A police chase in Kentucky took an unexpected turn when it came to an end, and serves as a helpful lesson in compassion.
The woman being chased, Latrece Curry, left her home after a domestic dispute with her husband, and the chase began once she was tracked down by police, the New York Post reported.
The chase spanned two counties, but Curry eventually stopped in a parking lot.
While police did have their guns drawn and shouted at her to get out of the car, there was a jarring shift when Hodgenville Police Chief James Richardson began to approach the vehicle.
Richardson took note of the intense fear Curry had as he pointed a gun at her, and decided to put his gun back into its holster.
“I got to the driver’s side door and told her to unlock the door — she had her hands up, she was shaking like a leaf. I mean the poor girl, when I opened the door it was like a look of sheer terror. She was scared to death,” he told the Post.
“I didn’t perceive her as a threat; she didn’t have any weapons. I took control of her hands — she started crying. She reached out and hugged me and I just kind of hugged her back.”
He even told her to “calm down, you’re OK” and gave her a hug — something that may not be commonly seen after the end of a pursuit.
“Her statement to me was she was just in the zone, she didn’t know what she was doing and she was extremely sorry. She had no criminal record to speak of, had never been in trouble that I know of. She just made a really bad choice,” Richardson said.
Curry was taken into custody without any issues.
“A great example of keeping your emotions in check at the end of a pursuit. Chief Richardson said, ‘the look on her face was of sheer terror. She was shaking and it was obvious she was scared. I talked to her to calm her down and then she hugged me. That has never happened to me after a pursuit,'” the Hodgenville Police Department wrote in a Facebook post.
“The vehicle fled from units in a neighboring county and came into Hodgenville as the ice storm was just coming in. Units did a good job using a rolling roadblock tactic to bring this chase to an end before someone got hurt.”
This police department should serve as a model for the rest of the country’s law enforcement, especially in communities where tensions are at a high.
Richardson was aware that Curry was quaking with fear and was not intending to cause harm, and he took note of that.
The ends of police chases are always unclear, so people usually breathe a sigh of relief when they end peacefully.
At the end of the day, basic human kindness, along with common sense, is what will ultimately create a better future for law enforcement and the communities they serve.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
