Put it on the ground. Throw it on the ground. Is Put the [ __ ] GUN PUT IT AWAY, SIR. >> HAD a small what appeared to be a handgun. Small handgun. >> A stolen minivan, a traffic stop that goes wrong in 10 seconds, and a chase that ends with a Border Patrol agent breaking a window with his bare hands trying to reach a man he can't save. March 8th, 2024. Approximately 11:13 in the morning. Border Patrol's El Centro Sector Communication Center puts out a broadcast. A white Dodge Caravan reported stolen, last seen near the California Department of Food and Agriculture Station on Interstate 8 >> [music] >> out by Winterhaven. >> I just received a call at 3 minutes down over at the ag station. >> Oh. >> You've got a stolen vehicle going westbound on I-8 from the ag station. >> Do we have a make model? >> Affirm, it's a Dodge. I believe it's white in color. And um >> I'll hit soon. >> [music] >> Warden's there, but 3 minutes down probably past my >> It may be a custom license plate. >> 16 minutes later, at approximately 11:29, an agent spots a Caravan matching the description near Interstate 8 and State Route 7 >> [music] >> close to Calexico. He runs the plate. It comes back confirmed, stolen. At 11:33, he activates his lights and pulls the vehicle over on the shoulder of State Route 7, [music] 3/4 of a mile south of Heber Road. The rear sliding door opens. The agent tells the driver to stay in the vehicle, close the door. Instead, the driver's door opens and the driver gets out. >> Put it on the ground. Throw it on the ground. Is Put the [ __ ] GUN PUT IT AWAY, SIR. HEY. That vehicle taking off. Hey. Hey, just for info, he had a small, what appeared to be a handgun. Small handgun. >> By the time a second agent arrives seconds later, the driver is already back behind the wheel, and the Caravan is gone south on State Route 7 into a pursuit that's going to run across two state highways before it ends. >> Uh what what road I'm on the the 7 just uh >> [music] >> north of Heber. If you were on >> Hey everyone, can you alert the port just in case he's he's nearing? >> 1 >> Somewhere along this stretch, according to an [music] agent's account given after the fact, the driver throws something out the window near Heber Road, a detail that shows up in [music] the radio traffic in real time, half garbled, agents trying to flag [music] it without losing the vehicle. >> Uh vehicle not pulling over, just threw out a baggie out of the window. Looks like it's uh pulling off to the side of the road right now. 10-4. >> It's 10-4, and then when you get good eyes, just verify if that last uh two digits >> Yeah, affirm. Clear. >> 10-4. Vehicle unit. >> 10-4, get copy. What's >> All right, show me that vehicle on the uh I-8 7 about uh 50 yd [music] south of uh Heber Road. >> You start? >> The Caravan turns west onto State Route 98. At 11:35, an agent radios for someone to get into position with a vehicle immobilization device, a strip designed to blow the tires out from under a fleeing car. A supervisor answers. He can deploy it up ahead. He sets up 3.9 mi west near State Route 98 and Aderholt Road. >> [music] >> At 11:38, the Caravan passes over it. Both front tires go flat. >> [music] >> The pursuit keeps moving anyway, the vehicle running on rims now, still westbound. Eight tenths of a mile later, at approximately 11:39, it happens. [music] The Caravan leaves the road, crosses open ground, and drops into an irrigation ditch. It lands upside down, windshield pressed into the far bank of the canal. >> Empty, empty. We got an accident, we got an accident. >> Agents call it in and run toward the wreck. Nobody inside is answering. >> I don't see the driver. >> Can you see him? I can't see him at all. >> They try the driver's door first. It won't open. So, they go for the glass. >> Yeah, I'm going to go down and get the window. All right? Let's watch it. Yeah. >> Someone checks the one thing that could make this worse in seconds. >> Hey, have them call fire. >> And in the middle of it, someone still remembers the equipment they left behind on the highway. >> Can you go get my spikes? >> Through the broken window, they finally see him. Upside down, pinned between the dashboard and the floorboard of a van that's now a cage. >> No, he's not moving. Can you see only one? >> Huh? >> Just the one. >> Just the one? >> Yeah. One? Get that I can I can grab the legs and put them out right now, right? >> Is it Is it >> Yeah, he's all bent. Huh? He's bent. >> Not responsive, right? You see him? >> Yeah, he's out. >> They can't [music] get him out. That's the part CBP's own account is direct about. Agents unable to [music] free him from the wreckage, unable to start medical care for the several minutes [music] it takes emergency crews to arrive. Imperial County fire and an American Medical [music] Response Ambulance reach the scene at approximately 11:56. It isn't enough. At 1:14 that afternoon, the driver is pronounced dead. The Imperial County Medical Examiner arrives and takes custody of his body. At the scene, agents recover a handgun from the wreckage near Heber Road and State Route 7, the same stretch where the radio caught someone throwing something from the window. They find a bag containing suspected narcotics. 10 days later, on March 18th, the San Diego County Medical Examiner performs the autopsy. The California Highway Patrol investigates the crash and later confirms the Caravan was a 2020 Dodge, that the driver wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and that impairment doesn't appear to have played a role. CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility opens its own review with the agency's national use of force review board still to weigh in once that investigation wraps. >> [music] >> The driver's name is never made public. No publicly reported charges, lawsuit, or final ruling ever surfaces to close out what happened on State Route 98 that day. What's left is the video, nearly 20 minutes long, posted more than 2 months later on May 28th, built entirely from the radios and cameras of the agents who chased him, >> [music] >> watched him crash, and couldn't reach him in time.