
obtained it does appear that Mario
breaks just before the Collision
according to news sources if this crash
is ruled as a result of a tvi Mario's
death would be the fourth Arkansas tvi
fatality of that year as the public
debates the safety and effectiveness
surounding tvi Arkansas State Police
director Colonel Mike Hagar shared his
reasons on their use we're not going to
just hope that they're not going to hit
someone that they're not going to kill
your family that they're not going to
kill my family we've seen that happen
unfortunately this is not Theory we know
what's going to happen the longer we let
that go on so the reason we believe it
is the best tactic is because it's the
most immediate tactic to bring that
pursuit to a conclusion we don't want
anyone to be killed but at the end of
the day we are always going to maintain
that clear priority of life which is the
innocent public then the law enforcement
then the suspects 2 weeks after the
incident the investigative report
indicates officials received a letter
from the state prosecuting attorney
Sonia Hagood of the Second Judicial
District the letter stated no charges
would be pursued against Trooper bird
and gave authority to close the use of
force review as Justified specifically
spelling out that Mario caused the crash
and that Trooper bird did not complete a
tvi now the pit maneuver short for
precision immobilization technique or
Tac vehicle intervention has been used
by law enforcement since the 1980s and
although using it comes with much
controversy in my opinion I do believe
it's a great tool used by police to
catch fleeing criminals but when these
officers are close to the fleeing
vehicle think about the courageous
actions it takes to do this because the
police officer is putting his safety and
possibly his life on the line to keep
the public safe now many Highway Patrol
officers and state troopers do use the
pit maneuver whether you agree or
disagree at the end of the day it's the
fleeing vehicle that initiated this
entire interaction to begin with so we
start out today learning that the Arcos
saw police are looking for a male who's
won it on multiple felonies and make no
mistake about it many times where these
criminals know that they won it they're
not going to go quietly to prison and
keep in mind that these agencies have
been trying to catch this mail for a few
months now so the mail is probably
getting desperate when the bondsman and
local police locate the mail he speeds
off nearly hitting an Arkansas State
Trooper so we do see the disrespect for
the law and the disregard for human life
that he's displaying and now police are
in pursuit of this guy and he's
traveling at dangerously high speeds and
at this point we see the mark vehicle
become the lead vehicle and that of
course so the public and other police
vehicles can identify what's going on
and travel safely during these Pursuits
and as this Pursuit enters the
interstate we see much more traffic and
this is where the danger increases and
this is why balancing the safety of the
public versus capturing this dangerous
felon is difficult because police do
want to catch this guy but catching him
without injuries to anyone is the
objective but then the officer chooses
to make his move he approaches the
suspect's vehicle on the right side and
he attempts to pit maneuver and it does
appear that he immediately straightened
out his wheel but he did have a tractor
Traer in front of him so that coupled
with the speed that they were traveling
at is what I believe causing the crash
into the right side of the trailer and
this was hard to watch because then we
see the suspect's vehicle enter the
right lane go through the guard rail and
come to rest on its roof now lastly
after seeing this of course many of us
will have an opinion but we have to
remember nothing about a police
officer's duties can be predicted with
that being said there were certain
decisions that the suspect made that
brought him to this conclusion and
unfortunately those decisions brought
him to this tragic end but the Arkansas
state trooper was just doing what he was
training to do and that's protecting the
public